THE PLAYSTATION 3 WAS ONCE USED BY THE U.S. AIR FORCE TO BUILD A SUPERCOMPUTER. What started as a gaming console ended up powering serious military research, thanks to its surprisingly powerful hardware at the time.

The PS3’s Cell Broadband Engine processor made it attractive for high-performance computing. Instead of buying traditional supercomputer components at a premium price, the Air Force reportedly connected over a thousand PS3 units together to create a cost-effective computing cluster. This setup was used for tasks like image processing, artificial intelligence research, and radar enhancement projects.

It’s one of the most fascinating examples of consumer tech being repurposed for advanced scientific work. Sometimes innovation is not about inventing something new, but about using existing tools in unexpected ways.