PlayStation supercomputer places UMass No.1 in code

DARTMOUTH – University of Massachusetts Dartmouth associate professor Gaurav Khanna’s low-cost supercomputer, built to study black holes and cybersecurity using 176 Sony PlayStation 3 gaming consoles, has enabled the university to reach the top of the RC5 cryptography challenge list.
American computer and network security company RSA Laboratories began the RC5 cryptography challenge in January 1997, presenting contestants with a chance to decode ciphers by finding secret cryptographic keys. The contest was initiated by RSA to demonstrate the security of various cryptography encryptions. Each contest is named after the variant of the “RC5” cipher used.
The supercomputer generates approximately 50 billion keys per second and is slated to have a 1 in 10 chance for winning the contest all by itself. This system’s performance is comparable to nearly 3,000 processor-cores of a typical laptop or desktop.
The PS3 cluster is being used by UMass Dartmouth’s Center for Scientific Computing and Visualization Research to perform large and complex calculations in the context of black hole astrophysics, and also explore vulnerabilities in cybersecurity.
Physics Department graduate students, Tyler Spilhaus and William Duff, are utilizing the system for research projects in this context. In addition, computer and information science major, Violet Pfeiffer, will use the system to study different aspects of cryptography and cybersecurity.
The PS3 gaming consoles are installed in a refrigerated shipping container of large cooling capability on the university’s campus. This novel approach is extremely low-cost given the abundant availability and high cooling capacity of these containers.