Ftc!

This forum needs a entire forum section dedicated to folding to better inform people about Folding and increase Team DEV folding stats as we are going down hill and last but the most important to KILL CANCER!
All the forums across DEV need to do this!
If you truly believe in the cause of FOLD TO CURE!

i must say, when i was browsing through some of the blurb on folding, it didn't give me a very clear idea of what it was all about + what it is exactly that you do as an individual to contribute

chances are that other new(ish) members are in the same boat and are left with the mistaken impression that folding is for boffins + doesn't apply to them

what would help is a clear explanation of the whole folding thing + a step-by-step guidance on how to join / contribute

[edit]
found this faq in the devhardware forum - ok for starters, but could be tightened up to make it more comprehensible / appealing for newcomers
[/edit]

I will write a draft asap!

We already have a thread about folding. An entire forum devoted to an FAQ and the milestone thread is overkill, I'd think.

There is a folding forum over on the sister site, Dev Hardware

Yes there is and if we could combine ALL the forums ( Dev Shed | ASP Free | Dev Articles | Scripts | Dev Hardware | Dev Archives | SEO Chat | Dev Mechanic | Web Hosting) folding efforts into one place we would do a better job, but that is not going to happen!
So I am at least trying to get folding NOTICED by new members as it is on this forum you have to hunt down the thread usually on the 2nd to 3rd page; were it should be is at the top highlighted on every DEV FORUM then maybe we would not be in 68th place and falling.
P.S. This would be GOOD advertising for all of DEV as a whole more site hits.

Please remember this is a work in progress drawn from many people and places.
I have tried to keep the links, authors, sites intact as they deserve the praise for their efforts.
Any failure to do so is mine and any help would be gratefully accepted.

What is this "Folding at Home" ?

In short, they're trying to find cures for diseases like Cancer in its many forms, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Mad Cow, CJD, and ALS.
Folding@Home is a distributed computing project by Stanford University (http://folding.stanford.edu/ )
It studies protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases.

Why should you fold?
I can only tell you my reasons why I fold.
I want to stop these diseases before some else loses loved ones as I have.
Simply tired of losing friends and family.

How to get started or for more information just go to
http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/download.html
Dev Hardware Forums > IMPORTANT INFORMATION > Dev Folding
The Ultimate Folding Thread
Discuss The Ultimate Folding Thread in the Dev Folding forum on Dev Hardware.
By our own Pandaking at
http://www.devhardware.com/forums/dev-folding-29/the-ultimate-folding-thread-49131-2.html?pp=40

FOLD FOR DEV FOLD TO CURE

Jason, EOC's owner keeps ALL TEAM and PERSONAL STATS at http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/
Team DEVs # 12912 **Make sure you enter 12912 as the team number**
You can use any name you like but you can't transfer points later if you want to change it**
To avoid confusion, you want a unique user name.
The download page at Stanford has a name search window to help with name selection.
Team stats are at http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_list.php?s=
Also make sure that After you fold your first work unit (WU) that you go to DEVs Edit Options and enter your 6 digit number.

FOLD FOR DEV FOLD TO CURE

GPU Core Update



Posted on Tue 10 Oct, 2006 23:18 by Vijay Pande


We have been examining the GPU Core and how it runs on donor machines. After some initial core problems, it appears that the code is working well for the most part (with just some cosmetic issues, which we are working on). Donors have had success with both the 6.5 and 6.10 ATI drivers and so we suggest that if one is giving problems, to switch to the other.

The primary issue now appears to be the CPU use of the GPU core. Due to how graphics drivers work in Windows, the CPU must poll to see if the GPU has completed. This polling is very CPU intensive (as the GPU does complete its work fairly quickly). We are working on a fix to this, but it is also likely that future GPU cores may use CPU power for scientific calculations which cannot be run on the GPU.

Thus, we are asking donors who run the GPU core to leave some CPU power (~1 core) available for GPU's to use. We need to compensate donors for this additional use of resources, so the points have been increased. The very idea of a GPU core and GPU software is new, so we are still working out what's the best way to handle these issues, but in general, we will of course award points based on the hardware used -- more hardware used, more points. As we develop the GPU core, the points may need to be changed (possibly up, especially if more CPU is used, possibly down if essentially no CPU is needed).

We'd also like to thank all the beta testers who have given us great feedback. It's still very early for our GPU core, but the future is already looking very bright.

Currently the scientific research being carried out at Stanford means that deadlineless WUs are not required and are not being distributed.

Anyone who has set "Receive WUs with no deadlines" to YES in their client configurations will be affected by this issue.
________________________________________


• If your machines are capable of meeting deadlines, then you will need to reconfigure your clients to receive normal WUs. Once this alteration has been made to your configuration your client will continue as normal and download work from one of the many other servers.
• If your machine is incapable of meeting deadlines, it is suggested that if the machine is a dedicated folder, that you just switch it off, and wait until more deadlineless WUs are made available.
• If you download deadlineless WU for batching, or sneakernetting, you can do either of the above choices. Changing to normal WUs will mean more frequent moving of WUs between computers though.

