FR Folding@Home Project Update -- The Need for Speed (#56 - 19,000,000 Points)

Stanford University Folding@Home Distributed Computing Project ^ | 02/02/2007 | Stanford University

[texas booster]

OK, new thread for the next week, celebrating 100,000 Work Units!

First, a big shout out to the SETI and BOINC members who have added CPUs to the effort. Remember, its Team 36120, NOT Team 0.

Next, congrats to all for bumping our team up to 1040 processors and 420 user names.

We now have 29 members who have contributed at least 100,000 points each. Woo-Hoo!

Even more impressive, our team now boasts 342 members who have folded at least 1,000 points. That is more than the entire number of folders for our erstwhile left-wing environazi competitors!

Free Republic Folding@Home Stats Page

On the global front, Free Republic Folders is now listed at # 56. We will be in the Top 50 within 6 months!

Thanks again to all that are helping us advance science and promote the peaceful use of computers.

[texas booster]

15,000 feet from the CO? You should be thankful that a Bellco even answered your call! What next, a QoS that meets the contract that you signed and pay for?? Harrumph!

And you get to propagate new static IPs across your network as a bonus. Don't worry, its overtime. :')

Around here the new DSL distance with SW Bell's much improved DSLAMs is now 9,000 feet. I guess they can't use repeaters anymore.

I had decent service many years ago at 23,000 feet.

I found a company offering a commercial wireless service to folks in the country and haven't looked back. I'm 4.9 miles LOS from the water tower and almost never lose service.

[papasmurf]

"There is a noticable jerkiness with Solitare"

That is unacceptable! I will not allow my solitaire to jerk around!

Hey, Texas! How're ya'?

:O)

P

[texas booster]

I am very well indeed. I miss your smiling face around here.

Its kinds funny that after 3 years of folding I still check the stats for familiar names. Our team has a nice 50,000 ppd average and we still get new folders all the time. I wish that soccer_maniac, Klutz and Malsua would drop by more, but thats life.

I hope that the road has been good to you. No trips on I-81 I hope.

Any word on Smile and her son?

[papasmurf]

Thanks. And thanks for asking about Smile. Dylan had another relapse, but I think they traced it all back to his meds. He seems to be "on the mend" now. Let's just keep praying for him. And Smile, also.

No, I haven't been on I-81, or any of those frost bitten roads. :) In fact, I haven't been doing much, business has been the worst I've ever seen. I've just been doing some local stuff for a very good, and loyal broker, trying to keep the bills paid.

Boy, our team has come a long, long way, hasn't it? It's amazing to watch.

I noticed you are almost at a half million...prolly three mil, if you count all of your, uh, donations. :)hehe
I seem to holding fairly steady at around the mid 30's in position, and have just cracked 90k, finally. Green Hornet sure came up fast. Blew by me so quick, he took the chrome off my bumpers! lol In my defense, I have to point out that all but two of my machines are Dempsey's, ya' know. But at least they produce.

Thanks for keeping me "in the loop", with the pings.

More later, God Bless.

:O)

P

[texas booster]

We have another new folder, Bernie638. If you are reading this thread stop in and say hello!

FairWitness, you will be over 1,000 points in another day or so.

Congrats!

[JosephW]

Will be passing you in the next few hours (2 hours for Constellation-GPU, 3 for Lightning1).

Hope you get those Macs back, it would be fun going neck and neck with you as we slowly catch Texas Booster.

[FairWitness]

FairWitness, you will be over 1,000 points in another day or so.

Thanks for noticing. I have 3, and sometimes 4, computers going on it now, although my old HP 734n is not too happy with the program so I give it a "rest" every couple of days. My newer HP's (1-3 years old) have no problem with the program, but the older one (a little over 5 years I think) says (according to its "task manager" program)it is literally working at 110% of capacity! It clearly slows it down for other tasks. I know that is not supposed to happen according to the FAH writeup; is there something I should know about that would make it work a little easier?

[Egon]

Hope you get those Macs back, it would be fun going neck and neck with you as we slowly catch Texas Booster.

Heh. Ain't gonna happen, unfortunately.

Congratulations! You've earned that spot through hard work and perseverance. I'll be waving as you pass by!

I'm actually consolidating a few servers, so I think the peak of my folding is past. I'll still continue to fold, but I think I'll be relinquishing my hold on the top 10 before too long.

[texas booster]

The 734n desktop is a pretty good system. I run many systems from that era and all fold just fine. If you are having F@H problems then try the following:

1. Take the case outside, remove the cover (one side only) and blow it out with canned air. F@H will run whenever nothing else is happening so CPU utilization can hit 100%. I haven't seen 110% but you must be a sports coach to get the computer to accomplish that!

2. Check for Spyware and viruses. It can cause EUEs but not often.

3. Check for updates on the MS website. It is possible that you have an outdated DirectX graphics core.

4. Set the monitor to turn off after 10 minutes rather than run a screensaver.

5. Do not let the system drop into hibernation. Hibernation mode on those old chipsets, added with the M$ kludge, meant that it never worked reliably.

You can PM me if you want to sent the FAHlog.txt for review.

