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Folding@home Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Table of Contents

Project details, big picture

What is Folding@home? What is protein folding?

Folding@home is a distributed computing project, that very simply stated, studies protein folding and misfolding. Protein folding is explained in more detail in the scientific background section.

What is distributed computing?

Distributed Computing is a method of computer processing in which different parts of a program, or different portions of data, are processing simultaneously on two or more computers that are communicating with each other over a network or through the Internet.

Who "owns" the results? What will happen to them?

Unlike other distributed computing projects, Folding@home is run by an academic institution (specifically the Pande Group, at Stanford University's - Chemistry Department), which is a nonprofit institution dedicated to science research and education. We will not sell the data or make any money off of it.

Moreover, we will make the data available for others to use. In particular, the results from Folding@home will be made available on several levels. Most importantly, analysis of the simulations will be submitted to scientific journals for publication, and these journal articles will be posted on the web page after publication. Next, after publication of these scientific articles that analyze the data, the raw data of the folding runs will be available for everyone, including other researchers, here on this web site.

How can I see how many other people are participating?

What has been "folded" so far, and how much have I folded?

We keep many types of statistics of users and work accomplished in our Stats section. You can check your Individual stats, Team stats, and overall Project stats. Please also review the Results and Awards sections.

What has the project completed so far?

We have been able to fold several proteins in the 5-10 microsecond time range with experimental validation of our folding kinetics. This is a fundamental advance over previous work. Scientific papers detailing our results can be found in the Results section. We are now moving to other important proteins used in structural biology studies of folding as well as proteins involved in disease. There are many peer-reviewed and published in top journals (Science, Nature, Nature Structural Biology, PNAS, JMB, etc) that have resulted from FAH.

Why not just use a supercomputer?

Modern supercomputers are essentially clusters of hundreds of processors linked by fast networking. The speed of these processors is comparable to (and often slower than) those found in PCs! Thus, if an algorithm (like ours) does not need the fast networking, it will run just as fast on a supercluster as a supercomputer. However, our application needs not the hundreds of processors found in modern supercomputers, but hundreds of thousands of processors. Hence, the calculations performed on Folding@home would not be possible by any other means! Moreover, even if we were given exclusive access to all of the supercomputers in the world, we would still have fewer computing cycles than we do with the Folding@home cluster! This is possible since PC processors are now very fast and there are hundreds of millions of PCs sitting idle in the world.

Can I run Folding@home on a machine I don't own?

Please only run Folding@home on machines you either own or on which you have the permission of the owner to run our software. If there is any doubt (eg you want to run on computers at work), we suggest you get written approval (eg get your superior to sign a letter giving authorization); we have found that written documentation of this sort is important if there is ever any dispute of whether permission was indeed granted. Please do not assume that permission is granted by the owner. Any other use of Folding@home violates our end user license agreement (EULA), and just isn't a good idea in general.

What happens if there is a suspected license (EULA) violation?

We will attempt to contact the donor if there is some suspicion of a EULA violation. Many donors use their email as their donor name and this is helpful. If do not have any information on hand and we have been presented with a sufficiently strong case that there was a EULA violation, we will zero the points of the donor and not allow clients to run under the name of that donor. This decision can be reversed if there is sufficient information to exonerate the donor. The donor should contact one of the Pandegroup members or Forum Moderators at our forum (http://foldingforum.org) to get in touch with us in such a situation.

What are the minimum system requirements?

All computers can contribute to Folding@home. However, if the computer is too slow (e.g. wasn't bought in the last 3-4 years or so), the computer might not be fast enough to make the deadlines of typical work units. A Pentium 3 450 MHz or newer equivalent computer (with SSE) is able to complete work units before they expire.

Why don't you post the source code?

Most of the critical parts of FAH are publicly available. The Tinker and Gromacs source codes can be downloaded and run. Unlike many computer projects, the paramount concern is not functionality, but the scientific integrity, and posting the source code in a way that would allow people to reverse engineer the code to produce bogus scientific results would make the whole project pointless.

However, we stress that the vast majority of our code is already open source. We have an Open Source FAQ with more details.

Networking problems

My client was assigned to the IP address 0.0.0.0. What's up?