The Folding@Home client can be configured in several different ways. The reason for this range of configurations is to make it possible for donors to choose the amount of resources they choose to donate to Folding@Home. Below, we list some of the configuration switches and their impact on the FAH client. Please note that certain switches will lead to experimental projects, which will be much less stable or more complex and are not intended for machines in environments where the machine stability or usability is a primary concern (eg corporate environments).
Several settings or flags will lead to projects with bonus points. Please note that bonus points are a reward for the resource demands that may be placed on your system or complexity of the WUs. WUs with a bonus are not suited for machines in high reliability environments and should only be used with caution and strong familiarity with FAH. They should never be used on machines that are not monitored regularly. Bonus points may be adjusted or withdrawn at any time.

GENERAL SETTINGS
The default configuration (no flags): the most stable way to run FAH is without any flags and with the default answers to the client configuration settings. One will get a variety of work units. The majority of disease related work units are assigned to clients without any flags.

-advmethods This flag gives "advanced methods" work units (WUs). These work units will inherently be less stable than regular WUs. The donor should monitor the client regularly and report unusual situations to the folding community forum (http://forum.folding-community.org).

SETTINGS UNIQUE TO THE VERSION 5.0x CLIENT

The configuration setting Accept WUs>5MB (also known as the "BigWU" setting) allows for large WUs (large in either download size, upload size, or RAM requirements). Note that these work units are the most demanding work units in download and/or RAM. In the console client, this is set through the -config flag. You will be asked "Allow receipt of work unit assignments and return of work results greater than 5MB in size (such units may have large memory demands)". In the GUI client, this is set through the config panel. We do not recommend the BigWU setting for clients with modems, due to the large filesize involved (and greater potential for transmission problems and WU loss).
Combining advanced methods and BigWU: this combination unlocks the most demanding work units, including QMD and very large RAM and/or download WUs. We do not suggest this setting for a machine which is not readily administered, as this setting is the most demanding and would likely require more donor intervention than any other setting. To compensate for this, these WUs have a large bonus. The donor should monitor the client regularly and report unusual situations to the folding community forum (http://forum.folding-community.org). THIS COMBINATION SHOULD BE ONLY USED WITH EXTREME CAUTION AND FAMILIARITY WITH FAH -- THERE WILL BE HUGE DEMANDS ON THE CLIENT MACHINE, INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) RAM, HARD DRIVE, NETWORK CONNECTION. Bonus points are awarded due to these increased demands.
Also, please note that work unit availability is based on the current projects that are running. If you choose to use -advmethods, BigWU, or the combination of both, it does not guarantee that you will get a specific type of work unit all of the time. These work units, like all others, come and go depending on the research we are doing. If an advanced, QMD, or BigWU project is not available, you will be assigned to another server that may give you a work unit that does not carry bonus points.

SPECIAL ISSUES
Computers with multiple CPUs (SMP) are supported under FAH by running multiple clients (one for each CPU). This is clearly non-ideal and better support is under development. There are certain caveats of using SMP boxes with special flags. Do not run multiple clients with each set to the most aggressive settings (bigWU + adv), as this can overwhelm most computers. Instead, we suggest bigWU+adv on one client and the default settings on the other(s). In situations where reliability, stability, and/or responsiveness a premium, we suggest either all clients with the default settings or just one client with the big WU enabled.
Slower computers or computers which spend only of a fraction of the day on FAH should run with "timeless" or deadlineless work units. These work units are designed to not require a deadline time for return, and thus are well suited to these types of machines. In the GUI, deadlineless WUs can be selected in the config panel. Do not use the -advmethods flag or the bigWU setting with this setting.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE SEE
• Console configuration documentation for information about console switches
• GUI documentation for Windows or Mac
• QMD FAQ (important for those running with bigWU + adv settings)
• GROMACS FAQ
• FAH FAQ
• Folding community form (http://forum.folding-community.org)

updated on August 23, 2005

ALSO
This is from DanEnsign who is a part of the Panda Group at Stanford.
Here is the thread
http://forum.folding-community.org/v...eb8975c#123997
(c) 2000-2006 Vijay Pande and Stanford University

My reasons to participate in Folding@Home are very simple. I lost some loved ones to cancer (who hasn't these days) and regard this, among other things, as an opportunity to contribute to finding a cure.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/education/distcomp.html

Let us say you want to build a house. If you hired a single worker to do all the work, no matter how good and fast the worker is, it will take a long time. However, if you distributed the work among many groups of workers: plumbers, roofers, electricians etc working independently of each other they can finish the work much faster. Distributed Computing is to distribute heavy computational load into thousands of computers that work when they are otherwise idle across the Internet.

Human Genome is the "blueprint" for proteins. But just like a blueprint is not enough to build an airplane, we need to understand better how proteins assemble themselves by folding. We do have computational methods to simulate protein folding. However, current computer speeds (even super computers) allow us only to simulate a nanosecond (10-9) of this process, where the process of protein folding can take more than a microsecond (10-6). Thus there is a thousand fold gap between the current computing speed and the computation power needed to simulate protein folding.

Folding@home has developed a new way to simulate protein folding which can break the microsecond barrier by dividing the work between multiple processors. By using a novel approach to create the Folding@home clients and server a near linear speed curve was achieved (for example: twice the number of computers twice the speed). As the number of processors increases so does the speed with which we fold proteins. Thus, with thousands of processors, we can break the microsecond barrier and unlock the mystery of how proteins fold.

Pande group breaks the total computations into small chunks called work units. Work units are assigned to computers that join folding@home. When the computer is idle, it does computations in the background. When the work unit is completed and internet connection is established the results are sent to a data base at Stanford servers. Researchers can access these data bases and extract valuable information.