TB

[texas booster]

... slowly catch Texas Booster.

I have a decent GPU now that made my points jump.

I also looked at several of my systems and found that the client.cfg was bad. I had sent at least two months of work to Anonymous Team 0 on one of my better systems.

Having three systems fold 24/7 for me (when I pay for the juice) but post to Team 0 is NOT my idea of fun.

At least they are back in the fold now.

[JosephW]

Then maybe I won't catch you. I have a consolidation happening before the end of the month. Probably lose 3 or 4 systems and maybe gain one (that will be overworked).

Anyway I'm going to try to slowly catch you, but it may take more than a year.

[texas booster]

It is amazing the difference that different proteins make.

Look at how depressed our points were a month ago, and how high they are now. Sure Klutz makes a difference but he is seldom more than 10% of our daily points.

Now if we could get some Linux geeks that could get SMP running on dual core processors then we could compete with teams like The Outcasts. Maybe one day FR will make a bulk purchase of quad core systems and show 'em all!

[GOPBiker]

TB, I have a new box; AMD 64 FX-60 dual-core with a raid 0 and 2gb ram. I have a GeForce 7950GT with 512ram. I am using Vista Ultimate 64.

The question; what is my best option to squeeze the most folding out of this box? Can I run multiple instances? How do I do that?

[JosephW]

The best way is to download VMWare Server & Kubuntu x86-64.

Start the VM Manager, install Kubuntu (the ISO mounted as the CD), install for 2 processors. ap-get the 32 bit libraries (if you are really going to do this I'll provide what support I can - don't want a fellow freeper to have the headaches I had).

download the Linux 64 bit SMP version of FAH (do the console version).

You have a working Windows machine and a folding monster that will probably net you about 650 ppd just from the VM. Add another 100+ ppd from the two Windows sessions that will also run (the VM will rarely take more than about 90% of processor).

[texas booster]

The BEST option is to ship your new box to me and I'll set it up for you. I may even return it when done ...

Seriously, JosephW is right on the mark. Stanford realized that as they expand the F@H world the single processors of today will not be able to keep up with the new GROMACS cores that will be implemented in the years to come. They are looking ahead to the next generation of dual and quad core processors, and to true streaming processing from AMD/ATI.

I found out in researching for the next thread that F@H is solving for Schroedinger's equation for the (location, velocity, ??) of the atoms on the proteins we fold. They also solve FFTs and a bunch of stuff I forgot in college to push forward the basic research, and to prove the applied research in new medicines.

Therefore Stanford is giving out bonus points to folders who have the latest equipment, are willing to run in Linux or Mac OSX, and endure lots of EUEs. Once they have established stability in the SMP cores then the bonus points go away; until then fold on!

Take a look at the team that is chasing us down, The Outcasts 40530. The number 2 folder is marty9876. He has 417 active systems and produces about 22,000 ppd. He is their Klutz.

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userpage&teamnum=40530&username=marty9876

Now look at the number 1 folder on the team, zim01. He has 56 active systems and produces 55,000 ppd.

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userpage&teamnum=40530&username=zim01

ChelseaOilman produces 4,300 ppd from 5 systems.

Team stats here:

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=40530

One day the Windows SMP cores will be released, but until then a folding monster consists of either Linux or OSX on a dual core (or quad core) platform.

[texas booster]

You also have the great NVidia 7950GT installed. Stanford and NVidia are working together to write code that will take advantage of the NVidia's blazing speed, but it is more difficult than dropping assembly code into pixel shaders like on the ATI cards.

The difference between these graphics chips and regular CPUs is incredible. On a normal CPU we see the protein jumps around as it is processed. On my ATI X1650 I see smooth scrolling of the molecule as it is being processed. On a PS3 you can actually see the individual atoms vibrate as it twirls around.

It may be next fall before NVidia cores are released but it is coming.

Also, be careful with Vista. Since it comes with IE7 and has tight security settings then you will be logged in as Admin to install anything. Look here for more info:

http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=17275&highlight=vista

and

http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=16963&highlight=vista

for running multiple cores of F@H.

[GOPBiker]

Thanks fellas, sorry TB, shipping is out.

I have been aware of VMware but never did anything with it. Looks like that is about to change.

BTW, what is 'EUE'?

JosephW, I will google the things you mention and do some reading. All help will be gratefully appreciated. I am a windows hand from v3.1 but never tried Linux in any form. Command line does not scare me as long as I have an explanation of what things do. I figure computing is the same conceptually (something in - something out) and after that it is just details.

[GOPBiker]

Thanks and Thanks TB. BTW, EUE is 'early_unit_end' ... a little reading goes a long way. The links you provided were illuminating to say the least.

You did pull me from the fire with IE7 previously so hopefully I will avoid that.

[GOPBiker]

Well, of course as soon as I sent the last pm I looked again and found it immediately. Still v6.10 but it looks like a different implementation, probably easier to use which is no doubt why you suggested it.

I will install the VMware server and then this as you suggested.

Any pre-install tips or things to watch for will be appreciated. Lief

[JCEccles]

Okay, I finally caught Walkerk. You're coming up on the screen now. Just 23 more years . . . ;-)