From time to time, we may not have work that matches the requirement of every platform. When that is true, we will not supply you with duplicated work that really isn't needed. We'd rather have some clients idle and repeatedly rechecking for new work than busy for long periods working on something that doesn't need to be completed. Even though your computer may see occasional idle periods, we still value your donations. If this continues for an extended period of time, be sure to ask for help in the Forum because that's not normal.

My client is constantly assigned to the IP address 171.64.122.121. What's up?

This is generally very rare, but when it does happen, this is the sign of a more serious error or issue. Please make a post in our forum noting this issue and one of the Pande Group or Moderators will look into this issue. This is part of the FAH safeguards to try to keep the servers working well for client machines that are behaving normally.

I can't see web pages on urls that start with http://fah-web.stanford.edu, such as the stats -- what's going on?

If one accesses the stats too often (eg one is running a bot or automatic script), our web server detects this and bans the IP in order to prevent a single person from taking too much bandwidth from everyone else. If this has happened to you, please make a post in our forum noting this issue and one of the Pande Group or Moderators will look into this issue.

I have a modem; can I use Folding@home?

Yes. It can be configured to dial up automatically, or wait until you connect. There may be some problems with modems and the screen saver version. If you are experiencing any problems, please use the console version of Folding@home.

I'm behind a firewall. Can I use Folding@home?

Yes. Please configure your Firewall or Proxy server in the configuration panel of the GUI client. You can reach the configuration panel by right clicking in the graphical display or by clicking on the task bar icon. Console clients can be configured by running the -config switch.

Errors

Folding@home Windows installer doesn't do anything.

If you are attempting to install the Windows graphical client or screen saver, and see "Setup is starting..." pop up, but then nothing else happen (no error message even), the problem is likely due to the presence of files named "setup.exe" in some directory present in your path (likely culprits are the directory in which the FAH installer is, your Desktop, or your temp directory). Remember that you may have multiple temp directories, depending on your operating system. Rename, move, or remove the setup.exe files and all should work fine.

Folding@home looks strange (windows) or segfaults (Linux).

Folding@home requires at least 64 MB of RAM. Weird things happen under windows with less memory and the console client simply segfaults under Linux under low memory conditions.

My screen saver just looks like a black screen with little dots floating around.

We think we have diagnosed this problem. It appears to be caused by a monitor or graphics card that does not support 8-bit color. Also, we have found problems with old graphics drivers. If you are having problems, please make sure that you have the most recent graphics and OpenGL drivers.

I get an error like "Network Recv Timeout" or in the console version (or in the file scrlog.txt).

If you get something like...

Deleting files IP = 171.64.122.81 Network Recv Timeout GetWork Failed

...then don't worry. It is having problems connecting to the server, and is waiting to try again. We have a server problem occasionally, and users may have this same problem. Please wait patiently for a while, and it will connect. If it fails to connect for a day or so, it might be best to start it over again or reinstall. For the console version, hit ctrl+c to exit gracefully, and start it again. (Note: this feature was recently added in, so it may not work for your version, and you may have to kill it instead.)

Open GL games don't work or get minimized when running the FAH graphical client.

OpenGL games don't work or get minimized when running the FAH graphical client. There is a known issue that can occur when running FAH and any other application that uses OpenGL, which are mainly games. This issue is not due to FAH itself, but rather that OpenGL, which is used in the FAH graphical client, does not allow itself to be used by two programs simultaneously. The workaround for this issue is to uninstall the FAH graphical client and install the console client. Thanks to Spectre and ellroy80 for contributing this FAQ entry.

Folding@home and Genome@home

What is the Genome@home project and how does it relate to the Folding@home project?

Genome@home was another distributed computing project from the Pande Group Lab. As of April 15, 2004, the project has concluded. You can find more details at http://genomeathome.stanford.edu

The goal of Genome@home is protein design and its applications. One central application of ours for protein design is the creation of large libraries of designed protein sequences, in a sense "redesigning" or "reverse-engineering" an existing Genome (hence the name "Genome@home"). Another application of protein design is to understand why proteins fold and why they misfold and aggregate. This is a central question of Folding@home and directly relates to our study of protein folding and misfolding, as it is related to misfolding-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's, ALS, etc.

