Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

FR Folding@Home Project- ATI Stream Computing Drive Bio-Medical Research at Stanford University
ATI Website and Stanford University ^ | Nov 13 2006 | Vijay Pande

Posted on 11/21/2006 8:07:23 PM PST by texas booster

Today ATI's graphics processors help accelerate complex computations in stream computing applications used in scientific research. ATI is supporting bio-medical research to help scientists understand disease at the genetic level. With a strong understanding of how diseases form, it will become possible to develop diagnostic methods, and preventative treatment and medicine for many acute diseases in humans.

Stanford University is using ATI’s GPUs (Graphics Processor Units) to run Folding@Home, a distributed computing project designed by its chemistry department. This application performs computationally intensive simulations of protein folding, using the stream computing capabilities of ATI’s Radeon® 1900 and 1950 Series processors, which provide incremental power over CPU processing. ATI’s Radeon® X1900 and Radeon® X1950 Series process the complex calculations of the simulation and render advanced 3D visualization of the protein folding process in real time.

Folding@Home will help researchers uncover how certain diseases develop, including:

Cancer

Alzheimer's Disease

Parkinson's Disease

Huntington's Disease

Osteogenesis Imperfecta

Stanford University’s research team discovered that ATI’s Radeon X1900 and Radeon X1950 Series of products provide 20 to 40 times faster processing over CPUs in many of the calculations needed to simulate the folding of proteins.

What is Protein Folding Proteins are necklaces of amino acids – long chain molecules that drive all biochemical reactions in the human body, helping to build bones, muscles and blood vessels, and helping the body fight infections. To accomplish these tasks, proteins must take on a particular shape, or, to “fold”. Proteins that fold incorrectly can cause complications and can lead to critical diseases. Folding@Home simulates the folding process to understand why proteins don’t fold correctly. The findings will help researchers prevent and cure these diseases.

You Can Help Find the Cure Folding@home uses distributed computing to simulate protein folding – instead of using super computers, the workload is broken up into small work units and distributed across 100,000’s of PC systems over the internet. When users throughout the world download and run the application they directly contribute to a good cause through the power of their ATI graphics processor. The GPU version of the application will use the processing power of end users’ GPUs to accelerate the simulation and provide data to Stanford’s researchers faster.

Every new PC that runs the application gets us closer to the cure.

You can help by simply downloading and running the Folding@Home application developed by Stanford University. The application is free and secure. It will run in the background, making use of spare GPU capacity in your PC, without impacting the performance of your other applications.

You can increase your contribution by forming and joining teams and competing against others. Contributors are assigned a score indicating the number and difficulty of completed work units. Rankings and other statistics are posted to the Folding@Home website.

Please note that, currently, only the following products in ATI’s Radeon X1900 Series and Radeon X1950 Series can run the application. We will post information about upcoming products that will support this application in the near future.

Radeon X1900 Series: Radeon X1900 GT, Radeon X1900 XT, Radeon X1900 XTX, Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition

Radeon X1950 Series: Radeon X1950 XTX, Radeon X1950 CrossFire Edition


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: ati; fh
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-164 next last
To: papasmurf
What I really need to know, most of all-first of all, are commands (with example usage) and syntax.

You want what??

In all seriousness, I'm probably only slightly ahead of you on the Linux knowledge curve.

For lists of commands (i.e. how do I find something out with what command, or how do I do a specific task) I start with my Linux-god brother, or I query Google.

Once I know a command, but I'm having trouble with the syntax, I just use "man " to bring up the manual pages for it. ("Q" to exit from the manual is an important bit of knowledge)

Now you know the foundation of what I know! Best of luck on your journey-- I'm fully prepared to see you jogging up to me along the path!

121 posted on 12/06/2006 8:02:43 AM PST by Egon (I stand beside you as your partner, in front as your defender, behind as... hey! nice butt!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: papasmurf

You got me thinking, though...

I did a Google search just now on "linux command summary", and found, among other potentially useful links, this: http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~saksoy/courses/cs201/src/linux-commands.pdf


122 posted on 12/06/2006 8:05:36 AM PST by Egon (I stand beside you as your partner, in front as your defender, behind as... hey! nice butt!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: Egon

That's nice, thank you.

