Posted on 12/22/2007 12:29:27 PM PST by texas booster
As we approach one million PLAYSTATION 3 consoles participating in the Folding@Home program, we continue to improve the FAH client. With the new Firmware v2.1 we also prepared an updated version of FAH, which can soon be automatically downloaded by clicking on the FAH icon. This updated version includes the following new features:
If you happen to be one of the people that wants to leave their machine running after they finished their late-night gaming session, but wish to shut it down after a limited period of time, we have a great tip for you:
Go to Settings menu, select Automatic Shutdown and then After Current. You will see a little clock appearing on the top right hand corner of the screen. When this clock reaches zero, the machine will power off completely so you can sleep quietly through the night. In this option the machine will power off after sending the data back to Stanford University so your contribution to the project is maximized.
You may also choose to shut down after a limited period of time (for example, 3 or 4 hours). To do that choose the Automatic Shutdown option and click on the “In 01h:00m” timer. You will now be able to change the timer settings. After rotating the timer to a new time, you should now see your selected timer appear at the top right corner of the screen. This timer will count all the way down to 0 and then power off the system.
To disable active timer at any time, go to Settings, choose Automatic Shutdown and then Disable.
What’s a better Holiday addition to Folding than playing music? We’ve added a great feature in this version in the form of a background music player:
To activate the music player select Music and then a channel. The channels are automatically populated with songs you have stored on your Hard Disk Drive! For holiday music I prefer to choose Dramatic (yeah!) and voila - music is playing.
If you wish to skip to another track, just use a combination of X + left or right arrow. You can also change the channel by choosing X + up or down arrow. Happy listening!
To stop music from playing, select Music again from the main menu and choose “disable.”
Your music playback selection will be saved between consecutive runs of Folding@home.
We hope that these enhancements help improve your FAH experience. The response from PS3 owners really has been spectacular, and thanks to you, the most powerful distributed computer network in the world continues to grow.
Additional information can be found at:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/12/18/new-foldinghome-features-coming/
Ping to a new F@H thread, highlighting new PS3 software for all those $399 Blu-Ray players that we purchased for delivery on Tuesday.
Ping to a new F@H thread, highlighting new PS3 software for all those $399 Blu-Ray players that we purchased for delivery on Tuesday.
Ping. I think.
How does it work?: You download a safe, tested program (see link below) that is certified by Stanford University. It gets work from Stanford, runs calculations using your spare computer power, and sends the results back to the University.
Is it safe? Yes! Folding@Home rarely effects computer performance in any way and won't compromise your privacy in any way. It only uses the computing power you aren't using so it doesn't slow down other programs.
How do I get started folding for Team FreeRepublic?:
1.) Download the folding program from Stanford University's folding download page (Folding@home Client Download). Type in your desired user-name.
2.) Type in 36120 for the team number. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - if you get the number wrong, you won't be folding for team FreeRepublic!
3.) The third question asks, "Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service?" - We recommend you answer YES. Otherwise you will have to manually start the program after every reboot.
How can my computer help? Even if they were given exclusive access to all of the world's supercomputers, Stanford still wouldn't have as much processing power as they get from the supercluster of people's desktop systems Folding@home relies on. Modern supercomputers are essentially a cluster of hundreds of processors linked by fast networking. But Stanford needed the power of hundreds of thousands of processors, not just hundreds.
There's no reason to not get involved! It's free, easy, and you can know you're helping every minute without lifting a finger.
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The Folding@home software is painless to install, and the life you help save may be your own!
My favorite improvement is to allow the PS3 to turn itself off AFTER the work unit is complete, enabling people who use it on the weekend only to complete work units, rather than powering down after a gaming session and letting the work unit results get stale.
Now, if Santa would be so kind ...
I love the idea here (and the PS3 is a folding beast) but the electricity costs just make this incredibly impractical for me. I’m not hurting for money, but burning $20/month just to power this thing (predominantly for folding) is not high on my list of priorities.
Bump
Fold one for the Gipper.
It speaks volumes about the PS3 that this is its most successful application.
BTTT
No argument there about the money.
I personally would generate more F@H points if I just sold all my computers and bought two PS3s. I have 4 - 6 systems running 24/7 in the house.
I think that the new software will incent those that play their PS3 occasionally to let the system fold to completion, after they are finished playing. I have heard that Stanford gets several thousand PS3 work units every week that need to be resent for processing during the week.
Are you folding with your computer? You don't need to leave the PS3 or computer on, as the folding works in the background when you power up. Below is somewhat old cost data for a computer if you do leave it on. I assume it's about the same if you leave the PS3 on.
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ#ntoc55
How much power/money is used by keeping a FAH running 24/7 on a computer?
Roughly, a CPU uses about as much power as a watt light bulb. Here's a report on computer power management from Lawrence Berkeley government labs, and there are other references on the web you can find. Although power supplies on most computers are rated at 400 watts, average usage is lower. On average, a Pentium-type computer uses about 100 watts (if the monitor is off). So, the daily difference between off and running FAH is about 24x100 = 2.4 kWh. At $0.15 per kWh ( from PG&E here in California), this works out to about $0.36 per day. In general, lighting and climate control use a much larger share of household power than computers do. So the best bet for cutting costs and conserving energy would be to turn off lights, turn off your computer monitors (which use more power than a CPU), and turn down the heat.
SO how does this work?
I’d usually search this info myself, but do I need to install Yellow Dog linux to run the F@H on the PS3?
The idea is to use your unused CPU cycles to complete nano-research projects involving protein folding. Misfolded proteins are implicated into many diseases, but especially Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, Mad Cow and some cancers.
A breakthrough here would lead researchers down promising paths rather than deadends.
Yo, I downloaded the folding software and it’s running (for the Gipper), but the little window just says working and I’ve got 0.00% complete. When am I going to start seeing some results?
Would if I did. I pinged Swampy because I know he's involved. Don't have a PS3 myself.
What is the power consumption of the PS3 running the FAH client? Is it safe to run the PS3 24X7?
We expect the PS3 to use about 200W while running Folding@Home. We have several PS3's running in our lab, running Folding@Home 24/7 and have had good results so far.
Granted, this is likely based on the original, 60 gig model (the one I own), but that is a massive power draw and far more than my dual core PC draws when running F@H in the background.
Just out of curiosity...how many Freepers participate?
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