What does the 'gah' selection do now?

We have developed certain work units that do not lead to new work and hence do not need deadlines. These so-called "timeless" WUs are on a server and you can request one with the gah selection in the client. These WUs are best for slower machines or machines which are not connected to the Internet. The client is capable of caching these WUs as well. For clients version 5.00 and newer, deadlineless WUs are listed explicitly.

Notes:
* Recently, deadlineless WU's have been unavailable due to the science we have been studying (which is not compatible with them), but this WU type may return.
* When you configure a slower machine for deadlineless WU, you will be assigned ONLY deadlineless WUs (and nothing else) so your machine may remain idle for many, many months.
* For systems that can meet the deadlines, please reconfigure the client to accept normal work units.

Running

I just finished a WU and now I got another for the same protein. Is there something wrong?

No, everything is fine. We're studying the dynamics of several proteins, so you may receive work units from the same protein (and same project number) multiple times. Each WU gives us additional information about the dynamics of that protein, so it is important to us. Indeed, if we did only 1 WU per protein, we would not learn very much. A Project number, and a Run, Clone, and Generation number distinguish each work unit.

Does Folding@home run on dual processor or multi-core machines?

Yes it can, by running one of our high performance SMP clients, Linux-64, OSX/Intel, or Windows. See the client Download page, and the High Performance FAQ.

For other platforms, additional processors must each run one console client (with the "-local" command-line argument if run on Windows). First, make additional directories for each processor and copy the FAH Console executable file into each. Then configure them with the -config switch, filling in settings for each. It is very important to make sure that under the "Advanced Settings" option each copy is given a unique machine ID (from 1 to 8, up to 16 on v6 clients). The first copy will default to a machine ID of 1, so additional copies should be given IDs of 2, 3, 4, etc. Each may then be run out of their installed directory, using the -local switch on Windows. We recommend running no more than one CPU FAH Console client per physical processor/core.

Does Folding@home run on my graphics chip or GPU?

Yes it can, by running one of our high performance GPU clients, for AMD or nVidia. See the client Download page, the GPU FAQs, and the High Performance FAQ.

Does Folding@home run on my Sony Playstation 3 game system (PS3)?

Yes it can, by running the built in PS3 FAH client. See the PS3 FAQ page.

Is there anything special I should do to run on a cluster?

The main aspect to consider is to make sure that the CPUID for each machine is unique. To help fight from having duplicate IDs, the Windows versions (v3 and later) keep their IDs in the registry and the Linux version (v3.11 and later) keep it in a special file MachineDependent.dat.

Ways to avoid duplicating IDs:

1. If you install each client individually, then it's impossible for there to be problem with a duplicate ID.
2. If you use the recent Windows version and have single processor machines, then you should also be fine (for duals, see the above).
3. For a Linux cluster, make sure that if you copy the directory, you DO NOT copy the MachineDependent.dat file. This file will be auto generated by the client to get a new ID.

Why should I update my Folding@home software to the current version?

We are continuously improving the Folding@home software and adding new features. We release new versions to fix bugs reported by the users to help make the project run as smoothly as possible.

How do the results get back to you?

Your computer will automatically upload the results to our server each time it finishes a work unit, and download a new work at that time.

Can I download more than one unit at a time?

The algorithm we use works best if everybody downloads one work unit at a time, and checks back after each unit is completed. Therefore no option to download multiple units is available. If you have multiple processors in your computer, it is possible to have each processor work on a different unit; see what to do here. Do not try to run two copies on different machines that use the same directory on the same file system. Each client NEEDS to run in a separate directory.

How long does it take to finish a work unit? How do you measure a work unit?

This varies, of course, on the speed of the computer and the size of the protein under study. Depending on the protein and the properties studied, different size work units may be used. The Project Summary page has information on particular proteins' sizes and the deadlines allotted for completion.

Can I run both the GUI version and Console version at the same time? What happens if I run two console versions?

Yes, but ONLY if you multiple processors/cores, and install in different directories. Also, DO NOT just copy the files from one directory to each other. This will cause the clients to get confused.