:O)

P


123 posted on 12/06/2006 8:31:15 AM PST by papasmurf (Join Team 36120 Free Republic Folders. Folding@Home Enter Name:FRpapasmurf)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 122 | View Replies]

To: All

I finished folding my second p2124 late yesterday and as of this morning it has yet to give me my 67th wu or the 396 points. Anyone know why? Thanks.


124 posted on 12/07/2006 5:32:22 AM PST by processing please hold
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 123 | View Replies]

To: processing please hold
I finished folding my second p2124 late yesterday and as of this morning it has yet to give me my 67th wu or the 396 points. Anyone know why? Thanks.

Check your FAHlog.txt file to see if the results were successfully sent back.

Usually results appear within a couple of hours of being checked in. There are occasions, though, that F@H has glitches, and points take awhile to become visible.

125 posted on 12/07/2006 7:18:12 AM PST by Egon (I stand beside you as your partner, in front as your defender, behind as... hey! nice butt!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 124 | View Replies]

To: Egon
If I'm reading it correctly, it sent it.

Completed 20000000 out of 20000000 steps (100)
[02:09:37] Writing final coordinates.
[02:09:37] Past main M.D. loop
[02:10:37] [02:10:37] Finished Work Unit:
[02:10:37] - Reading up to 30312 from "work/wudata_02.arc": Read 30312
[02:10:37] - Reading up to 981712 from "work/wudata_02.xtc": Read 981712
[02:10:37] goefile size: 0
[02:10:37] logfile size: 563192
[02:10:37] Leaving Run
[02:10:38] - Writing 1703584 bytes of core data to disk...
[02:10:39] Done: 1703072 -> 1086970 (compressed to 63.8 percent)
[02:10:39] ... Done.
[02:10:39] - Shutting down core
[02:10:39] [02:10:39] Folding@home Core Shutdown: FINISHED_UNIT
[02:10:43] CoreStatus = 64 (100)
[02:10:43] Sending work to server

[02:10:43] + Attempting to send results
[02:17:10] + Results successfully sent
[02:17:10] Thank you for your contribution to Folding@Home.

Maybe it is a glitch. Thank you. I hope I'm reading the correct one.

126 posted on 12/07/2006 8:40:54 AM PST by processing please hold
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 125 | View Replies]

To: processing please hold

Yep. Looks like a glitch at F@H. I'm betting you'll see the points at some point.


127 posted on 12/07/2006 9:29:00 AM PST by Egon (I stand beside you as your partner, in front as your defender, behind as... hey! nice butt!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 126 | View Replies]

To: Egon
I hope so. That's a lot of points. :-)

Thanks again.

128 posted on 12/07/2006 10:17:00 AM PST by processing please hold
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 127 | View Replies]

To: All
Ok, I definitely have a problem. It appears the problem is my second processor. It is folding, completing, sending in the wu but not giving me the wu or the points.

It shows 67 wu's, I should have 69. I've yet to get my second p2124 and now my second p1809, both are on the same processor. They total over 500 points. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

129 posted on 12/08/2006 5:54:08 AM PST by processing please hold
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 128 | View Replies]

To: texas booster
My computer is having trouble sending results in.

I currently have three waiting and one working.

The message is 'Couldn't send HTTP request to server (wininet) + Could not connect to Work Server (results) (171.65.103.162:8080) Error: Could not transmit unit 01 (completed November 25) to work server.'

The queue looks like this:

CURRENT QUEUE: 00 EMPTY 01 DONE "Folding@Home" (78) 171.65.103.162:8080 November 19 17:16->November 25 19:26:30 02 EMPTY 03 DONE "Folding@Home" (78) 171.64.122.142:8080 November 27 13:04->December 2 10:30:42 04 DONE "Folding@Home" (78) 171.64.122.142:8080 December 2 10:31->December 7 11:05:16 05 *READY "Folding@Home" (78) 171.65.103.162:8080 December 7 11:06 | February 27 11:06 06 EMPTY

Is it a problem that position 00 is empty and position 02 is empty? I would have thought not but it is new to me. Any help would be appreciated.

