Xbox 360 being used to stop heart attacks
The Xbox 360 is being used by researchers to investigate heart defects.
The PS3, which has won awards for its folding@home project in the search for a cure for cancer, is not the only video games console being used by scientists.
Researchers are now using the Xbox 360's Xenos graphics chip to study the movement of damaged cardiac cells, the Daily Mail reports.
The GPU is said to be ten times cheaper and five times faster than the current scientific equipment used to predict heart attacks.
Academics at the University of Warwick believe that the equipment powered by Xenos could save lives, since the simulations are reduced to minutes rather than hours at a cheaper price. Their current PC's cost them £2,000, with the Xbox 360 now less than £200.
Dr Simon Scarle, a researcher in the University of Warwick's WMG Digital Laboratory, told the Daily Mail:
"The current generation of games consoles have some of the best computing hardware around.
"We want to build up more complicated models of how diseased sets of cells bump into each other in the heart, which can lead to heart attacks.
"We now have access to that kind of information much more rapidly - so we don't have to waste time by using these massive amounts of expensive machines anymore.
"Usually to do these kind of high-end calculations you need a larger computer and in my previous experience you need ten to 12 processors running to do this kind of work."
http://www.gamezine.co.uk/news/xbox-360-being-used-stop-heart-attacks-$1328904.htm
_______________________
lol interesting........its better to buy 360's at £200 instead of £2000 Pc's anyday!
