Increase in 'active' PS3 folders pushes Folding@Home past 4 Petaflops!

Sony's recent release of 'Life with Playstation' has played the major factor in Folding@Home passing the 4 Petaflops mark. The new update for the folding application on the PS3 has attracted many more 'active' PS3 folders than in recent months. The last time the PS3 had ~ 60,000 active folders would have been when Metal Gear Solid 4 came out, and since then, the numbers have slowly declined back to an average of ~40,000.

At the time of the 3 Petaflop breakthrough, The GPU guys were the major factor, and it has to be said, they've kept up consistent 'active' folder numbers, and even added ~ 300 Teraflops worth since then.

I personally would like to see 'active' PS3 numbers rise to ~ 100,000 and consistently stay there. Considering there is well over 10 million PS3 systems out there, i'm only asking for just 1%!

Taken from the OS Stats page -

Client statistics by OS

OS Type	Current TFLOPS*	Active CPUs	Total CPUs
Windows	207	217288	2191266
Mac OS X/PowerPC	6	7455	120622
Mac OS X/Intel	23	7580	64552
Linux	57	33374	333719
ATI GPU	494	4490	11195
NVIDIA GPU	1518	13802	32137
PLAYSTATION®3	1716	60867	621405
Total	4021	344856	3374896

Total number of non-Anonymous donators = 1085872

Last updated at Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:04:09

DB date 2008-09-28 05:00:01

Points Milestone - peterdiva - 2k

peterdiva has just passed the milestone for 2,000 points!

Returning 14 work units for a total of 2,002 points, he sits 428,273rd out of 1,085,961 all-time folders.

Points Milestone - nitty - 2k

Congrats to nitty who has just passed the 2,000 points milestone!

Sitting on exactly 2,750 points from 4 work units, they now are positioned 378,660th out of 1,084,934 all-time folders.

Work Units Milestone - Jens_Klausen - 50

Jens_Klausen has racked up his 50th work unit milestone!

Currently on 51 work units, he has earned 24,480 points total which puts him 119,023rd out of 1,083,926 all-time folders. Well done mate.

New Team Member - Ravenge

Whether it's Ravenge5's 2nd machine or just a typo he's made, we have a new team member on the stats page with Ravenge.

Returning 1 work unit for 15 points, he sits 992,860th out of 1,082,956 all-time folders.

Points Milestone - Jens_Klausen - 20k

Continuing his assault on the team stats, Jens_Klausen has just passed the milestone for 20,000 points!

Whilst only joining the team on the 13th, Jens has already made a significant milestone, one that takes many others months to achieve. Going by the current rate, he'll easily sit 4th on the team leaderboard in a month's time.

The GPU folding champ has so far returned 42 work units for exactly 20,160 points. He's positioned 134,849th out of 1,082,027 all-time folders. Great stuff mate!

Points Milestone - peterdiva - 1k

Only two days ago peterdiva joined the team and now he has already cracked the 1,000 points milestone!

With exactly 1,004 points from 4 work units, he sits 536,653rd out of 1,081,025 all-time folders. Well done mate.

New Team Member - peterdiva

A new team member by the name of peterdiva has joined the ranks already returning 2 work units for the team.

Gaining the team 307 points, he (I assume going by the name) positions himself 731,834th out of 1,079,025 all-time folders. Welcome to the team mate.

New Top 10 Team Member - Jens_Klausen

Folding with a GPU certainly has an advantage points-wise as proven by Jens_Klausen. He's just broken into the Top 10 on the Team Leaderboard, pushing Greg aside to take 10th spot.

Current stats are as follows: 15,360 points from 32 work units and sitting 159,269th from 1,079,025 all-time folders.

Work Units Milestone - Lahm_Family_PS3 - 50

Lahm_Family_PS3 has passed the 50 work units milestone!

Actually achieved yesterday, my 2nd PS3 has now returned 55 work units totalling 24,198 points. This positioned it 119,079th out of 1,079,025 all-time folders.

Points Milestone - nitty - 1k

nitty has passed the 1,000 points milestone!

Returning 3 work units for at total of 1,500 points, they now sit 471,348th of 1,077,676 total all-time folders.

