[R-sig-hpc] ps3 / amazon ec2 clustering

[Sean O'Riordain]

Good evening,

Seeing the article on the ps3 in Computer [1], and realizing that cell
engines are better at singles than doubles which doesn't suit R. Has
any body used a ps3 or ps3s for R work?  Can I use the "research
budget - no really" excuse? :-)

Secondly has anybody used the Amazon EC2 [2] - elastic computing cloud
to do R work? I see that Zementis [3] is using it for a service for
"predictive analytics" - if it was setup properly with snow etc, it'd
be a comparatively cheap way of pulling in processing power for
simulations - as and when needed... and you only pay for what you
actually use.

[1] http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/news?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=How+to+Turn+Your+PS3+into+a+Supercomputing+Node&utm_content=seanpor%40acm.org&utm_campaign=CSMC6-Jan.+13

[2] http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/

[3] http://www.zementis.com/

Kind regards,
Sean O'Riordain