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

[Bobbler]

Hmm... Folding@Home v1.1 still pause if the monitor is off when it loads. Because of this, my F@H never run as a screen saver. I had to start it up explicitly, wait for the app to load successfully, then turn off my monitor.

With 1.8 firmware it doesn't happen anymore for me... The monitor can be off and it'll still start up for me.

I'm not sure if others have realized it (and mentioned it in other threads -- too much to read!) but I didn't see it mentioned anywhere.

 

[patsu]

Thanks Bobbler ! I can confirm that the pause is indeed gone now.

EDIT: By the way, I noticed F@H passed 1 petaflop yesterday (1005 - 1009 GFLOPs to be exact). It fell back to 900+ today (June 1st).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I was led to check out folding's stats just now, and they seemed higher average performance than last time I checked. Reviewing this thread, he's what I found 6 weeks ago with the 1.1 update...

At the moment, from the current snapshot, PS3 is at 13 GFlops a unit (380 TFs / 29k PS3s). We should also see that average creeping up noticeably if performance has received a large boost.

The current rate is 18 GF per PS3. That appears to be a sizeable increase in performance.

 

[patsu]

Folding @ Home 1.2 Available...

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-21-2007/0004649185&EDATE=

Updated features and functionalities that are part of this latest
application update (v 1.2) include:

-- Support for Remote Play for PSP -- Now Folding@home can be remotely
operated through PSP utilizing the Remote Play feature of the PS3
system. With this feature, PS3 users are able to view on their PSP the
exact same Folding@home information that is viewable on their PS3,
complete with the map of the world and the protein that their
particular system is simulating.

-- More Support for Additional Protein Simulations -- Additional
computation cores are now supported allowing Folding@home for PS3 to
support a wider range of protein-folding simulations which further
enhances the science needed to be performed to research diseases such
as Alzheimer's disease.

-- Screensaver Mode -- A screensaver mode can now be activated via the
Settings menu in the Folding@home application, allowing PS3 users to
consume slightly less power and to increase performance of protein-
folding simulations.

-- Link to Project Description -- A link has been added to the Information
menu in the Folding@home application allowing users to quickly obtain
additional information about the specific research project they are
currently contributing to.

-- Protein Visualization Enhancements -- All visualization modes have been
enhanced with improved shading, highlighting and focus effects,
including: "Tapioca" displays the protein as a smooth surface with
improved shading and depth; "Caviar" displays the protein as a smooth
surface with defined edges; "Licorice" displays only the protein's
bonds and "Backbone" which emphasizes specific sections of the protein
that are of the most scientific interest to researchers.

-- Advanced Participation Mode -- Advanced participation mode allows
Stanford University to send simulations of varying computational
lengths to PS3 users. Because the simulations in this mode can take
significantly longer, Advanced Mode is only recommended for
contributors who run Folding@home for at least eight hours per day.

 

[Rainbow Man]

Yeah I noticed they updated the client even weithout reading about it here first! An old friend from highschoolcame over and I showed him my PS3. He thought rubadub would be a cookl game for his kiddies heh heh. When I restarted the client to show that to him too it wanted to update.

The new visualisations rock! Much prettier than before. The depth of field effect looks cool. But they run slower than they used to as well. Even in 720P res they chug if zoomed in.

Too bad zoom won't 'stick' like it used to. It's hard to get a good close-up look of the molecule now. Perhaps it's to "hide" the chuggy updates in the new graphic modes.

They also cleaned up box mode. It aliased badly at very low angles. Looks much bnetter now with a proper grid of polygons.

Unfortunately "backbone" is unavailable for me... Don't know why but it's greyed out.

Anyone know if the bug that seemed to prevent f@h from starting up if the TV monitor was turned off (HDMI interface) is killed?

a couple times it just sat there on the loading screen for hours while the TV was off and then when I turned it on it finished starting up and began calculating as if nothing had happened.

I could have finished a WU or two perhaps during thse times.



Anyone know if they've improved computational efficiency apart fronm the "screensaver" mode? How much might be gained by going into screensaver mode anyway? I kinda like my pretty graphics heheh..

Still if it puts out less heat and produces more results it's all for the better really. This was a really unexpected and welcome surprise.

I bet I'll really like the remote play support once I pick me up a PSP Lite or whatever they'll call it (probably still jsut "PSP", hehe!)

I must say I like my PS3 more and more. It's starting to get really really slick.
Peace.

 

[jonabbey]

The backbone rendering method only works if the work unit downloaded includes additional rendering data, which will only happen when you download new units. And even then, not all work units will necessarily have the extra rendering information.

According to the press release, overall folding performance was improved as well, both during screensaver mode and non, but no quantitative details have been shared yet that I've seen.

 

[patsu]

Anyone know if the bug that seemed to prevent f@h from starting up if the TV monitor was turned off (HDMI interface) is killed?

a couple times it just sat there on the loading screen for hours while the TV was off and then when I turned it on it finished starting up and began calculating as if nothing had happened.

I could have finished a WU or two perhaps during thse times.

This problem was fixed in the last update.

Anyone know if they've improved computational efficiency apart fronm the "screensaver" mode? How much might be gained by going into screensaver mode anyway? I kinda like my pretty graphics heheh..

Still if it puts out less heat and produces more results it's all for the better really. This was a really unexpected and welcome surprise.