Points Milestone - QCKRNU - 5k

QCKRNU has just passed the 5,000 points milestone!

Returning 20 work units for a total of 5,418 points he now sits 278,263rd from 1,076,612 all-time folders. Great stuff mate.

Sony's new 'Life with Playstation' News & Weather Software integrates the latest Folding@Home update

The latest upgrade to the Playstation 3 Folding@Home software will now be integrated into Sony's newly launched 'Life with PlayStation' News and Weather Software.

The new software will function as 'channels', two of which are available at present, one called 'Live' for the News & Weather related side, and of course 'Folding@Home' for viewing the current protein and detailed stats etc. Apparently plans are that new channels of various types will be added down the line.

The good thing about the integration aspect with Folding is that whenever someone uses Life with Playstation they are participating in Folding@Home project at the same time, as the folding process is always going on in the 'background'. So with the current draws of the cool News and Weather Globe, and the likelihood of more channels to be added later, the more participants we can likely add to the project.

If you notice that your folding performance (NS/day) has gone down, its simply because one of the updates has increased the complexity of the folding methods used on the PS3 and are now equal to those used in GPU2. This means better accuracy of scientific results. Folding points have been adjusted so that the PS3 client will still maintain a rough 900~1000 PPD.

Another addition to the folding side of things, is a 'Contribution Points' system (completely separate to the official Stanford stats) where every PS3 folder starts on a clean slate, and gradually builds points as per their contribution efforts. These new points will be linked to the current user's Playstation Network ID (PSN), so lookout for Lahmy88 & Lahm_Family on the leaderboard!

As Vijay Pande has on his blog, here is a video from lead Sony-side developer Noam Rimon explaining the functionality of the new program.

Milestone Reporting

As you may have noticed I haven't always reported 2k points milestones, but i've finally settled on my Milestones figures. Reports will be made at the following milestones.

Points Milestones
1k, 2k, 5k, 10k, 20k, 50k, 100k, 200k, 500k, 1m etc.

Work Units Milestones
50th, 100th, 200th, 500th, 1,000th, 2,000th, 5,000th, 10,000th etc.

Points Milestone - bec_clarke - 2k

bec_clarke has just passed the 2,000 points milestone!

Sitting on exactly 2,011 points from 16 work units, she's positioned 422,065th out of 1,074,611 all-time folders.

Points Milestone - Lahm_Family_PS3 - 20k

Lahm_Family_PS3 has just passed the milestone for 20,000 points!

Totalling 20,385 points from 41 work units, my 2nd PS3 is now positioned 132,569th out of 1,074,557 all-time folders.

Points Milestone - Jens_Klausen - 10k

Our favourite Dane, Jens_Klausen has passed the 10,000 points milestone!

Currently sitting on 11,520 points from 24 work units, he'll most likely be nudging into the Top 10 on the Team leaderboard tomorrow. He stands 187,642nd out of 1,074,557 all-time folders.

It also seems he's upgraded his folding setup by replacing his NVIDIA 8500GT GPU with a 9600GT model. More specifically he's using a ASUS EN9600GT SILENT graphics card. He's got all the details on his latest YouTube video featured below - Folding@Home on a NVIDIA 9600GT GPU.

New Team Member - nitty

We've got a new team member called nitty.

Unfortunately though it seems that although they have returned their 1st work unit, they were not credited for it and appears that they may have returned the work unit past it's deadline. Bad luck... keep folding!

Points Milestone - Jens_Klausen - 5k

Jens_Klausen has just passed the 5,000 points milestone!

Seeing that he only joined the team yesterday, he would be currently returning 2,500 PPD for the Team which is just going to be awesome in helping us achieve a top 1,000 spot for all-time teams.
Exact folding stats are as follows: 11 work units, 5,280 points and all-time donor position of 280,396th of 1,072,634 total.


PPD = Points Per Day

Points Milestone - Jens_Klausen - 1k

The same day he joins, Jens_Klausen passed the 1,000 points milestone!

Already returning 4 work units, he has received 1,920 points from folding with his fast GPU system. He sits 428,597th of 1,071,762 all-time folders. Great stuff mate.

New Team Member - Jens_Klausen

klausendk from YouTube has decided to join our team for a while folding under the name Jens_Klausen.

