SCE Joins Stanford's Folding@home Program (B3D ID=32377)

[patsu]

290 TFLOP @ 11818 PS3s now. At this moment, it exceeds all the other platforms added together (151 + 7 + 7 + 35 + 41 = 241 TFLOPs).

If it's untargeted, 1% of the installed base is an ok estimate. Interesting to see how many more are willing to donate computing cycle.

 

[Diesel2]

I think they could easily tap Xenos to do it, and perhaps use Xenon to do higher-precision work that Cell & GPUs don't do.

What do you mean by higher precision ? As in larger work units ?

Sorry, my understanding of F@H is limited.

 

[V-G]

If the accusation holds any water at all, it would have to be over a system memory limitation not the Cell's computational ability.

Even on the desktop versions of FAH there is an advanced option to not accept the assignment of "extra large" Work Units. The memory foot print on some of them (but not the majority as far as I can gather) can be very large. So on lower end systems you can choose to reject them even on the PC version.

I think they could easily tap Xenos to do it, and perhaps use Xenon to do higher-precision work that Cell & GPUs don't do.

Sorry, it was wrong of me to hint something like that as it's without importance and will only contribute to derailing the thread.

 

[inefficient]

What do you mean by higher precision ? As in larger work units ?

Sorry, my understanding of F@H is limited.

I think he means do the calculations with 64bit doubles instead of 32bit floats.

The SPEs in the current version of Cell are significantly crippled with regard to double precision numbers (a factor of 10). But then at the same time the Xenon CPU would be significantly slower as well with doubles by at least a factor of 2. If you wanted to take good advantage of the Xenon's VMX units, you would use single precision floats just like every other platform.

Anyway, there is no obvious reason to believe double precision math would add any value at all toward the solution.


I think of MS did seriously want to throw the xbox360's weight behind a distributed computing project they should pick something other than Folding so they won't be directly compared against the PS3. There are plenty of other worthy causes.

 

[V-G]

290 TFLOP @ 11818 PS3s now. At this moment, it exceeds all the other platforms added together (151 + 7 + 7 + 35 + 41 = 241 TFLOPs).

If it's untargeted, 1% of the installed base is an ok estimate. Interesting to see how many more are willing to donate computing cycle.

Would be nice if they could make the workload more dynamic so people could interupt and play a game in the middle of folding or watch a movie while folding.

Then I'd expect most PS3 owners would jump on the F@H bandwagon.

 

[patsu]

Yes... and make it compatible with the Home button so that we can play music at the same time. They may have other higher priority tasks to do though

 

[inefficient]

Would be nice if they could make the workload more dynamic so people could interupt and play a game in the middle of folding or watch a movie while folding.

Then I'd expect most PS3 owners would jump on the F@H bandwagon.

But you can interrupt it at any time. You can exit at any time and when you come back it will resume where you left off. You can set it to kick in automatically like a screen saver so that after you quit your game or finish your movie you don't even have to worry about starting it up again.

There is no reason even a casual PS3 owner would not jump in aside from being concerned about electricity bills or the units noise while folding.

 

[Rainbow Man]

Would be nice if they could make the workload more dynamic so people could interupt and play a game in the middle of folding or watch a movie while folding.

But you can I'm pretty sure. Just set it to autostart and when oit's been sitting at the xbar for a while (whne you're not playing games) it should start running as if by magic.

Well in theory anyway. I don't really know as I've not tested it eheh.
Peace.

 

[patsu]

It starts up like a screen saver, but quits like an application
Would be nicer if it's easier to exit out so people don't find it intrusive and will leave autoexec on.

 

[inefficient]

Yes... and make it compatible with the Home button so that we can play music at the same time. They may have other higher priority tasks to do though

They even built in an audio player for some silly reason into the client! I bet most people turn it off after about 5mins. If that audio player let you play MP3s on your PS3 instead, that would be so much better.

 

[rlwimi]

Just went double over pcs:

PC - 158987 systems - 151 TFLOPS
PS3 - 12394 systems - 304 TFLOPS

 

[Gradthrawn]

They even built in an audio player for some silly reason into the client! I bet most people turn it off after about 5mins. If that audio player let you play MP3s on your PS3 instead, that would be so much better.

I like the ocean waves sound! Reminds me of the PS2's "screensaver." I've noticed the audio turns itself off after a certain amount of inactivety.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I wouldn't leave a PS3 on to fold, but if it ran as a background task to watching movies etc., it'd see use.

Amazing results for DC on Cell. There's bound t be several press releases!

 

[Rainbow Man]

The PS2's ocean sounds were great. Dunno about the folding client. I find them more an annoyance than calming.

Too much treble. A more muted rolling kind of waves would have been nicer.
Peace.

 

[patsu]

I like the ocean waves sound! Reminds me of the PS2's "screensaver." I've noticed the audio turns itself off after a certain amount of inactivety.

That's right... but if it allows me to play my music, I'll leave it running "forever". I had to quit a few times yesterday to listen to my collection.

Once Home is released, they'd prefer me to stay connected in Playstation Home though. So the F@H team should focus on cycle stealing techniques

 

[V-G]

Say something smart or beat it V-G, you drag the thread's average IQ down the gutter.

V-G, you stupid ignorant twit Peace.

I stand correct and it must be pretty clear by now that I have yet to pick up a PS3 for my self. :smile:

But I still think that it would be more efficient if Folding also could take place while the user watch movies and play music.

 

[Geo]

I stand correct and it must be pretty clear by now that I have yet to pick up a PS3 for my self. :smile:

On the one hand, I appreciate the self-deprecating humour of what you did there in editing their quotes.

On the other, your friendly neighborhood moderator went on red alert, pulled out his billy club and handcuffs, and was all set to start smiting left and right. . . I've only got so much adrenaline to go around, y'know, I'm old and all that. :smile:

 

[V-G]

On the one hand, I appreciate the self-deprecating humour of what you did there in editing their quotes.

On the other, your friendly neighborhood moderator went on red alert, pulled out his billy club and handcuffs, and was all set to start smiting left and right. . . I've only got so much adrenaline to go around, y'know, I'm old and all that. :smile:

I promise never to do it again (when you see it)

 

[patsu]

Just submitted another one. 50% of the people in my friend list are doing F@H now.

Geo, how do I find out which teams are right ahead of Beyond3D and how they're doing right now ?

I love the interface... it's fascinating to see Europe turn overnight from an almost dark mass into a starry night ... not as bright and dense as US but a good start nonetheless.

EDIT: They should indicate my presence and my buddies' status on the worldmap.

 

[Arwin]

Just submitted another one. 50% of the people in my friend list are doing F@H now.

Geo, how do I find out which teams are right ahead of Beyond3D and how they're doing right now ?

I love the interface... it's fascinating to see Europe turn overnight from an almost dark mass into a starry night ... not as bright and dense as US but a good start nonetheless.

EDIT: They should indicate my presence and my buddies' status on the worldmap.

Joining the Fold! (download at 74%)

Thank god the servers are still responsive ...