It appears that the success of the Folding@home project has spurred Sony on to find new ways in which the power of its next-gen console can be put to work.

"We are discussing various options with companies and exploring commercial applications [for the PS3]", said Sony's chief technology officer, Masa Chatani.

Stanford University appealed to the power of the PS3 and 82,000 PS3 users signed up for the the Folding@home project which is fighting in the battle against serious disease.

The report, in the Financial Times, states that a network of 10,000 PS3's is the equivilant of 200,000 PCs.

"A start-up or a pharmaceutical company that lacks a super-computer could utilise this kind of infrastructure", continued Chatani.

>> Read - 30,000 plus PS3 gamers sign up for Folding@home