1. You won't get credit for the work you do.
2. It will be no use for science.

Instead, install a client once into each directory. If you have already copied the program into multiple directories and are trying to run it, find the client.cfg file and delete it. The next time the FAH client starts, it will create a new client.cfg file and get a new ID from the project servers. The Windows GUI CPU client Machine ID must be 1, so all other clients must use 2, 3, 4, etc.

How can I make sure my results are being sent back and used? How can I tell how much work I've processed?

To find out data that has been reported back you can check the Stats page for Individual stats, Team stats, and overall Project stats. If your computer is returning data, you should see your username there along with the number of work units completed. If your name isn't there, and your screen saver or console version seems to be working fine, then either it hasn't finished a unit yet (this can take a few days, or even longer with an older computer), the list hasn't been updated yet. Check back in a day or two, and it should be there . . . as long as you remember correctly what you typed in for your donor user name. :)

Why does adjusting the core process priority via the task manager not affect its performance?

How do I manually adjust the priority of the Folding@home core?

The work is done by the fahcore, not the client process, so changing the priority on the client has no impact on performance. The priority for the fahcore is set to "Idle" by default (but displays as normal in Task Manager). The client is already designed to use all spare CPU cycles, so changing the Windows priority is unnecessary. If the FAH client is competing with another process running at "Idle" such as a background AV scan, there is a client option to run at a "Low" priority. Run the console client with the -config switch to change the setting.

Can I run Folding@home when SETI@home is running?

Yes, SETI@home and other distributed applications can be run alongside Folding@home, provided you have enough system memory. Some programs, including SETI@home run at a higher priority than Folding@home, which prevents FAH from progressing if it is run at the same time. If you notice the FAH client is not progressing, you can fix this by enabling the "Slightly Higher Priority" Option in the FAH client. This can be done through the advanced options page for the Windows GUI client, or by running the Console client with the -config switch.

Note: FAH work units are time sensitive, while work units from other projects typically are not time sensitive. Therefore we strongly recommend giving the FAH client a higher priority, or to dedicate a processor core to FAH while allowing other projects to use the remaining computer resources.

Are there any limits to how long my machine can take to finish a work unit (WU)?

Yes. Work Units are serial in nature. When a completed WU is sent back, a new work unit is generated from those results. This must happen many times over within each project (group of work units). A generation 1 work unit must be turned in before a generaton 2 work unit is created and sent out.

To keep these generations moving along, we have to set expiration deadlines in the event a work unit is not uploaded in a timely manner (lost, deleted, whatever). These unfinished work units "expire" and are reassigned to new machines. You will still receive credit for all WUs completed and uploaded prior to the Timeout (formerly preferred deadline). However, after the Timeout, your contribution is not as useful scientifically because another copy of that work unit had to be sent out to another contributor. Even if you eventually complete the work unit, that other contributor still had to process duplicate work to assure the science moves forward. And it would be unfair not to also credit that second contributor.

Even so, full credit is given up until the Deadline (formerly Final Deadline). After the Deadline has expired, the client will automaticlly discard the work unit and download new work. If you have trouble completing work units before the Timeout (formerly Preferred Deadline), it is recommended to either run the FAH client more hours each day, or to run the client on a faster computer.

As we move to larger and longer WUs, we will extend the expiration time as needed. Deadlines vary on the order of a few days to a several weeks, depending on the nature of the WU. Turn in a work unit just before the deadline is not the goal. It is most helpful to the project to return work units as quickly as possible. And how these deadlines are determined is explained a few answers below.

Can I run the Linux FAH Client on FreeBSD?

Yes, the Linux FAH client will run on the Linux Emulator for FreeBSD.

Install Linux Emulator/Linux_base from FreeBSD CD or website. Use port linux_base-f10 or newer (2.6.16+ kernel) in FreeBSD version 8.

Check that Linux binary compatibility is enabled:

% kldstat | grep linux

You may have to set linux_enable="YES" in /etc/rc.conf

Start the Linux emulation if you haven't rebooted yet...

% kldload linux

Download the Linux folding console (FAHxConsole, where x is the version number) and cd to the directory. Flag the binaries as Linux ELF executables (both fah client, and fahcores).