130 posted on 12/08/2006 12:03:46 PM PST by GOPBiker (Thank a veteran, with a smile, every chance you get. You do more good than you can know.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 102 | View Replies]

To: GOPBiker

Not to jump in on TB here, but try rebooting. Sometimes that will loosen it up. I don't know how ofter you shut down, and/or reboot, but I have found rebooting every week or so helps keep F@H running smoothly and a tiny bit faster. Some times, just stopping and restarting the console will do the trick, but a reboot once and a while is good for your 'puter ( if your running 24/7, like several of us do).


131 posted on 12/08/2006 4:10:06 PM PST by dfwddr (Join our Folding@Home team (Team# 36120) keyword:folding.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: GOPBiker
Also, you can add this flag to your command line (from the FAH site):

-send x : Send result #x back to server. Exits after trying to send unit (successfully or unsuccessfully). Use "-send all" to send all results outstanding. If unit x is not a completed work unit then the client exits without doing anything.

132 posted on 12/08/2006 4:17:16 PM PST by dfwddr (Join our Folding@Home team (Team# 36120) keyword:folding.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: GOPBiker

The first advice is always to reboot.

The second question is server status. Look the servers up here:

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/serverstat.html

It looks like the server that you connect for that WU was down, but is now up and running.

Also if you look at the Extreme Overclocking stats, you will see several 3 hour segments where none or few points were posted. It happens that their servers go down, get bogged down or have network connection issues.

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=36120


133 posted on 12/08/2006 9:15:37 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: texas booster
Can you explain this?

Donator Rank 78693 of 593298
WU 68 (certificate)
Date of last work unit
2006-12-09 12:18:54
Active processors (within 50 days) 2
Active processors (within 7 days) 1

It shows my 2nd processor accepting, folding and sending back the wu. But, that doesn't jive with it now showing only 1 processor. That's 3wu's we're not getting credit for.

134 posted on 12/09/2006 12:51:28 PM PST by processing please hold
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: processing please hold; Egon

The active processors within 7 days is just that - processors that have finished a WU within the last 7 days. It may be the same processor, it may be the other one.

I have 30 computers that are folding with my name. (It was 34 at the high). 20 of the computers have reported back in the last week. The other 10 simply haven't reported, in over a week.

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userpage&teamnum=36120&username=Texas%5FBooster

Please FReepmail Egon for links to his WU processing software. Its a simple VBS script that works very well if you use a login password. It will show you a list of each processor and follow the action as it finishes a WU.


135 posted on 12/09/2006 5:05:41 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]

To: texas booster

Thank you. I'll FReepmail him now.


136 posted on 12/09/2006 6:05:32 PM PST by processing please hold
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 135 | View Replies]

To: texas booster

From 30 to 19 processors, dang. And I'm worried about one.


137 posted on 12/09/2006 6:12:00 PM PST by processing please hold
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 135 | View Replies]

To: processing please hold

I had 20 active (within a week) processors when I posted. One of them must have just dropped off.

Processors come and go, especially with large WUs and slow systems. Most of my systems are running between 50% and 75%. Slower, but with less heat and more responsiveness.


138 posted on 12/09/2006 6:50:42 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 137 | View Replies]

To: texas booster
Processors come and go, especially with large WUs

I have insurance. If one blows it's lid....

I just checked my task manager. I shows both processors humming along.

Will F@H eventually give us the missing wu's or will they wander off into the nether world never to be heard from again. :-)

139 posted on 12/09/2006 7:10:38 PM PST by processing please hold
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 138 | View Replies]

To: processing please hold

I didn't mean physically burned up, but that can happen.

You will get credit for WUs turned in, even if the WU has an abend. There is a discussion on teh Pande site about folks trying out the new ATI X1900 cards and getting 1/2 to 1 point each because of early ends.


140 posted on 12/09/2006 8:02:13 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 139 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-164 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson