A supercomputer with components originally developed for Sony's PlayStation video-game console has become the world's fastest computer. It can process more than 1,000 trillion calculations per second, known as a petaflop. Built for the Energy Department's Los Alamos lab with off-the-shelf components, Roadrunner is named for the state bird of New Mexico and will be used to monitor the U.S. nuclear-weapons stockpile.

Roadrunner cost $133 million and is twice as fast as IBM's Blue Gene system, which had been considered the worlds most powerful. The Blue Gene is at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Along with almost 7,000 dual-core processors from Advanced Micro Devices, the Roadrunner also has almost 13,000 improved Cell microprocessors originally developed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. The Cell combines the Power Architecture instruction set with coprocessors to accelerate computing.

Roadrunner will make it possible for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration to certify the reliability of the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons without the need for underground nuclear tests. To accomplish this, it will be used to solve classified military problems. To illustrate the power of Roadrunner, the Energy Department said it can perform a calculation in one day that would take 46 years if everyone on Earth used a hand calculator for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Some observers see the Roadrunner as a resurgence in supercomputing for the United States, which dominated the field from the 1960s to 2002 when Japan's Earth Simulator briefly became the world's fastest by executing more than 35 trillion mathematical calculations per second.

Reference:

http://www.ibm.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 12:16 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: IBM, PlayStation, PSP, Sony

Dominate, sales, incredible demand, breaking records, these key terms are invariably showing up in headlines, and becoming synonymous with PSP. This hardware is continually dominating sales in Japan. Weekly Japanese hardware sales fell across the board once more, but PSP retained its place at the top of the chart by some distance.

Having outsold its nearest competitor, Nintendo's Wii, by 22,500 units the week prior, PSP sales came in at nearly 30,000 greater than those of the home console during the week ended May 18. Sales were likely boosted again by the success of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, which blue shelled Mario Kart Wii to reclaim the top spot in the latest Japanese software chart and pass the two million sales mark. While DS software is selling extremely well in Japan, taking 15 of the top 30 chart places during the week in question, sales of the handheld fell 16,000 units week-over-week, although the system was only 6,500 units short of the Wii's total.

PS3 sales were only 700 units greater than those of its predecessor, but should pick up in the coming weeks as new bundle offerings appear closer to Metal Gear Solid 4's June 12 release. Xbox 360 sold around 200 units more than it managed during the week ended May 11, but its total was still shy of 1,500.

- PSP: 70,536

19,348 (21.53%)

- Wii: 41,572

25,736 (38.24%)

- DS Lite: 34,905

16,323 (31.86%)

- PS3: 7,701

353 (4.38%)

- PS2: 7,022

422 (5.92%)

- Xbox 360: 1,47

196 (13.56%)

Reference:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/25/japanese-hardware-sales-may-12-may-18-deja-vu-edition/

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:02 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Games, Hardware, Nintendo, PSP, Wii, XBox

Sony has unveiled a video download service for PSP. Go!View, a new video download service for PSP created jointly with Sky, will allow PSP users to watch their favorite TV shows on PSP.



According to Sony: "This summer, PlayStation and Sky will launch Go!View, the first official PlayStation Portable video download service in Europe. Go!View will provide a wealth of programming from the worlds of entertainment, comedy, sport and movies for PSP owners to enjoy in addition to their usual gaming experience,".

So far, so good. Watching high quality video content on PSP is a pure pleasure. When I bought mine, the shop made a gift of 4 UMD disks. A five-hour flight easily ate up two of those disks and I really enjoyed watching the movies while on the plane.

The idea of Go!View sounds pretty interesting but I see a big question mark there. The service will come in two flavors: subscription and pay-per-view based. I don't think PSP users who know how to load tons of videos on their PSPs will be happy with that. So the big question mark is hovering on a question: why users will start using a paid service while there are many ways of loading the same stuff on a Memory Stick free of charge? On the other hand, it is really good to see an official video download service for PSP. Sony has not provided any dates of the service availability yet. Summer - that can be anywhere from June to August. So, we only have to wait and see.

Posted by George S. at 2:38 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

If you are like me and can't live without your PSP and like our Juliet - spend a whole lot of time in your bath, then this news is for you. Just keep reading. Your dream has come true. Now you can make your PSP waterproof and play while taking the shower or a bath or right in the pool.

All you need is an Aquatalk waterproof bag. Both old and new editions of PSP can be used with this bag. Cool concept indeed. But wait a second. Has anyone tested this bag? Hey people, we need volunteers with PSPs to test the bag :)

Posted by George S. at 10:44 AM | 1 comments  

Labels: Accessories, PSP

Rumors have appeared on the Internet that Sony is releasing 4.00 firmware update for PSP. According to the sources, the update will bring significant enhancements and looks to be one of the most important updates.

