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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Fold for COVID19...
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| HankR Senior Member  Joined: 02/01/2015 Location: United StatesPosts: 209 |
I would say it's a very very good thing. The headcount is that there are two others that are part of the project right now, and you were until you got confused by just one person. So that's five people right there, and about two others who sound like they approve. Looks like it's a strong favorable consensus. It's won several high prestige awards (I haven't got to telling that story yet). It's the world's largest supercomputer by far, so it works beyond a shadow of a doubt. It's enabled the completion of over 200 published research papers which mention that Folding supercomputing made it possible. Neither supercomputers nor money grow on trees you know! I just don't know how the RPis stack up against the newer PC CPUs in terms of MIPS. I think the Folding software will give a readout on that measurement. I'm just not quite that familiar with the software to know exactly how to make that comparison, but I think it might be done by the method of a ratio involving the size of the job divided by the ETA to job completion. That index should be indicative of the MIPS (the higher the ratio the higher the MIPS). The trick is to find the size of the job, if that is even provided in the Folding control and monitor panel. |
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OA47 Guru  Joined: 11/04/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 986 |
I remember 20 yrs ago there was a program that started with the screen saver and was reportedly used to analyse radio reception for alien communication. Not sure where that ended up but here's a link to a Fold from 19 years ago: https://www.wired.com/2001/09/the-little-screensaver-that-could/ OA47 |
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| HankR Senior Member Joined: 02/01/2015 Location: United StatesPosts: 209 |
[wired.com]  |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
My current PI4 chewing away....  This is a screenshot of the webpage you can go to to check on what it is doing: http://foldforcovid.local/ EDIT: "Local", as in local to your own personal private LAN. This link won't work, if you are not running at least one of these folding things somewhere on your LAN. I do note that the new PI4 DOES NOT like booting from anything LESS then a 16GB uSD card. I tried both 2GB and 8GB cards with the image written to them, neither would boot. The 16GB one does. I expect that is simply cos the latest PI4 is probably clocking the SD card at a high rate along the lines of class-10 or Ultra-1, and smaller cards are simply too slow to respond. Edited 2020-04-29 17:18 by Grogster Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
Here is the MIPS chart for the various PI's. I am folding on a PI4B.  SOURCE Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5091 |
I do understand why universities would use this "folding" technology to solve hard computational problems. You get machine (computer) power for free, and when you do the right pledge (motivate people) you get a lot of power. Supercomputers can do it faster and better, but are not free of charge.... But now comes the question...is it real ? Some 15 years ago a read a 5 kilo book about cryptography. And that book opted the "chinese lottery" as the biggest thread to all cryptography (appart from the humans that leave USB sticks with important information with the trash). Short explanation (15 years ago): China is a closed country, with a closed market. If chineese TV manufacturers, in every TV, add some code that can break cryptography, the TV stations can send code blocks via Teletext (or alike). When your TV finds the code, you can show a banner on the TV that says "you won the lottery, call this number and tell them this codeword". similar to 1 billion small raspberry pi's cracking ahead at a code 24/7. Brute force cracking.... That is always in the back of my mind when I read about invitations like the "folding" one. You are absolutely not sure what you (your PC) are doing. You rely on a nice internet website, and you know how much lies there are on the internet. Actually, the nicer the website, the bigger the chance it is fraud. It costs money to write this code, make a website, integrate it all. So there is far more money to be made, otherwise it would not be done. What could be behind this..?? I don't know. Maybe the story is true. But what comes to mind: - cryptocurrency mining - code breaking (we all know the NSA is still trying to break the Apple Iphone keys) for security purposes - code breaking for commercial purpose (sell the keys) - the infinite search for the largest prime number (also to be sold to crypto companies, or the military). Volhout P.S. the first I recall was "SETI@home" (search for extra terrestrial intelligence). I supported that initiative until I read the cryptography book). I think this one still exists. Meaning in 20 years they have not been able to chew through all the data they collected from their antenna's.... PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4044 |
SETI are still collecting data and will carry on AFAIK so of course they haven't chewed through it all. Their hope is to stumble on an actual message and unless they do I expect they'll carry on collecting and analysing. That doesn't make it fake or a lie. Similarly, a well-respected folding project active for multiple years isn't likely a lie. The longer it has existed, and with much support, the more will have checked it's OK. Still, it's optional whether to take part. John |
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| zeitfest Guru Joined: 31/07/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 582 |
Predicting molecular conformations - eg protein folding - has been under development for decades. Usually trade-offs and gross simplifications are made which make the results approximate or dubious in real conditions. The calculations are useful no doubt but more for developing the particular method and factor set instead of final results. If I remember correctly, protein folding predictions started with the assumption that a protein structure could be predicted from the amino acid sequence and people have been throwing models and crunching at it ever since. Unfortunately the real world is way more complex...at the time at least, the dissolving/(ed-)precipitation of a blob of glycine - a very simple single amino acid protein model - could not be calculated with any great accuracy. And in the real world, a protein is often the interface of bulk water as well as membranes and other structural constraints as well...it would be interesting if the methods used gave a precise result for aspro structure in solution let alone structural proteins. ed - That is not to say, it is not useful. Often calculations like these are useful for valuable guidance even if not used for precise or definite work. Edited 2020-04-29 23:04 by zeitfest |
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