% brandelf -t Linux FAH*.exe

Specify the "-freeBSD" flag when you run the client.

% cd /usr/local/share/foldingathome
% chmod +x FAH6.34-Linux.exe
% ./FAH6.34-Linux.exe -freeBSD

(Thanks to "gotti" and "hyperlife" for the suggestions.)

What about OpenBSD?

It works almost as easily as FreeBSD (see the FAQ entry just above). Just follow these steps:

1. Install /usr/ports/emulators/redhat/base from ports on 3.4 or later. If you're on an earlier version, or just prefer packages, install redhat_base-8.0p2.

2. Set up a script that redirects the brandelf call to elf2olf, so that core binaries can be marked properly. This script can be downloaded from http://www.schnarff.com/brandelf, or simply set up on your own:

1. !/bin/sh

elf2olf -v -o linux $3

In either case, make sure the brandelf script is executable and in the path of the user running FAH. 3. Make sure to use the Linux Console version B, as version A will coredump.

4. When running the client, use the -freeBSD switch, so that it will automatically mark core binaries properly.

Thanks to Alex Kirk for the OpenBSD info.

What is simulation instability?

The simulation of molecular motion involves a great deal of computation. Each run consists of a number of time steps (each very small). At each time step, the position of the various atoms is calculated and updated, based on a number of factors. Sometimes, the simulation enters into a state that is not legal (i.e. atoms are too close, bonds are in impossible angles, etc.). At times like this, the Core exits, and information is uploaded to the server. The client will then get another assignment. If your computer is stable, then you haven't done anything wrong. On unstable computers, it is possible that the simulation instability was brought on by a fault of the system rather than something intrinsic to the work unit. Because of this, a work unit may be sent out again at some time if it is returned as having run into instability. In a given project, we expect a small percentage of units to encounter legitimate instability.

What if I turn off my computer? Does the client save its work (i.e. checkpoint)?

Periodically, the core writes data to your hard disk so that if you stop the client, it can resume processing that WU from some point other than the very beginning. With the Tinker core, this happens at the end of every frame. With the Gromacs core, these checkpoints can happen almost anywhere and they are not tied to the data recorded in the results. Initially, this was set to every 1% of a WU (like 100 frames in Tinker) and then a timed checkpoint was added every 15 minutes, so that on a slow machine, you never loose more that 15 minutes work.

As proteins become more complex and run longer, it is better to have more frames in a WU so that you don't loose so much progress if you have to restart - - hence WUs that have 400 frames instead of 100. That still doesn't take the speed of the machine into account. A fast machine completes a frame in a few minutes while a slow one may take hours, and the donor with the slow machine still doesn't want to lose 99% of those "hours" yet the fast machine doesn't really want the overhead of writing the checkpoints every "few minutes" - - and neither of them wants the upload time associated with results containing many frames.

Starting in the 4.x version of the client, you can set the 15 minute default to another value (3-30 minutes).

Thanks to Bruce Borden for this FAQ entry.

What are the available console client command line flags or switches?

The list of available switches is displayed by launching the client with the -help switch. A fuller explanation of the switches is available in this FAH WIKI article: Client Flags and What They Do.

Thanks to Tim (7im) Braun for this WIKI entry.

Statistics, teams, usernames

How can I change my username (donor name)?

The simplest way to change your username is go to the configuration panel (right click in the graphical display or click on the sys tray icon). You can change your username at any time. However, old work units will remain credited to the old username.

How can I join/create a team?

To create a team, please fill out this form. To join a team, just put the team's number in the configuration panel (on graphical clients) or enter the team number at the first time you run the client (for text console versions).

I'm running multiple machines behind a firewall. Can they all have the same username?

Yes. They can all have the same name.

Are there any characters I should avoid in a username?

Yes. We strongly recommend sticking to just letters, numbers and underscore. Right now, we reserve the characters # ^ ~ |. # is used for firewall differentiation (see above). We want to save ^ | and ~ for other problems which might come up. Also, don't put spaces in your username; please use some character like "_" instead. Finally, please note that usernames are case sensitive, so "Dave" and "dave" and "dAVE" are all different usernames.

