Space science simulation at UNH now better, faster, cheaper

Cashing in on the underlying technology that seamlessly renders graphics for state-of-the-art video games, space scientists at the University of New Hampshire have bundled together 40 PlayStation3 consoles to affordably simulate one of the "grand challenges" of modern computational science - the interaction between Earth's magnetic field or "magnetosphere" and the solar wind. Climate change is another supercomputing grand challenge.