As the sources speculate, some of the new features will be ability to monitor PS 3 Network titles via Remote Play, support for Real, Quicktime and WMV audio and video files and Flash player support. Another enhancement will be an ability to play PSOne games directly on PSP. On the connectivity front, we shall expect support for 802.11g in WiFi. The browser will be updated with advanced cookie management as well.

None of this has been confirmed by Sony yet. So, we only have to wait and see if the information proves to be correct.

Posted by George S. at 12:15 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP

Sony has announced that the company will be releasing a new set of accessories coupled with a new matte bronze color of PSP in the spring of this year for the Japanese market.

The great news is that the cradle allows you to watch videos while at the same time acting as a charging dock for the PSP. The device has its own remote control as well. The bad news is that the cradle will only work with the Slim PSP and will retail for 4,800 YEN.

However, the microphone will work both with the old and with the new versions of the PSP. Though, I don't see much of use on the older model, since Skype is only available on the new PSP. The release date for the mic is March 19th. As you already know, Skype has not yet been released in Japan. So, the release of the mic coincides with the official release of Skype for PSP.

The new color will probably have its fans. I personally love my piano black :)

Via Modojo.com

Posted by George S. at 7:27 AM | 1 comments  

Labels: PSP

After several firmware updates, a number of interesting icons have appeared in the PSP menu, Internet Radio and Skype to mention some. You've probably also noticed a mysterious Go! Messenger icon in your PSP.

It is a new wireless communication package, which has been recently launched by Sony in partnership with BT.

The Go! Messenger server allows gamers to send video, voice and instant messages to each other from anywhere in the world from their PSPs – using any wireless broadband connection.

Naturally, to take advantage of this service, you would need an attachable video camera and microphone. But once you connect the accessory, you will have the ability to make video calls to your friends and leave fun video and voice messages.

Best of all, the calls are free! So, one more feature to fully enjoy your PSP.

Posted by George S. at 8:54 AM | 1 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

Well PSP is a cool device. However, some folks still find the L an R buttons to be awkwardly placed. It has never caused any problems to me and I must say the new Slim and Lite PSP is really cool. But hey, look what PSP could have been.


If Sony ever makes PSP with this design and features (hey it's not only design. Look at this really huge screen. hmm is it a touch screen?), nobody will ever argue which is the best portable system: PSP or DS.

No no. This is not Made by Sony. Rather, this mockup was made by a PSP fan. Great job BluezPS.

Posted by George S. at 10:08 PM | 2 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

I have heard several stories about people getting injured by spontaneous mobile phone combustion. Can it happen with PSP? Well, theoretically this can happen with every gadget with a battery inside.

At least the spontaneous PSP combustion injured a 12 year old kid, Harold Clay, from Farmington Hills, Michigan. The child has received second degree burns to his leg. According to Harold, he was carrying the device in his trouser pocket when the device caught fire.

The kid was quick enough and prevented serious injury by dropping to the deck and rolling about. He was treated at a local hospital for his burns and was back at school later that day.

Interestingly, the device was loaded up with a Burnout disk.

Source: http://www.pspsps.tv/2008/02/child_injured_by_spontaneous_p.html

Posted by George S. at 9:22 AM | 2 comments  

Labels: PSP

Sony has released much awaited 3.90 firmware update for PSP. It means that from now on Skype will happily live on our PlayStation Portables.

Unfortunately, the Skype is available for Slim and Light PSPs, i.e. 2000 series only.

As of writing this, I'm updating my PSP and will test Skype shortly.

According to Sony, this update also adds support for more PLAYSTATION®Network titles.

Update your PSP here: http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP/About/SystemUpdate

Posted by George S. at 10:16 AM | 1 comments  

Labels: PSP

It looks like that PSP owners and fans shall expect pretty cool titles. In one of the previous posts I have talked about the upcoming God of War game. This post will make racing fans happy. Empire Interactive will be releasing a PSP version of FlatOut on March 14th.

According to Empire Interactive, the game is built around one of the most technically accomplished physics engines in the racing genre. Further, the company claims that the game will be the exhilarating racing PSP title to date.


4000 destructible obects are expected per track. "Get ready for head on destruction that will literally leave you, the track and your car in pieces" - says the statement made by the company.

Posted by George S. at 9:32 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP

There are many good games for PlayStation Portable. Some of them have become real hits. But this one... rocks. Sony has just released a trailer of God of War: Chains Of Olympus. The game has already been dubbed as the best PSP game of all time. The Japanese giant has released the final cover art as well. Even from the game cover it can be seen that the game is cool. The trailer further strengthens this assumption.

Posted by George S. at 6:14 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

It looks that Sony has seriously embraced the DivX format. As you are well aware, PlayStation 3 got it not so long ago and now PlayStation Portable is ready to support one of the most popular video formats.

This information cannot be considered to be 100% accurate and I'd say this is more a rumour with high chance of turning out to be true.

