Folding @ Home

[Falleron]

Originally posted by mc68k

I don't know if there's switches or what not, but the default settings for the console version just tell you if you've completed a WU or not, but don't tell you all the frames like the console version for Win.

[edit] From the FAQ:
[/edit]

Folding control hides the terminal. All you get is the progress bar (it is an applet I think) + a short summary of which protein you are looking at. As far as I can see there is no way to customise it. Dont worry, I dont have any problems (apart from it seems to take ages to complete a unit). It would be nice to know if there is a program out there that allowed me to process lots of units + then send them all back at the same time - minor problem though.

Cheers for the Help mc68k.

 

[Falleron]

For the last 4 days I have been folding the same unit!!! I spent about 12 hours yesterday folding but had to turn my computer off. Anyway, I just turned it back on + I have lost all the progress I did yesterday!!!! I am so seriously considering quitting the folding team! Why does it not save the progress every couple of minutes?? I am actually quite annoyed that I lost about all those hours of processing.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by Falleron
For the last 4 days I have been folding the same unit!!! I spent about 12 hours yesterday folding but had to turn my computer off. Anyway, I just turned it back on + I have lost all the progress I did yesterday!!!! I am so seriously considering quitting the folding team! Why does it not save the progress every couple of minutes?? I am actually quite annoyed that I lost about all those hours of processing.

That's strange...anytime I shut down the machine, F@H automatically resumes where it left off.

Do you mean it just lost the frame it was working on, or the whole WU?

 

[Falleron]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU


That's strange...anytime I shut down the machine, F@H automatically resumes where it left off.

Do you mean it just lost the frame it was working on, or the whole WU?

It was not the whole unit, about a sixth or so. Not sure if thats a frame? I am using folding control so all I have is a progress bar.

 

[Falleron]

Something else weird just happened!!!!!!!! The progress bar was a fraction away from completion then it jumped back to about 2 cm away from completion!! Why???

 

[Rower_CPU]

That really sucks! I know you've been having some problems with the program, so that must be really frustrating.

I've never used the control program, just the console one, so maybe mc68k can help you out there, again.

 

[Falleron]

Just went on the Folding Forum and it seems that V.3 is about to released. The good thing is that it should support Altivec!! Watch that ranking shoot up!

 

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by Falleron
Just went on the Folding Forum and it seems that V.3 is about to released. The good thing is that it should support Altivec!! Watch that ranking shoot up!

Nice! Can't wait to see the new score/WU.

 

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by Falleron
Just went on the Folding Forum and it seems that V.3 is about to released. The good thing is that it should support Altivec!! Watch that ranking shoot up!

Unfortunately it will be hard to measure any difference. Workunits take a different amount of time to complete depending on their complexity. How can we bench mark our results?

P.S. Let's make a push to get into the top 100 teams. Then maybe other macrumor members will get interested.

 

[Falleron]

Not sure how we can benchmark our scores. However, we will be in a better position to process more units than our windows competitors.

Once we are in the top 100 we can look at this team page to see how we are going.

http://team.macnn.com/fold/rank3.phtml

Should make it more interesting + maybe get new members. I am part of the SETI team as well so I only process a few units for folding. SETI is my main focus, but, folding is a good cause.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Your benchmark should be your score per WU.

Divide the score by the number of work units completed and you get an idea of your performance level.

Not an exact science, but relevant nevertheless.

 

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Your benchmark should be your score per WU.

Divide the score by the number of work units completed and you get an idea of your performance level.

Not an exact science, but relevant nevertheless.

Taken from the folding home page (http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html#stats.howcred)

"How you decide how much credit a work unit is worth?

We benchmark each unit such that a 400 MHZ Pentium III can finish a work unit worth 1.0 credits in 1 day. Shorter and longer units are credited appropriately."

It seems that your score is independent of the time it takes you to complete it. For example, I could have a faster machine, but run the app less often.

Perhaps you are suggesting that I record the time it takes to complete a workunit that is worth one point, then do the same with the altivec version?

This method has a weakness in that I cannot request a wu that is worth one point, I may keep getting more or less. But it can be done if I dillegently watch when I finish and end wus, though I would have to camp next to my comp for days.

