Put your game on

 

Thousands of pounds could be saved in many endeavours that require computational processes by using the power and capabilities of an Xbox chip.

A University of Warwick researcher at its WMG Digital Laboratory sought to model how electrical excitations in the heart moved around damaged cardiac cells in order to understand cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal electrical activity in the heart which can lead to a heart attack).

The researcher, Dr Simon Scarle, who has also worked as a software engineer for Rare Ltd, a part of Microsoft Games Studios, found that the parallel processing power of the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) in the XBox 360 was just as effective and much cheaper to use than the traditional parallel processing computer usually needed for such research.

Dr Scarle said: “This is a highly effective way of carrying out high end parallel computing on “domestic” hardware for cardiac simulations. Although major reworking of any previous code framework is required, the Xbox 360 is a very easy platform to develop for and this cost can easily be outweighed by the benefits in gained computational power and speed, as well as the relative ease of visualization of the system.”

However, the Xbox 360 GPU does have its limitations. The study, published in the journal Computational Biology and Chemistry, demonstrates that it is impossible to predict the rise of some arrhythmias.

We’re there

Meet some Role Models working at Rare Ltd.  
 

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