Check out this article, on the Air Force constructing the 34th fastest supercomputer in the world for only 2 million dollars! This would be handy for rsa cracking!

so... anyone have 1760 PS3's lying around

so... anyone have 1760 PS3's lying around

We should make it 1761, so we have bragging rights over the military

I've always thought about this. (Assuming infinite amount of money)

Create a motherboard with 4 4GB slots of RAM (16 GB), with 4 quad-core CPU's, and a 2TB internal hard-drive, 5 network plugs in the back, with two usb plugs in the front.  If you could deal with the immense heat, you would essentially have an awesome super-computer module.

Then, you could get a "tower" of those (16 of them stacked on top of each other), with a box at the bottom that combines and sorts all 80 network cables (5 from each box, 16 boxes) into 9 network cables by deciding which information is most relative.  Then, you could get a "row" (8 towers put side by side) with a box at the end combining the 64 cable input (Technically 72, but the other 8 are special) into 8 network cables. The 16 open network cables combine together into 1 cable that feeds into the "aggregation unit".

So, say I wanted to start a program running on all cores. I could set my program up to be spread out over many cores, and the "aggregation unit" would then get most of the data. (I say most. Really it would be all of it, as decided by the row's and the tower's box that combined the network cables what information was needed.)  The aggregation unit could then look at the data, and give further instructions if need be.  I also say that the boxes could filter out information, but so could each individual module.

But wait, there's more! Assume for a second that it's all simplified, and that there's only one network cable out of every module, that goes into a box that only outputs another network cable that goes into a row's box, that is then given to the computer (We'll call this entire set up a "computer"). Assume also that a single CPU can go through 10,000 numbers in a second.  That means that an entire box can go through 16*10,000=160,000.  Also assume that N/sec means that the computer gan go through N numbers per second.

Okay, so assume that we have 256 "computers" (1 computer = 8 towers = 128 modules = 20,480,000/s) which means that 256 computers = 5,242,880,000/s.  But wait, there's more.  Assume that 256 "computers" equals a "room" (Okay, so maybe a foot-ball field, but it's shorter in name length).  Actually, if you assume that a "room" covers an area of approximately 50 ft x 50 ft x 50 ft (Rough estimate, just to give an idea.)  Say 65,536 "rooms" made a "country".  That means a country can computer 343,597,383,680,000/s.  So let's say that 65,536 "countries" equals a "nation".  That means a nation can compute 4,071,254,063,142,930,000/s.  So, assume 65,536 "nations" equals a "world".  That means a world can compute 266,813,706,282,135,060,480,000/s. 

So, after assuming all that, I hope you assumed I would come to some conclusion.  Well, I have. As far as I can tell, I don't think we'll be allowed to build this thing. (Please don't hate after reading all of that, and hoping for some awesomeness at the end. Also, the game. ;-)

@Graph:

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 13, 2010, 10:34:13 pm

How many PS3s would we need to factor a 1024 bit RSA key in one year?

I'd need to know something along how many numbers they can factor in one second. But probably around 2^500 PS3's if they could factor 1024/s.  I think, my math could be awful there, but I'm pretty sure it's correct.  (Granted, that's in one second.)

EDIT: In a year, it would be 4.15141×10^157 computers.

Psh, we can do that There are already 1×10^9 computers in the world, anyway. And since the number of computers will double in 7 years, we'll get there in about log(4x10^157/10^9)/log(2)*7=3455 years...

EDIT: The TI-Ncourage'll be discontinued by then

Quote from: graphmastur on December 13, 2010, 10:39:03 pm

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 13, 2010, 10:34:13 pm

How many PS3s would we need to factor a 1024 bit RSA key in one year?

I'd need to know something along how many numbers they can factor in one second. But probably around 2^500 PS3's if they could factor 1024/s.  I think, my math could be awful there, but I'm pretty sure it's correct.  (Granted, that's in one second.)

EDIT: In a year, it would be 4.15141×10^157 computers.

Psh, we can do that There are already 1×10^9 computers in the world, anyway. And since the number of computers will double in 7 years, we'll get there in about log(4x10^157/10^9)/log(2)*7=3455 years...

EDIT: The TI-Ncourage'll be discontinued by then

But you also have to take into account the performance increase of new computers. Also, there are 6 cores available on the ps3 processor, and from what I've read, the ps3 has 20-30x the flops of a Pc.

Would factoring the RSA key require a lot of RAM? I heard that the PS3 only got 256 MB...