Points Milestone - smASHer88_PS3 - 200k

Your team leader, and my Playstation - smASHer88_PS3 has just passed the 200,000 points milestone!

Purchased on Boxing Day (26th December) last year, i've had it folding mostly 24/7 since then, only really stopping to play the odd game, or watch a movie.

So far it's crunched through 872 work units for a total of 200,451 points, which places it 18,691st out of 1,058,875 folders for all time. It also means that it has produced just under 30% of Aussie Rules Footy's total points.

I'm aiming to make 300k points by Boxing Day this year haha. Keep folding team, ya doing great!

New Folding@Home Clients Installation Guides

A new page of Client Installation Guides has been added to the Folding@Home website, making it easier for newcomers to install anyone of the various types of folding clients that are now available.

Existing folders can also benefit, whether it's adding an SMP or GPU client to the mix, these new guides will certainly help ease the process! Remember you can always visit the Folding Community Forums as well should you need further help, or just want to provide some feedback on your experiences.

Monitor your PS3 carefully!

Just as a warning, apparently a lot of PS3 folders have had troubles with certain work units, and experiencing funny things like title screens locking up, HDD activity taking way too long and more unfortunate results such as work units being lost, or a complete reset to default settings such as what I experienced!

It seems that Dan Ensign from the Pande Group has removed some problem work units saying:

'I'm going to pull projects 4026-4037 until I get a better sense of what's wrong, from our side. Sorry for the inconvenience.'

Watch these two threads (PS3 stalls at zero frames - various WUs & 4033 flatlined?) from the Folding Community Forum to keep updated on the situation.

GPUs push Folding@Home past 3 Petaflops!

Following a thread in the Folding Community Forums - Highwater Mark , it seems that the total project power of Folding@Home has now passed the 3 Petaflops mark!

This is quite a significant achievement for the project, as 1 Petaflop was only achieved back in September last year. It just goes to show how much the project has grown since then. The release of the more mature GPU2 client has been the significant factor in getting the project to the power it's at now and undoubtably it's also going to be the big push for the project in the next couple of years.

There has already been around 25,000 GPU2 client installs to date, with a healthy 16,000 of those currently 'active'. This easily gives the GPU clients the best active/total CPU ratio of any type. Most others are less than 1:10.

Now there was a bit of a discussion on whether this 3 Petaflops measurement was 'legit' as the whole Stats Server issue could have produced unrealistic figures, but thats seemed to have settled well and truly, and we are definitley past 3 Petaflops by more than a whisker!

The NVIDIA GPUs seem to have the most support at the moment, having ~9,000 more active folders than what the ATI camp has. This is most likely due to the fact that the NVIDIAs are being rewarded with a better PPD average than the ATIs, but then again NVIDIA does have a better market share in graphics cards. But they have also recently released a GeForce Power Pack (to show off special NVIDIA graphics card only features such as PhysX demos & CUDA-based programs) which includes the GPU2 Folding client. So that might have atleast spurred the last week or so's jump in total project power to over 3 Petaflops.

Looks like its time to invest in a little GPU folding action! Just a note though, the PS3 active numbers have really taken a dive lately, and i'd just like to indicate that although GPU systems now put out the most folding power for the project, the PS3 work units are still very important for the project's development, just like the old CPU client is still very valuable. So don't worry about the points too much, just fold however much you can, and know that your helping a very worthy project.

Taken from the OS Stats page -

Client statistics by OS

OS Type	Current TFLOPS*	Active CPUs	Total CPUs
Windows	199	209633	2138357
Mac OS X/PowerPC	7	8270	118934
Mac OS X/Intel	20	6468	59276
Linux	62	36482	326368
ATI GPU	366	3323	6439
NVIDIA GPU	1405	12774	18556
PLAYSTATION3	1111	39388	584773
Total	3170	316338	3252703

Total number of non-Anonymous donators = 1056777

Last updated at Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:04:49

DB date 2008-08-21 06:00:03

Stats Update delayed due to Power Outage @ SU

Reading Vijay Pande's Blog (particular posts 1, 2 & 3), it seems just yesterday or so, Palo Alto (and therefore Stanford University) has had a pretty serious power outage! It took a fair few servers out of action for a short while, but most are back up now.

