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Folding@Home Explained@GamePro

Posted Apr 01, 2007 at 07:56PM by Chris L. Listed in: Interviews Tags: SCEA, Folding@Home
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Folding@Home - Image 1 


If you haven't figured it out yet, that globe-in-the-background with the pretty lights? SCEA tell GamePro in an interview a few days ago about Folding@Home that what you're looking for are discrete yellow dots. Those are the PS3s connected to Folding@Home. The dim blue lights are art deco, and only show up at night - those are signs of civilization, like cities and stuff.

Yep, welcome to the Easier FAQ about Folding@Home. Sure, Stanford U. has its own FAQ for their distributed computing project, but as GamePro mentions, an interview with fifth-grade vocabulary's better than a FAQ probably written by doctorate graduates. Which is why we are summing up the nuggets of info that SCEA delivered to GamePro:

What is a "work unit" (WU)? It's a block of data that describes a protein and its environment. "Each WU comes with a predetermined calculation request." The PS3 (or PC) client downloads this request from the Stanford server, works on it as instructed, and then uploads the results back to the server.

What happens to WUs? "Stanford researchers collect the results and combine individual calculations to a longer sequence. A complete folding process will consist of numerous 'work unit' results. The data is then analyzed by using the scientific methods." Some results may mean new research to conduct over the same protein, which means an entire new set of WUs for the network to chew on.

So who came up with the idea of PS3 Folding@Home in the first place? According to SCEA, it was their R&D (research and development) team who, in 2006, was looking "for new opportunities" to use the Cell "beyond gaming and entertainment." They came to Folding@Home, and Stanford was very receptive to the idea.

"Will this project see an actual end?" "Unfortunately, there are many variations of diseases that may keep the Folding@Home network busy for years to come." Verrrrrrrrrry busy, trust us.

Will there be additional features for Folding@Home? "Yes, we expect there will be future updates and enhancements to the application. There are a number of ideas to improve the Folding@Home client performance and visual appeal."

Will there be other @Home projects on the PS3? "SCEA is evaluating other distributed computing projects, but no decision has been made at this time to extend the project beyond Folding@home."

Will there be Folding@Home on "other consoles"? Er, Folding@Home chief Professor Vijay S. Pande says "We have no plans at the moment."

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4 Comments


Sort by:
   by Dartan - 2007-04-02
 » Background??
I hope they update it so you can fold in the background while still be able to play a game offline. Come on it's supposed to be a Super Processor RIGHT? ... why should wanting it to be able to "multi-task" be a hard request?!?!!


   Re: Advertising -


   Re: HM (Unregistered) - 2007-04-02
 » Well, it's not a supercomputer...
...and you don't want programs running in the background when playing games, since it could effect game performance.

Cell's floating-point power is not infinite. ;)
   by gtauk - 2007-04-02
 » not playing a game
i understand that it wont be able to run while your playing a game but i would like to see it in the xmb, either when ur watching a video, photos, music etc. or it starts automatically when your idle in the xmb in the background and it stops when ur back again...


   Re: mike (Unregistered) - 2007-04-02
 » .
i agree with gtauk


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