Distributed Computing

Folding @ Home Project :

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project - people from around the world download and run software which allows them to work together making one large supercomputer. Every computer helps bring the project closer to our goal of understanding protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases.

What is protein folding and how is folding linked to disease? Proteins are biology's workhorses - its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.

When proteins misfold there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

The reason to get involved is simple: It benefits you and those around you by researching the cause for disease. Aside from a simple setup, it requires nothing more on your part. Assembled below is a short (and growing) FAQ intended for total newcomers to the project.

Q: Does this cost money, or require anything from me?
A: The project and software are free. You have to spend one minute to install and configure the software and then it runs on auto-pilot.

Q: Will this harm my performance or use a lot of Internet bandwidth?
A: The project uses idle CPU cycles, so your other applications do not suffer. Internet bandwidth is comparable to one email per hour.

Q: Should I use the Console or GUI version client?
A: I highly recommend the Console version client only! It uses less overhead and is capable of running two clients at once. Single-core and non Hyper-Threaded systems should only run one console client. Hyper Threaded and dual-core system should run two console clients at once in seperate folders such as CPU1 and CPU2. Some applications and games have been effected by the GUI client version, which I do not recommend.

Q: Are there any characters I should avoid in my username?
A: Stick to just letters, numbers and underscore. Right now, the characters # ^ ~ |. # are reserved for firewall differentiation. We want to save ^ | and ~ for other problems which might come up. Also, spaces in your username will be replaced with "_". Finally, usernames are case sensitive.

Q: What team should I join? Do I need a team?
A: You should join the Bjorn3D.com team, which is team 41608. You do not have to be on a team, but it helps the team stats if you are.

Q: Are there any configuration settings that you could recommend?
A: Yes. On a single running client the memory usage should be no more then the maximum amount available, and on a multi-CPU dual-client setup each should be configured for half the amount of available RAM. Of course, these are maximum amounts, so you can also further reduce them. The core priority should always be idle unless this is going on a system that is very seldom used. The CPU usage should be kept at 100 unless your system is overclocked and usually runs hot, in which case you should lower this amount slightly.

Q: Should I really run two F@H clients at once on my Pentium 4 HyperThreaded CPU?
A: If it is a 1MB cache or higher P4 HT CPU, you would see some benefit from running two clients at once. If it is not, I advise against it since it is not true dual core CPU. It is possible, but the benefits are not as great as a true dual core CPU.

Q: How do I set up two clients to run at the same time?
A: You must use the console version of the client for both instances. Create a directory (folder) for each client named CPU1 and CPU2 and run each from their own directory.

Q: When I shut down my computer, do I lose my work?
A: No. Checkpoints save your work between 3-30 minutes depending on your configuration. I recommend home users use 15 minute intervals, and office users use 30 minute intervals.

Q: How long do I have for each project?
A: Every project is different in size and complexity, and comes with it's own deadline. Most are a month, but some are two months. Refer to the "unitinfo.txt" file after you configure your client.

Q: It's been over an hour, and progrss is still 0 of 100000 steps. Is this thing working?
A: Every project is different and may take over 48-96 hours to complete all steps. The time depends on the power of your CPU, and how many other applications are running. Remember that the program "folds" only using available "idle" CPU cycles, so if you are doing other CPU intensive activities, this could slow down the folding process.

Q: So when will I see some points on the stats page?
A: Your name will appear once your Work Unit has completed and the project has uploaded the results. Keep in mind that points vary between projects, and the stats page refreshes every four hours.

Q: I messed up my configuration settings. How do I change my configuration?
A: For the console version: go to the "Start" menu, and open "Run". Browse to the FAH client you wish to configure, and then once it is listed in the "Open" box, add a " -config" after it and press enter.

Q: I get an I/O error when I try to change settings. What happened?
A: The F@H client is still running as a service. Services are programs that run in the backround. You should right-click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop and select "Manage". Go to "Services" and find the "FAH@H" service(s), right click and select "Stop". You can now work with the F@H client. When you are done, don't forget to right click the client again and "Start" the service (or restart your system).

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