I bet I'll really like the remote play support once I pick me up a PSP Lite or whatever they'll call it (probably still jsut "PSP", hehe!)

I must say I like my PS3 more and more. It's starting to get really really slick.
Peace.

I am still at work, and so have not seen the new client yet.
Throw in sponsored folding and background XMB music while folding, then it will be perfect for me.

 

[Arwin]

Hey cool. This makes folding a lot more interesting to me - I've been hoping for that remote feature for a while. I wonder if you can exit the folding application and go back to your XMB from remote play though?

 

[Rainbow Man]

The backbone rendering method only works if the work unit downloaded includes additional rendering data

Ah! Cool. Yes I see now that the next unit I received has backbone stuff in it.

According to the press release, overall folding performance was improved as well, both during screensaver mode and non

I read through it but I can't find the section that mentions performance improvement outside screensaver mode.

One annoying bug they haven't fixed - that must be a really easy fix - is the one where the molecule worms itself out of the box in box mode. Now with the changes they made the molecule ends up very far outside the box and rotates in a big orbit round and round the box.

By turning box mode on and off the molecule can be centered and then the box will start rotating around the molecule instead. Weird how they could just let this one slip past like that.

LPeace.

 

[Sindre]

Nice update!

Once I finished my most resent WU, I changed to "Advanced Mode";-)
Wonder what the difference is, really. They recommend it only to those who fold above eight hours a day. Other than that the WU's might be bigger, does anyone know more?

 

[phat]

The new visualisations rock! Much prettier than before. The depth of field effect looks cool. But they run slower than they used to as well. Even in 720P res they chug if zoomed in.

The new graphics run at about half the frame rate of before, but they don't "chug" when zoomed in in the sense of a lower frame rate or anything to do with performance. The program intentionally reduces the jitteriness of the molecule, probably by running a rolling average on the positions of the atoms, so you can more easily inspect the structure of the protein. If the jittering weren't reduced, you wouldn't be able to see anything for more than a few frames when zooming really close.

 

[Rainbow Man]

Well I say I clearly feel a lack of fillrate after the update.

It's just like when running the old client in 1080P with box mode enabled; the framerate becomes molasses-like.

The molecule jittering might well be reduced ALSO but there's definitely slowdown at work. I'm not surprised btw there's major overdraw going on so it would be strange if it didn't slow down..
Peace.

 

[Arwin]

Nice update!

Once I finished my most resent WU, I changed to "Advanced Mode";-)
Wonder what the difference is, really. They recommend it only to those who fold above eight hours a day. Other than that the WU's might be bigger, does anyone know more?

Well I'm guessing that with 8 hour WUs, that's not tapping into the full potential of people who only occasionally turn on folding, and so for whom working shorter WUs would be more productive (they might never get one finished in time at all now). So the advanced mode is very likely the way it has been before (with WUs lasting between 6-8 hours), but the normal mode could give you shorter WUs. That's my guess anyway.

I like the new visualisations also. I haven't tested remote play yet. I just tried it with Folding on, but that doesn't seem to work, so I guess I have to change a setting that I didn't look at yet.

 

[rabidrabbit]

I haven't tested remote play yet. I just tried it with Folding on, but that doesn't seem to work, so I guess I have to change a setting that I didn't look at yet.

You must still put the PS3 into remote play mode.
The firmwares still can't initiate remote play from just the PSP.

 

[Arwin]

You must still put the PS3 into remote play mode.
The firmwares still can't initiate remote play from just the PSP.

So basically, you have to have the PS3 in remote play mode, and then you can start Folding from PSP? That's not quite what I was hoping for ... pity.

 

[rabidrabbit]

So basically, you have to have the PS3 in remote play mode, and then you can start Folding from PSP? That's not quite what I was hoping for ... pity.

That's how the remote play works atm.

 

[Arwin]

That's how the remote play works atm.

I know, but I was hoping that putting your PS3 into remote play mode could basically be done automatically and in combination with Folding going on while 'waiting'. Now it seems to pointless to put the PS3 in remote play mode being on but doing nothing while waiting for me to connect remotely by PSP at some point. It could be doing a lot of folding in the meantime. Say that I could let it fold while going to work, and then if I want to access the PS3 from work I could take it over, see it fold, exit folding, do something else like start some downloads or show some pictures or vids to a colleague, and then put folding back on. Or maybe the remote play could keep the screensaver feature enabled and start folding automatically while waiting for a PSP connection.

 

[rabidrabbit]

That would certainly be a nice feature.
If the PS3 went automatically into remote play mode after the F@H had been idle for a set amount of time (like the "screensaver mode"), that would make remote play much much more useful overall.
But in your case, why don't you just initiate the folding remotely instead of directly from PS3 when you go to work. It's a bit more steps to take than just power up the PS3 and let it enter F@H automatically after the set time, but after that it can work as you described; you can exit the app and start photo viewing, music, video...
The ideal solution of course would be to be able to power up/down the PS3 remotely.

 

[phat]

PS3 client v1.3 is now available. Among the new features is the ability to play your music library* while folding.

*only from the HDD, not over the network, and with very crippled navigation

 

[randycat99]

On the topic of ps3 folding teams, my curiosity is drawn to this site:

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=54733

Does anybody have an idea what is the significance of "2ch"? Clicking on the header takes you here:

http://ps3foldinghome.web.fc2.com/

Can anybody clue me in as to what all that Jpn-speak is about?