From Denmark, he's posted his own folding video online - Folding@Home on a NVIDIA 8500GT GPU which features his NVIDIA 8500GT class GPU (specifically an ASUS EN8500GT SILENT MAGIC graphics card) crunching through a work unit.

Welcome to the Team mate.

Points Milestone - rossqo - 5k

It was quite a while ago when rossqo passed the 1k points milestone but he has now finally got his 5,000 points milestone!

A big 1,250 point work unit was returned in the last 24 hours to push him past the milestone, and because of this particular work unit's points reward, we can tell what sort of machine he is folding with - Playstation 3!

Exactly 10 work units have been returned and 5,596 points added to the Aussie Rules Footy points total thanks to his efforts. He now sits 271,814th of 1,071,246 all-time folders. Great stuff mate!

New Top 10 Team Member - Lahm_Family_PS3

Lahm_Family_PS3 has folded its way into the Team's top 10, taking 9th position on the leaderboard edging aside Greg and mikael who now sit 10th and 11th respectively.

Returning 27 work units for 13,840 points, my 2nd PS3 now takes 167,379th position out of 1,070,584 all-time folders.

Points Milestone - bec_clarke - 1k

My cousin bec_clarke joined the Team quite a while ago now, in fact it was in August last year that she returned her 1st work unit, but it has been a long wait for her 1,000 points milestone. The delay has mostly been due to some computer troubles, so she can be forgiven haha.

She has returned 5 work units so far for a total of 1,046 points. This places her 524,029th of 1,069,256 all-time folders. Great stuff cuz.

Points Milestone - Lahm_Family_PS3 - 10k

Joining less than a fortnight ago, my 2nd PS3 - Lahm_Family_PS3 has just passed the 10,000 points milestone!

It has now made 10,545 points for the team from 14 work units which places it 14th on the team leaderboard. It's obviously going to be pushing into the top 10 soon, overtaking RoXeD's idle 2nd folding alias mikael in about 3 days (3k points) time. So far it's positioned 195,097th of 1,067,841 all-time folders.

The PS3 certainly has the advantage for PPD (points per day), usually producing 900-1,000 points each day (on 24/7) whereas the PCs usually have to wait a week to get the same amount. But because the PS3 is less flexible in what type of work it can 'fold' then the regular PCs are still very valuable to the Folding@Home project.

Points Milestone - QCKRNU - 1k

QCKRNU has just passed the milestone for 1,000 points!

So far he has returned 4 work units to add 1,021 points to the team. His contribution so far has positioned him 526,352nd out of 1,067,841 all-time folders. Good stuff mate.

New Team Member - QCKRNU

My Sister's boyfriend has just joined the team under the name QCKRNU and he has already returned 2 work units for the team for a total of 486 points!

He sits 654,431st out of 1,066,618 all-time folders. Great stuff mate.

Problems with certain PS3 WUs? Server VSP06 was down

If your PS3 has had trouble returning work units from Projects 4044, 4045 (the big 1,250 pointers) & 4900 (310 points) then it's because a few days ago one of the four PS3 Servers, VSP06 - 171.64.122.73 was down. Vijay Pande had reported the server's downtime on his blog.

Looking at VSP06's log, the server was down between 7:45 PM PDT, Saturday 30 August and 3:10 PM PDT, Sunday 31 August. If your an East Coast Aussie like myself, then the times translate to 12:45 PM AEST, Sunday 31 August to 8:10 AM AEST, Monday 1st September.

So for approximatley 19 & 1/2 hours, the server was out of action, and it meant that if you had one of the above mentioned work units to return, you would've had to have waited for the server to start up again. Nobody should have had any problems receiving new work units however, as your PS3 would still have 3 different servers to download a work unit from.

PDT = Pacific Daylight Time = GMT-7
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time = GMT+10

Points Milestone - Lahm_Family_PS3 - 5k

My 2nd Playstation (the old man's) - Lahm_Family_PS3 has now passed the 5,000 points milestone!

Receiving 5,750 points from only 7 work units, it's certainly getting a good average Points/WU return. That's because it's crunched a few big 1,250 work units from Project 4044 & 4045. It's now positioned 265,223rd of 1,064,129 all-time folders.