Hah. Ok, so remember that article we wrote about the fact that it really wasnt a big deal that Sony had removed the Linux feature from the PS3? I still stand by it for the average consumer, but there seems to be a little side effect to all of this. A long time ago, we wrote about how the Air Force had purchased 300 PS3’s for internal use and they went on to actually purchase a few thousand more. Now, with the most recent software update, Sony has of course removed the Linux functionality of the PS3. If anybody has used a PS3, you will know that once a new update is out, you are not allowed online until you complete the update. However, you can use all of the current features and options (minus again, anything to do with online). So does this  move somehow screw the Air Force over? Some sites say yes. I’m not too sure about this. It seemed like the Air Force was really interested in a cheap Super Computer replacement which is what the Cell Processor inside of the PS3 is. With Linux and some networking, many have turned the PS3 into a computing machine and I’m not really sure these would have ever been units that connected to online.

Update:

The Air Force has confirmed that they do not upgrade the firmware on the units so it dosent really matter in the short term but.

 “We will have to continue to use the systems we already have in hand,” the lab told Ars, but “this will make it difficult to replace systems that break or fail. The refurbished PS3s also have the problem that when they come back from Sony, they have the firmware (gameOS) and it will not allow Other OS, which seems wrong. We are aware of class-action lawsuits against Sony for taking away this option on systems that use to have it.” 

The result was the 500 TeraFLOPS Heterogeneous Cluster powered by PS3s but connected to subcluster heads of dual-quad Xeons with multiple GPGPUs.