If the information proves to be true (which I believe is so), support of DivX will allow PlayStation Portable users to download videos through the PC (via PSN Store), PlayStation 3 or maybe even from third party online sites.

Posted by George S. at 8:46 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

I have a 2GB memory stick in my PSP and while it's more than enough for storing game data, some photos, a couple of videos and a number of MP3 files, I can't say that I feel very comfortable with it. 2GB is definitely not enough to make a device the one and only multimedia companion.

Technically, PSP is a great multimedia device. The huge and almost perfect screen is its biggest asset. But the the lack of high capacity memory is what keeps PSP for becoming a single multimedia device.

But Sony has addressed this problem. The Japanese company has announced a 16GB memory stick duo. Good news, no doubt. However, be prepared to spend 300 US presidents on this memory chip.

Posted by George S. at 5:03 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP

Sony ha released more details about the PSP's support for Skype VOID. As we have learned, the Skype software will be available as a part of the next firmware update, which is scheduled for the late of this month. After the firmware update is performed, the networks section of the menu shall be enriched with the Skype icon. Wow!

Now time for some bad news. Unfortunately, Skype on PSP will be available for the slim and light PSP. In other words, the owners of the older model won't be able to use Skype. As far as I know there is not much difference in hardware between the older and the new models and it is a bit strange why the older model won't support Skype. Anyhow, the owners of the new edition must be happy.

Posted by George S. at 4:56 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

I have cool news for PlayStation portable owners.

Sony is planning to bring Skype to PSP in the near future. This will allow PSP users to catch up with friends and fellow games via Skype on PSP.

No doubt, Skype is the leader in VOIP. Its user base is over 245 million throughout the world and PSP is a really cool device to run Skype.

It is unclear though whether PSP will run a Skype client application or if it will work with the Skype via a gateway or proxy.

Anyhow, Sony will be revealing more details of the new service at the Consumer Electronic Show 2008 in Las Vegas on the 7th of January and I will keep an eye on this.

Stay tuned and don't forget to subscribe to our RSS feed.

Posted by George S. at 8:44 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

A while ago I downloaded a demo of Siphon Filter: Logan's Shadow for PSP from PlayStation Store. To admit, I liked the game and decided to get a full version.

Along with the Siphon, I bought a couple of other games on UMD. One of the games was SWAT: Target Liberty. I had not heard of this game before and I bought it based on the seller's advice.

I have not played much but the first impression is positive. The gameplay is a bit slow, but I don't think this is developer's fault. The very nature of the game dictates the gameplay. But you will be amazed with the detail of the game. The graphics is very nice, audio effects are cool. Overall, a very pleasant game and if you enjoy tactical games, you will like it.

Due to the nature of the game, it has a quite lengthy tutorial. You may be tempted to skip it, but I highly recommend to go through it. It will save you time later and will make your play more enjoyable and efficient.

Posted by George S. at 1:24 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Reviews, PSP

I'm amazed how these Chinese folks love to make fake things. You can find almost any gadget or device faked by Chinese. This time, it is PlayStation Portable. Yes, the clone looks not bad, rather nice I'd say. And the name is quite cool - PGP704. But in reality, this "device" is an electric buzzer.




Things like this can be useful in certain cases. For example, you could give this fake PSP to your girlfriend as a birthday gift. You risk losing privilege of having sex with her for a while, but her reaction and her grimace might be worth it.


Another cool idea is to buy this device for cheap (I'm not sure about the price, but I guess it costs a couple of bucks) and sell it for more. You could make decent profits.


Anyhow these ideas don't belong to me, so do them at your own risk.


Happy new year!

Photo source: kotaku.com

Posted by George S. at 11:20 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Fun, PSP

Recently I've come across an interesting site - Allpspgames.com. As you may guess from the title of this post and the name of the site, the site offers PSP games download for free.

Well, it's not fully free though. Joining the site is not free. However, once you join the site, the downloads are available for free.

On the site we read: "Search and Download as many PSP Songs, PSP Movies, PSP TV-shows, PSP Video-Clips, PSP Games, PSP Wallpapers... As much content as You Want! Fully compatible!"

The website offers two types of subscriptions: Basic and Pro. The former costs $35 and gives you access for a year. The later costs $44 and you can enjoy unlimited access. According to the site, those prices are for a limited offer which ends on 27th of December. So hurry up. Regular subscription prices are $65 and $90 respectively for the basic and pro accounts.

Sounds too good to be true? Frankly, I don't know. Generally, I look at sites like this skeptically. So, it's up to you to join or not.

Posted by George S. at 9:59 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP

It's not a secret the new PSP, as well as the old PSP with the latest firmware do support external cameras. But what about the one mentioned in the title of this post? Yes, the internal. If you think it is something out of the range of possibility, then there are certainly some folks out there proving that it's quite possible. Just watch the video below. Those guys do amazing things and I don't think this is the limit of modders.

Posted by George S. at 6:12 PM | 1 comments  

Labels: PSP