One exception though, the Stats Updates server is not operating at the moment. This server usually just updates the Team/Donor stats database every hour, but its just being put on delay for now. A back-logging server is keeping all this information however, so once the updates server starts back up, the database will get updated and you will notice your points and work units count go up two or three days worth to make up for this period of in-activity.

Geez, that'd be chaos at a University! But they seem to be able to fix things up pretty quick which is good.

Got my free Playstation 3! Nice surprise too!

Last week on Wednesday (13th) I received my free Playstation 3 as part of the Sony Bravia Full HD Bonus PS3 in July deal I talked about in my post on the 23rd July - (1k PPD increase due for the team in one month!). I was very glad to see my new PS3 after only 3 weeks since purchasing my new TV, but to top it off Sony actually included a newer DualShock3 instead of the regular SixAxis controller in the box, and also some Video Ezy vouchers! Total champs!

Now to pray that the upcoming 80GB PS3s at the end of the month come with DualShock3s so I can sell this one for a decent price and still end up with the better controller!

Points Milestone - erBotty - 1k

erBotty has passed the 1,000 point milestone! Now sittin with 2,250 points from 5 work units, they sit 393,781st of 1,054,720 folding participants.

I'm a bit slow to report on this one actually, as erBotty passed this mark approximately 2 days ago with a 1,250 point work unit! How do I know this? Well I occasionally checkout the very trusty 3rd party stats provider - Kakao Stats. Specifically I looked up this page - erBotty's Summary and it tells me that they have returned a work unit worth 1,250 points at 22:00~23:00 GMT on the 16th. This is about 8~9AM in GMT+10 Time (What i'm on) on the 17th. So yeh, about two days ago lol.

Just on the 13th, I took a stab at guessing what this team member's folding with (New Team Member - erBotty). Looking at the Project Summary page, I can say now that a Playstation 3 would have to be a correct answer, as there is only two work units which credit 1,250 points, and that is Project 4044 & 4045 which both are PS3 work units.

Congrats to erBotty and hope to get in contact with you soon.

Folding Setup - smASHer88_PS3

Hey guys, just wanted to post a snap of my setup for smASHer88_PS3. Its a 40GB PAL unit, connected to my new Sony Bravia KDL40W4000 Full HDTV. Looks pretty sweet huh? haha

New Team Member - erBotty

A person goin by the name of erBotty has joined the team! They've already got 250 points for the team from their 1st work unit and judging by the points amount, i'm guessing they're folding on a PS3. Welcome to the team!

Points Milestone - ROO_BOY29 - 5k

My mate ROO_BOY29 has now passed the 5,000 points milestone!

Using both his quad-core & PS3, hes returned 21 work units for a total of 5,780 points. That places him 258,059th of 1,047,330 total folders for all-time and just behind BIGMAN on the team at 16th position. Great stuff mate.

Points Milestone - BIGMAN - 5k

BIGMAN has passed the 5,000 points milestone!

Now sitting 15th on the team, he has returned a total of 20 work units for the team which has earned him 6180 points so far. He also sits 249,557th of 1,046,930 total folders to date. Good stuff mate, keep it coming!

Work Units Milestone - magicgate3 - 50

magicgate3 has made the Work Units Milestone for 50!

Since joining the team back in October 2007, this guy has returned 50 work units for a total of 11,416 points. He sits 10th on the team leaderboard and is placed 179,158th of 1,044,002 folders for all time. Great stuff mate ;)

New Look for the Blog!

Thought the blog could do with a bit of a spruce up! I think the layout is a lot more defined now, easier to read and distinguish between the main section and the sidebar.

