Please spread the word: Folding at Home (https://foldingathome.org/) is an extremely powerful supercomputer composed of thousands of home computers around the world. It tries to simulate protein folding to Fight diseases. We can increase its power even further by simply running its small program on our computers and donating the spare (already unused and wasted) capacity of our computers to their supercomputation.
After all, a great part of our work (which is surfing the web, writing texts and stuff, communicating, etc.) never needs more than a tiny percent of the huge capacity of our modern CPUs and GPUs. So it would be very helpful if we could donate the rest of their capacity [that is currently going to waste] to such "distributed supercomputer" projects and help find cures for diseases.
The program runs at a very low priority in the background and uses some of the capacity of our computers. By default, it is set to use the least amount of EXCESS (already wasted) computational power. It is very easy to use. But if someone is interested in tweaking it, it can be configured too via both simple and advanced modes. For example, the program can be set to run only when the computer is idle (as the default mode) or even while working. It can be configured to work intensively or very mildly (as the default mode). The CPU or GPU can each be disabled or set to work only when the operating system is idle, independent of the other.
Please spread the word; for example, start by sharing this very post with your contacts.
Also give them feedback and suggestions to improve their software. Or directly contribute to their project.
Folding at Home: https://foldingathome.org/
Folding at Home's Forum: https://foldingforum.org/index.php
Folding at Home's GitHub: https://github.com/FoldingAtHome
Additionally, see other distributed supercomputers used for fighting disease:
Rosetta at Home: https://boinc.bakerlab.org/
GPUGRID: https://www.gpugrid.net/
Yes, you can join distributed supercomputer networks such as Folding at Home, GPUGRID, Rosetta, etc. to contribute your computer's processing power to aid in scientific research and fight diseases. These projects are aimed at using the combined processing power of thousands of individual computers to perform complex simulations and calculations that would otherwise be impractical with traditional supercomputing methods.
Folding at Home is a popular project that focuses on protein folding and the development of new treatments for diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's. To participate, you can download the Folding at Home software to your computer and select the project you want to support. Your computer will then receive a small portion of the simulation work and process it when it is idle.
GPUGRID is another project that uses the power of graphics processing units (GPUs) to perform simulations in the fields of molecular dynamics, quantum chemistry, and bioinformatics. Participants can download the GPUGRID client and donate their computer's GPU processing power to the project.
Rosetta is a project focused on the study of proteins and the design of new drugs for the treatment of various diseases. By joining the Rosetta network, participants can contribute their computer's processing power to help researchers gain a deeper understanding of how proteins function.
In conclusion, joining distributed supercomputer networks is a great way to contribute to scientific research and help fight diseases. By donating your computer's idle processing power, you can make a difference in the fight against some of the world's most challenging diseases.
Satyendra Singh Thanks for your input. Please spread the word so that more and more computers join this grid and help fight nasty diseases like Alzheimer's, AIDS, COVID, etc. The point is that it is the excess and already wasted computer power that is being contributed. So the donor actually loses nothing.
Vahid Rakhshan I will definitely spread the word about this amazing initiative. It's great to know that we can contribute to such a noble cause by simply utilizing our excess computer power. Thank you for bringing this opportunity to my attention. Let's join hands in making a difference in the fight against diseases.
I tested "Folding at Home" (F@H). For those with moderate computers, it is no longer using the Excess capacity of the user's computer (most of the time). Details below:
Many of the projects F@H distributes to users are quite computation-heavy. Besides this, F@H works on an "all-or-nothing" basis, meaning that if a user cannot finish a particular project (coined "Work Unit") until the deadline, the whole Work Unit will be simply DISCARDED by F@H, wasting a lot of computations and time and electricity. Even if a Work Unit is 98% complete when expired, F@H will throw out the whole 98%.
So it is no longer about the Excess capacity. In other words, for finishing many projects on time (i.e., before the whole effrots go to waste), the user needs to keep her computer on and plugged in 24/7 and also set it to work at full capacity. This is no longer Excess computing, unless for very powerful computers. Not to mention that this can damage laptops' batteries.
Of course, there are still some Work Units that are small enough to be considered as really "using the Excess capacity" the way it is advertised (even for moderate computers). But this is not the case for many Work Units, if not most of them.
I hope in newer versions of F@H, they consider this limitation and add FLEXIBILITY to their distributed programming; it should be demanding to those who want to dedicate a lot of resources to it, while at the same time being less demanding and more friendly to those who can't or won't.
I think FAH should go easier on donors by making the computations more user-friendly. I have the following suggestions for this (recapping my previous suggestions):
1. More flexible algorithms that allow a processed work unit to be used even if it is not 100% finished until its deadline. For example, if my CPU couldn't finish the task at 100% but reached 86%, the whole amount of calculation should not be discarded and the next person should not start crunching from scratch; instead, she should continue from 86%. This seems very useful for preventing the waste of any unfinished computations and allowing ANY CPUs and GPUs (even the weak ones) to contribute. Currently, only powerful-enough CPUs/GPUs can be used. And even with them, many users would need to keep their computers always on. This makes the whole process not user-friendly anymore. Many donors would prefer to live their routine daily life and help science in parallel, and not disrupt their life routines by babysitting the program to make sure it finishes its assigned Work Unit on time.
2. Besides that, I think it is technically possible to break down the current Work Units into smaller pieces. So please implement it and help weaker computers join the grid. By smaller, I don't mean smaller sizes of files to be sent to FAH clients over the internet. I mean smaller amounts of computations needed to finish a task (Work Unit).
3. Also expanding the deadlines would help a lot. It would again allow the user to relax a little bit more and live his routine life, without worrying about finishing the task on time.
4. It would be very good if both the CPU and GPU (or all the processor units within one computer or within one computer network) could process the very same Work Unit together.
https://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=39133
https://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=39119
https://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=39118
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