Posted on 05/04/2008 8:43:25 AM PDT by texas booster
In the near future, we will be releasing some new projects which require a very rapid turn-around time. These are peptide fragment simulations which we are interested in simulating for a time-sensitive collaborative project involving protein structure prediction.
These WUs will go directly to the classic clients running with -advmethods. Non-classic clients (eg SMP, GPU, PS3) will not be affected, as all of these calculations will be run via the AMBER core and only the classic client supports the AMBER core.
To reward users for participating in this exciting project, we will be giving a x1.5 bonus in the points awarded. What's the catch? These projects will be less rigorously beta tested, so there will be an increased risk of Early_Unit_End errors. We believe the risk of this is minor (there will likely be a higher rate of early unit ends, especially very early in the WU, but we do not expect client machines to become significantly less stable). However, if you do not wish to participate in this project, just remove the -advmethods setting from your client.
This will not last forever and will likely go back to normal -advmethods usage in a few months. With that said, we do plan other uses for -adv in the future.
Note: the text was updated to clarify that this is classic clients only.
First, the F@H team has released new work units that allow those of us running the Windows GUI or console versions of F@H to step up and grab points galore.
The new work units will only be available to those who use the "-adv" flag on their F@H console. I understand that it is also available to GUI participants but I have not been able to verify it.
I waited a bit to ensure that it does make a difference. My daily points have increased from about 3,500 ppd to about 6,000 ppd, due almost entirely to these new work units. I run about 50 systems with the console version, and one system with a GPU.
I will still get blown away by EasySt, but at least it will take him another week to catch me!
Check out the stats here and you will see the increase in points that our team has enjoyed:
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=36120
Secondly, as a team we are nearing several milestones. The FR Folding@hHome team 36120 will hit 50,000,000 points on Wednesday or Thursday! WOW!
There are several FReeping Folders who were here at the beginning when soccer_maniac started pumping the team I started in 2002. With his efforts, in two weeks we jumped from about 4,000th to 2,000th in the worldwide ranking of teams. Then malsua joined and set a new standard for points in a day. He was king until Klutz_dohanger convined the superintendent at his school district to let him install F@H onto the computer labs in his district and set new standards for points and systems.
FWIW, the whining and crying over at DU increased to a crescendo when they realized that they would never catch the FReeper Folding team. Ah, those were good days!
Now, we average about 200 FReepers every day that fold on about 900 systems. Due to the addition of graphic cards, multicore systems and PS3 consoles, it may seem that the points contributions of older Windows systems are being forgotten. The changes Dr. Pande highlighted above show that there is a need for every system that we can get into the program.
Please help congratulate the new FReepers that have helped us push past 50 million on our way to 100 million points!
If you have noticed someone who has hit a milestone, such as 100,000 points or 1,000,000 points please post their names here.
Most of all, if you have upgraded to a new system and didn't reinstall F@H please follow the thread and let us help you get folding again.
Remember, the research you support to cure Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease may one day save YOUR life, or a beloved family member.
What? I think I missed something.
If your systems have dropped off then please restart them.
If you haven't folded before then please ping us for help!
If your systems have dropped off then please restart them.
If you haven't folded before then please ping us for help!
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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List of Relevant Folding Links
Why Fold - Watch This !!
Extreme Overclockers Stats for FreeRepublic
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Competition (Not!!) Dummies ..Daily Kos
Dummie Folding Threads #7 #8 #9#10#11 #12
Hey DUmmies, can't ya'll post a new thread at least once a year?
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Other Useful Stuff - Links
How much are those work units worth? And what are they?
All Projects Listed
Point Summary for Workunits
Fahmon Third Party Monitoring Software
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Past FreeRepublic Folding threads
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 #34 #35 #36 #37 #38 #39 #40 #41 #42 #43 #44 #45 #46 #47 #48 #49
I don’t know what is going on with my comp. lately. Every morning I wake up and it has restarted. I then have to reopen my WU’s...again.
Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Mad Cow Disease (BSE), many cancers and some diabetes all have significant roots in mis-folded proteins.
Follow the link and please join in to help us find a cure for these diseases!
Tell us about your systems - speed, memory, etc.
Usually restarts are due to memory problems or power supply problems, occasionally due to BSoD.
I have my systems set to auto-restart when power goes out and I have F@H set to run in the background as a service. At least then you wouldn't need to restart it every morning, until we figure out the reasons for the problems.
And Macs! I have one each Mac, Windows and PS3 running F@H.
BTTT
I have a Dell XPS, Pentium (R) DCPU, 2.80 GHZ, 2.79 GHZ, 1.oo GB of RAM.
Does that help?
I have my systems set to auto-restart when power goes out and I have F@H set to run in the background as a service.
Mine always starts back where it shut down. ie: if my comp shut off at check point file # 23, it always starts back at # 23. That means my comp wasn't folding for hours until I restarted my PC.
Pfft. That should read - 1.00 GB of RAM.
I know that there is a lot of upside to the latest hardware, especially GPU cards and the PS3, but these systems can only run specialized work units.
That's why I have kept my systems as mostly 5.04 console units, since these can fold any general work unit and a broader range of science than the specialized units.
Are you running on OS/X or OS/9?
My PS3 dose so much more I don’t keep some of the older machines running. I keep my two newest machines up and the PS3 and the others only added about 5% production.
Go into BIOS and see if there is an advanced setting to allow the system to restart after a power interruption.
I'm a comp illiterate but that looks like I have plenty of stretching room.
It shuts down, not locks up. I'm thinking something is running in the back ground that I'm not aware of that requires an automatic system restart.
When it comes to points per watt of electricity the PS3 is hard to beat.
There is still a place for older systems since these do a broader range of science than the GPU and PS3s.
What's BIOS?
| Client statistics by OS |
| OS Type | Current TFLOPS* | Active CPUs | Total CPUs |
| Windows | 186 | 195345 | 2007144 |
| Mac OS X/PowerPC | 7 | 8534 | 115003 |
| Mac OS X/Intel | 24 | 7816 | 47136 |
| Linux | 51 | 29997 | 291258 |
| GPU | 131 | 1895 | 7533 |
| PLAYSTATION®3 | 1832 | 60673 | 507119 |
| Total | 2231 | 304260 | 2975193 |
| Total number of non-Anonymous donators = 979297 |
| Last updated at Sat, 03 May 2008 12:03:54 |
| DB date 2008-05-03 12:39:59 |
| Active CPUS are defined as those which have returned WUs within 50 days. Active GPUs are defined as those which have returned WUs within 10 days (due to the shorter deadlines on GPU WUs). Active PS3's are defined as those which have returned WUs within 15 days. |
| *TFLOPS is the actual teraflops from the software cores, not the peak values from CPU/GPU/PS3 specs. Please see our main FAQ or PS3 FAQ or GPU FAQ for more details on specific platforms. |
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