Points Milestone - smASHer88 - 50k

My computer, smASHer88 has finally passed the 50,000 point milestone!

Its only taken 167 work units to get there! Only! Folding since November 2006, my computer was initially on for only a couple of hours a day. Then as I was starting to download more and more movies etc. I started folding mostly 24/7 and was scoring nice 500 point work units which i'd usually complete twice a week, so it was a steady 1,000 points per week. But the last 6 months or so its been all over the place with what sort of work units its been getting, and seems to be very slow at times at returning them. I've calculated if my total points so far is 50,315, and i've returned 167 work units, then it seems my average points/work unit since starting is 300.

At the moment i'm placed 64,301st of 1,041,069 participants for all time.

Work Units Milestone - Aussie Rules Footy - 3k

Aussie Rules Footy has now returned over 3,000 work units!

A bit over one and half months ago we had returned ~2,400 work units, so we've managed to quickly return another 600 since! The team now sits with exactly 640,561 points from 3,004 work units, which places us 1,701st of 133,607 teams for all time. Well done guys!

ROO_BOY29 just added his Quad-Core Computer to the team!

My mate ROO_BOY29 has had this nice little Dell XPS 630i Quad-Core (Intel Q6600) Computer for a while, and tonight (well last night technically) we set her up with 4 instances of the version 5.04 text-only console. One for each core, and then we added FahSpy to monitor 'em all.

Now he'll show up with more than one 'active' CPU, having his Playstation 3 & Computer folding for the team, he should rake in the points! Great stuff mate.

1k PPD increase due for the team in one month!

I just purchased a Sony Bravia KDL40W4000 LCD Full HDTV yesterday and as part of Sony Australia's wonderful July deal, you get a free Playstation 3 via redemption with any Full HD LCD Bravia!

So now i'll most likely have two PS3s folding for Aussie Rules Footy in one month's time which will mean an extra 1,000 ppd (points per day) for the team! Well thats if I keep the PS3 for now. I've had offers to sell it.. which i'll consider because a new 80GB PAL PS3 is coming out August 27th and by time Xmas deals come around, i'm sure i'll be able to pickup an 80GB unit as cheap as what I can sell this coming 40GB unit for.

Anyway we'll see what happens.. but be guaranteed, if I have two PS3s here, i'll have em both folding!

GPU folders combine to break Petaflop mark

Well, its been going to happen now for a while, but the GPU client folders have finally got a Petaflop to claim their own. It took approximately 9,000 GPU folders to make the Petaflop, so no doubt even a doubling in GPU folder numbers will keep pushing the projects total higher and higher.

Total for the project now sits at 2.7 Petaflops, coming from ~ 327,000 'active' folders. Since last reporting on the OS Stats a month ago, 17,000 extra active folders have come on board to crunch data in the name of Protein folding research. It'd be great to see half a million active participants by this time next year, but we'll take any amount of newcomers, as long as the project keeps building.

Client statistics by OS

OS Type	Current TFLOPS*	Active CPUs	Total CPUs
Windows	199	209518	2096062
Mac OS X/PowerPC	7	8278	117514
Mac OS X/Intel	27	8852	54620
Linux	72	42255	319308
GPU	1008	9168	20261
PLAYSTATION3	1374	48739	562786
Total	2687	326810	3170551

Total number of non-Anonymous donators = 1033246

Last updated at Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:04:12

DB date 2008-07-17 06:51:51

New Top 10 Team Member - ahmsnake

ahmsnake has made some quick moves up the stats since joining the team a little over a fortnight ago, but he's now sitting inside the top 10 for Aussie Rules Footy team members sitting 10th with 11,179 points and 45 work units returned.

Points Milestone - ningcaptor - 1k

ningcaptor has just made his first 1,000 points milestone!
Sitting on 1,006 points after 7 work units, hes doing the team a great service.