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Folding@Home - New Software for the PS3
Playstation.blog ^ | 12/22/2007 | Noam Rimon

Posted on 12/22/2007 12:29:27 PM PST by texas booster

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To: ECM
I also fold with an ATI X1650XTX video card, and the card draws about 150 watts when folding.

200 watts is not even 2 amps, comparable to my dual core system. Yes, it is not insignificant, but not that much draw in my all electric home.

I guess I am kinda jaded with my teenage daughters running their blow dryers, the electric dryer and having the LR TV on with no one in the room. Then turning the AC down because they got too hot. You know the story.

I decided several years ago that my $2 per day of electricity was a small enough part of our overall household budget that the cost paled beside the possibility of discovering a potential cure for a disease that has robbed family members of their personality. Yes it cost money, but that cost was less than what we spent on medical care for my parents, and certainly less than what it would cost me if I or my wife succumbed to the illness.

21 posted on 12/22/2007 1:48:51 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: JerseyHighlander

More than half a million computers across the globe have run Folding@home simulations since the distributed computing project began in 2000. Each computer in the mix boosts performance, allowing scientists to tackle more difficult problems and solve research puzzles faster or more accurately.


22 posted on 12/22/2007 1:51:51 PM PST by Eric Liddell (Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.)
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To: airborne
There are 406 FReepers that have not been banned or otherwise become disenchanted that are still on the ping list.

About 6 - 10 new folders join every month. I have the FReepname of half of them, since you can put any name into the F@H User Name. Its just easier for us if you use your FReepname for us to communicate.

According to the latest stats, we have about 900 systems that report on a regular basis, from about 250 FReepers. There are about a dozen folding for our group that are friends and family and that do not FReep.

The number 1 reason for folks not contributing is getting a new system and not loading F@H. Regular postings like this help to keep everyone folding.

DU has about 60 folders with 140 systems generating about 9,000 ppd. DU will hit 7,000,000 points around Jan 15.

We generate about 85,000 ppd and will hit 40,000,000 points around Jan 1.

23 posted on 12/22/2007 1:58:10 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: airborne
Just out of curiosity...how many Freepers participate?

Over 500 at one time...currently about 140. http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=36120

24 posted on 12/22/2007 1:59:22 PM PST by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: texas booster

Awesome!


25 posted on 12/22/2007 1:59:49 PM PST by airborne (Proud to be a conservative! Proud to support Duncan Hunter for President!)
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To: agooga

Nevermind- I’ve got 1.00% now. Took about 45 minutes to get there, and my iBook is toasty warm.


26 posted on 12/22/2007 2:00:43 PM PST by agooga (Struggling every day to be worthy of their sacrifice.)
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To: ECM

I guess what I’m suggesting is to not leave it on 24/7. However, load FAH and if you switch the PS3 on in the morning...play like there is no tomorrow, and in between times, such as meal break, you will be folding. Switch the PS3 off for the night. The incremental cost is like 80 cents an hour (or not, my math may be off)


27 posted on 12/22/2007 2:07:10 PM PST by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: texas booster

I don’t have a PS3 but I set up my computer to run it since it’s on 24/7. I have another pc on my network but they use the same connection, through a router. Is it worth it to set the program up on that one also? It’s also on 24/7


28 posted on 12/22/2007 2:55:20 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: texas booster

I would like to have a PS3 for a workstation. I think it would kick butt!


29 posted on 12/22/2007 3:43:18 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: agooga

Sorry for the delay. Download and go.

Just make sure that your team is 36120 and your FReepname is there so you get credit.

Work on as many systems as you need.


30 posted on 12/22/2007 6:12:48 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Drango

I have watched the stats pretty closely, and whether F@H stats or ExtremeOverclocking, it seems that we have about 200 - 250 actually running and contributing at any time.

Theres something fishy about the 50 day rule that isn’t reflected in our actual contributors.


31 posted on 12/22/2007 6:15:33 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
Network traffic is nearly zero with F@H.

It is CPU intensive, and the level one and two CPU cache has an extraordinary effect on the completion speed of F@H.

So crank up every computer that you can get, use team 36120 and your FReepname, and get them folding.

If the system is on 24/7, anything over 550 MHz works well. If on occasionally, then about 1.0 gHz for a true P4 or about 1.2 gHz for a Celeron will complete before the deadline.

32 posted on 12/22/2007 6:21:18 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I have read about folks that put Linux on a PS3, and it seems to work well.

I am not sure that using a Cell processor just to surf the Internet makes sense, but to each his own.

The Cell is just incredibly fast when you can tighten the code and run natively in the Cell. The is even a Beowulf Linux cluster that runs on eight PS3s, and it rocks.


33 posted on 12/22/2007 6:24:18 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: texas booster

:’) Thanks TexasB. Nice development! Thanks again for telling me about the project in the first place.

Sony Might Have Gotten It Right with the PS3 from the Beginning
Softpedia | November 5th, 2007 | Filip Truta
Posted on 11/25/2007 1:38:14 PM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1930299/posts


34 posted on 12/22/2007 7:14:02 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Tuesday, December 18, 2007___________________https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: texas booster
Network traffic is nearly zero with F@H. It is CPU intensive, and the level one and two CPU cache has an extraordinary effect on the completion speed of F@H. So crank up every computer that you can get, use team 36120 and your FReepname, and get them folding.

I use SpeedupmyPC to keep track of my stats. It's true network usage is near zero but CPU usage has stayed at 100% since I installed it. I have an AMD Athlon 64 CPU 2.4 Ghz on this PC and a 2.8gHz Celeron on the other. I guess I'll crank that one up now and give it a try but I may have to pause it when doing things like burning DVDs.

35 posted on 12/22/2007 9:06:26 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: texas booster

Will it mess anything up if I use the same screen name on 2 different pcs?


36 posted on 12/22/2007 9:12:40 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
No, that is how you can get multiple systems pumping points for some of FReepers that you see with 3,000+ points per day.

Regarding usage, the folding of proteins is a molecular simulation written in very tight code, such as JMOL. You will see names such as GROMACS thrown around - these are the kernals that do the work and are very well known by molecular dynamicists.

The secret is large L1 and L3 caches and fast cores in the CPUs. Usage stays at 100% because it is supposed to. Very little network traffic, and if you build a folding farm you will find bursts of data back to the hard drives but little sustained activity.

I would expect that one HD could manage several systems, so if you cobbled together 8 systems running off a server across a network it would work just fine with the standard Console or GUI kernal.

Once we start talking about SMP cores and specialized GUI cores then the bandwidth patterns change. But for standard console F@H, it runs very well.

37 posted on 12/22/2007 9:30:43 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
If the Athlon 64 is an X2, then you could run two cores in Folder1 and Folder2 and F@H will parcel the work to each core, with very little speed loss.

Most folks run SMP on dual core systems, but for X2s with smaller caches (under 1 meg) then I usually just run two cores.

38 posted on 12/22/2007 9:33:14 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: SunkenCiv; All
Remember to speed up your PS3 through better programming!

Run the new updates and see a purported speed increase of 10%.

39 posted on 12/22/2007 9:34:41 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: SunkenCiv; All
http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=404

There have been some reports of hanging PS3s after the update to 2.10 BIOS and F@H 1.3. It seems to be related to a bad download of the update, but it has happened a few times so we need to be aware of it.

Noam Rimon, the author of the article above and the lead Sony F@H developer, is watching this thread at the new F@H forums located above. Please post him a note if you have problems.

Thank him if you are running smoothly!

40 posted on 12/22/2007 11:20:00 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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