Folding@home Update and Fun Facts Comin' Atcha
Well lookee this, the PS3 finally has a bit of undeniable good news.
Published: April 26, 2007
Though we may never know who actually broached the idea first (well, not unless you read our interview with the head of the Folding@home project), the success of pairing the PlayStation 3's Cell Processor (okay, fine, its Broadband Engine) and its fancy number crunching prowess with the distributed computing concept of F@h is clear.
In just over a month, the response has been impressive to say the least; over 250,000 PS3s are folding, delivering a whopping 400 or so teraflops of protein folding simulation power, with peak outputs at more 700 teraflops. In fact, Sony claims the addition of the PS3 to the program has nudged up other PCs by as much as 20% as the program's stat-tracking aspect likely has people trying to push their team up the rankings (and, yes, we have our own team, which you can join by plugging in 57436 as the team number).
Think of it like level grinding in an RPG that you can do while away and that might actually lead to cures or better ways to deal with things like cancer or, in the PS3 project's case, Alzheimer's. Each computer (or console as the case may be), is handed out a Work Unit to crunch on for a while, simulating the folding of specific proteins. When the work is done, the results are uploaded to Stanford University's computers and the donor is given points. Both team and individual stats are tracked at all times, encouraging a little healthy competition -- and the PS3's horsepower gives those donors a little advantage.
"The PS3 turnout has been amazing, greatly exceeding our expectations and allowing us to push our work dramatically forward," gushed Vijay Pande, Stanford University Associate Professor of Chemistry and Folding@home program lead. "Thanks to PS3, we have performed simulations in the first few weeks that would normally take us more than a year to calculate. We are now gearing up for new simulations that will continue our current studies of Alzheimer's and other diseases."
"We continue to be thrilled with the ongoing contributions of the PS3 user community in helping the Folding@home program study the causes of many different diseases that afflict our society," giggled and clapped Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Corporate Executive and CTO Masayuki Chatani. "As we move forward, we are issuing a call to action for all PS3 owners around the world to download the Folding@home application and help this cause. These PS3 fans can also be part of history as the Folding@home distributed computing program inches closer to achieving a petaflop - a measure of computing power that has never before been reached."
Today's update to the PlayStation Store also brings with it a new Version 1.1 of the F@h client, bringing with updates to performance (yes, you can get more points faster, so it's a good thing), the ability to create longer donor and team names, and more visible points of light on that cool visual representation of users folding all over the globe. All you have to do to catch the update is start up Folding@home (or quit out and restart if it's running right now) and it'll update things automatically. Simple!
If you haven't yet gotten into the whole F@h thang and would like to, why not join TotalPlayStation.com's team (#57436) we can use the help to push us higher than our current rank of 1544 out of 62715 (!!) teams. Go go Team TPS!
In just over a month, the response has been impressive to say the least; over 250,000 PS3s are folding, delivering a whopping 400 or so teraflops of protein folding simulation power, with peak outputs at more 700 teraflops. In fact, Sony claims the addition of the PS3 to the program has nudged up other PCs by as much as 20% as the program's stat-tracking aspect likely has people trying to push their team up the rankings (and, yes, we have our own team, which you can join by plugging in 57436 as the team number).
Think of it like level grinding in an RPG that you can do while away and that might actually lead to cures or better ways to deal with things like cancer or, in the PS3 project's case, Alzheimer's. Each computer (or console as the case may be), is handed out a Work Unit to crunch on for a while, simulating the folding of specific proteins. When the work is done, the results are uploaded to Stanford University's computers and the donor is given points. Both team and individual stats are tracked at all times, encouraging a little healthy competition -- and the PS3's horsepower gives those donors a little advantage.
"The PS3 turnout has been amazing, greatly exceeding our expectations and allowing us to push our work dramatically forward," gushed Vijay Pande, Stanford University Associate Professor of Chemistry and Folding@home program lead. "Thanks to PS3, we have performed simulations in the first few weeks that would normally take us more than a year to calculate. We are now gearing up for new simulations that will continue our current studies of Alzheimer's and other diseases."
"We continue to be thrilled with the ongoing contributions of the PS3 user community in helping the Folding@home program study the causes of many different diseases that afflict our society," giggled and clapped Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Corporate Executive and CTO Masayuki Chatani. "As we move forward, we are issuing a call to action for all PS3 owners around the world to download the Folding@home application and help this cause. These PS3 fans can also be part of history as the Folding@home distributed computing program inches closer to achieving a petaflop - a measure of computing power that has never before been reached."
Today's update to the PlayStation Store also brings with it a new Version 1.1 of the F@h client, bringing with updates to performance (yes, you can get more points faster, so it's a good thing), the ability to create longer donor and team names, and more visible points of light on that cool visual representation of users folding all over the globe. All you have to do to catch the update is start up Folding@home (or quit out and restart if it's running right now) and it'll update things automatically. Simple!
If you haven't yet gotten into the whole F@h thang and would like to, why not join TotalPlayStation.com's team (#57436) we can use the help to push us higher than our current rank of 1544 out of 62715 (!!) teams. Go go Team TPS!