 

[Rower_CPU]

I was under the impression that your machine was given WUs based on the benchmarking that takes place at the start of each WU.

I thought that machines that do better on the benchmark are given WUs worth more points...but that seems not to be the case.

Back to the drawaing board...

 

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
I was under the impression that your machine was given WUs based on the benchmarking that takes place at the start of each WU.

I thought that machines that do better on the benchmark are given WUs worth more points...but that seems not to be the case.

Back to the drawaing board...

I also believe that faster comps get the harder stuff, cuz you only have a limited number of days to complete the workunits.

 

[Falleron]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
I was under the impression that your machine was given WUs based on the benchmarking that takes place at the start of each WU.

I thought that machines that do better on the benchmark are given WUs worth more points...but that seems not to be the case.

Back to the drawaing board...

Thats what I assumed as well. I have a Dual 1Ghz, so I assumed thats why I had 5 point units.

 

[buffsldr]

Sorry for the confusion, I agree, faster comps get the good stuff.


But...... do we know that this trend is a 1:1 relationship? Maybe, folding has 5 tiers, A, B, C, D, E, with E being the fastest. So two comps can be in the top tier, and one is a little faster, but they both only get 5 points per work unit,

 

[Rower_CPU]

The other thing is that machines don't always get the same kind of WUs to work on.

I've had 100 frame WUs and 10 frame WUs...obviously the 10 frame ones are worth more, since they take much longer to finish. But the 100 frames ones finish more quickly (4-5min per frame). Which is worth more in this scenario? Finishing a large WU or finishing a small one quickly?

 

[Falleron]

Originally posted by buffsldr
Sorry for the confusion, I agree, faster comps get the good stuff.


But...... do we know that this trend is a 1:1 relationship? Maybe, folding has 5 tiers, A, B, C, D, E, with E being the fastest. So two comps can be in the top tier, and one is a little faster, but they both only get 5 points per work unit,

Good stuff? I would assume its just more complex, therefore it would take a slower computer too long to process. Thats the reason its worth more. This is what I assume happens.

1. On the first unit a benchmark is done + stored in a preference
2. Then, each unit after that is downloaded depending on those preferences.

 

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by Falleron
Just went on the Folding Forum and it seems that V.3 is about to released. The good thing is that it should support Altivec!! Watch that ranking shoot up!

can you post the hyperlink where you read this?

thanks

 

[Falleron]

The forum is :

http://forum.folding-community.org/

One of the threads is:

http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=102

QUOTE:
We are working on a new core which does support Altivec (we'll have to use 32 bit floats).

More soon.

Vijay
/QUOTE

There are other, take a look round and you will find the sorts of things I did.

 

[buffsldr]

Thanks for the references.

 

[Falleron]

Look at this page. It has a list of the top 1000 teams. At the moment we are in about 143th place + rising!

http://www.statsman.org/folding2stats/html/

 

[mc68k]

Glad to see you guys are excited about this. I just finished a WU on my beast that took ~3.5 days. Prob one of thos 700+ level proteins or what not.

Altvec will be good for them, but for us I don't think so. Your score is based on CPU time. The WU might go faster or their benchmarks might give bigger proteins based on the processor architecture.

Seems that the higher the # of the protein, the more time it takes to complete— from my experiences. I could finsish a 314 protein in no time but some others take all wekkend running 24/7.

I'm hooked. Folding is like a drug.

 

[buffsldr]

You rock, mc.

 

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by mc68k
Glad to see you guys are excited about this. I just finished a WU on my beast that took ~3.5 days. Prob one of thos 700+ level proteins or what not.

do you nkow how much you got for that one?


as for the scoring based on your comp speed... that seems a bit off. just cause i have a dual 800 and i started at .5 each unit. then at some point i've gotten some more. but it hasn't been consistent.

then again, i run the control app and folding@home app...

i STILL don't get the console ****e. oh well.

just out of curiousity.... who all is running folding on just one computer? i am, so i'm just curious how i match up against others not using comp labs and whatnot.