US Air Force makes new computer with nearly 2,000 PlayStation consoles

The United States Air Force has transformed almost 2,000 Japanese Sony PlayStation consoles into a powerful supercomputer suitable for military tasks.
 
The new device will handle tasks, including artificial intelligence research, The Telegraph reports.

Named "The Condor", the new computer was created at the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in New York in a bid to create a cost effective and green alternative to conventional technology.

The Condor consists of a cluster of 1,760 Sony PlayStation 3 processors fused with high-end technology to create a device, which is 50,000 times faster than the average consumer laptop.

Believed to be the 34th most powerful supercomputer in the world, the device will handle tasks including artificial intelligence research, pattern recognition detection and the analysis of heavy quantities of images from surveillance systems.

The Condor consumes less than a tenth of the power of comparable supercomputers, according to Mark Barnell, director of AFRL's High Power Computing, and its cost is estimated to be about two million dollars.