A supercomputer design favored by cancer and nuclear weapons researchers will now be directed toward a more frivolous pastime -- playing games online.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc will lease IBM Corp equipment and networks to build online gaming environments using a "grid" platform built by Butterfly.net, a Martinsburg, West Virginia-based game technology developer, the companies said yesterday.
Sony will use the distributed computing technology to make current and future PlayStation games more compatible with online play, a budding pastime in North America that has already caught on among teens in South Korea and Japan.
The companies are to demonstrate the technology next week at the annual Game Developer's Conference in San Jose, California.
The grid structure uses an array of powerful servers -- linked together to form a supercomputer -- that supply computing cycles to meet game players' demands. Sony will lease access to the IBM-Butterfly-owned technology for three years. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Running the games on a computer grid will ensure Sony's power-hungry gaming environments run smoothly during peak operating hours, said Scott Penberthy, a vice president with IBM Global Services.
The network will run on IBM computers loaded with IBM Internet and database software, along with Butterfly's game platform. The grid servers are scattered in IBM data centers around the US, and can support millions of simultaneous users, Penberthy said.
By adopting the Butterfly platform, Sony game developers can ignore knotty computer network issues and concentrate on game design, said Forrester Research's Charlene Li.
Developers could have Sony PlayStation grid-fueled games ready for use by the fall, Li said. Sony already offers some online games, for PCs and PlayStation.
The announcement pits Sony PlayStation more intently against Microsoft's Xbox in the online realm. Xbox already includes a built-in high-speed Internet connection, and its games can be played online using a network compatible with Microsoft technology.
"Sony is already far ahead of Xbox in the number of sets out there," Li said. ``This encourages a lot more developers to make games for the Sony platform. It's going to help Sony a lot.''
Li said she expects the adoption of broadband Internet access, home networking and the release of network-friendly game consoles to make online gaming more prevalent in North America.
The grid could also be used to support fantasy game environments that might attract millions of players who could join in and see simultaneous actions taken by their ``avatars'' or game persona, Penberthy said.
A number of such games are already in use on the Internet. Lineage, a South Korean fantasy environment game, counts some 5 million users, Li said. Another, EverQuest, has attracted about a half-million subscribers.
By designing for huge numbers of users, Penberthy said the grid can handle smaller numbers easily and will be able to divert computing power if the game surges in popularity.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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