How do you decide how much credit a work unit is worth? How do you determine how many points a work unit is worth?

Before putting out any new work unit, we benchmark it on a dedicated 2.8GHz Pentium 4 machine with SSE2 disabled (more specifically, as reported by /proc/cpuinfo on linux: vendor_id : GenuineIntel, cpu family : 15, model : 2, model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz, stepping : 9, cpu MHz : 2806.438, cache size : 512 KB). This machine runs linux, so all WUs are benchmarked with the linux core.

We plug the results of this into the following formula:

points = 110 * (daysPerWU)

where daysPerWU is the number of days it took to complete the unit. This equation was chosen to match the points for Gromacs WUs to the previous point system. The upshot is that Tinker WUs will be worth more than before we set up the new points (i.e. before April 2004).

Please note that the very concept of a reference machine will mean that some WU benchmarking will vary from the performance on your machine. Even between P4s, there are significant differences in architectures over the years. Moreover, variations between FAH WUs can also lead to differences in benchmarking points.

Our goal is consistency within a given definition of a reference machine setup (described above), but beyond that the natural variation from machine to machine and WU to WU will never allow any point system to perfectly reflect what you get on your machine. See also the Points FAQ

How do you set the deadlines for the work units?

Each work unit is benchmarked on a dedicated 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 machine with SSE2 disabled. For most work units (although there may be exceptions, described in the next paragraph), we apply this equation:

timeout = 20 * (daysPerWU) + 2 deadline = max(30* (daysPerWU) + 2,10)

where daysPerWU is the number of days it took to complete the unit. The "+2" days is there to give an additional buffer for fast WUs (to allow for servers down, etc). If 30*daysPerWU is less than 10 days, we set the deadline to 10 days, as a minimum time for all projects. The timeout is the time at which the WU is resent to another client and the deadline is the last time that we will give stats credit for the WU.

Occasionally, deadlines may be set shorter or longer than the above calculation indicates, but the reason for having deadlines at all is that the sooner we get back work units, the sooner we can put the results to good use. Also, different projects have different requirements server-side and may require shorter or allow longer deadlines (e.g. "pfold" calculations can often be run without any deadlines, whereas MREMD calculations work best with very tight deadlines). The assignment server does take machine performance into account in making assignments, thereby allowing slower machines to receive more appropriate work units.

How can I get a copy of all of the current stats?

Please feel free to download http://fah-web.stanford.edu/daily_user_summary.txt or http://fah-web.stanford.edu/daily_team_summary.txt These files are updated every 6 hours. Please DO NOT run a crawler on our cgi pages. Such actions will result in your IP being permanently banned.

Misc

What do the pictures of proteins show?

We use several representations for showing proteins, including all-atom, stick, and Richardson cartoon representations. The colors are used to highlight specific parts (but that may be specific atoms, atom types, or structural characteristics, depending on the context). To learn more, Wikipedia has some nice articles about this:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_structure
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_helix
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_sheet

Where did the logo come from?

Our logo is an abstract representation of our goal: to go from the protein sequence encoded in the genome to the protein's structure. The double helix on the left of the logo denotes the genome (DNA is a double helical molecule) and the arrows on the right are representations of protein structure (beta sheet structure is often drawn as ribbons with arrows).

Do you have web buttons that I can download to use with links to your site?

How about this? (thanks to RPH IV)

How much power/money does keeping a FAH running 24/7 on a computer use?

Roughly, a CPU uses about as much power (watts) as a typical light bulb. Here's a report on computer power management from Lawrence Berkeley government labs, and there are other references on the web you can find. Although power supplies on most computers are rated at 400 watts, average usage is lower. On average, a Pentium-type computer uses about 100 watts (if the monitor is off). So, the daily difference between off and running FAH is about 24x100 = 2.4 kWh. At $0.15 per kWh ( from PG&E here in California), this works out to about $0.36 per day. In general, lighting and climate control use a much larger share of household power than computers do. So the best bet for cutting costs and conserving energy would be to turn off lights, turn off your computer monitors (which use more power than a CPU), and turn down the heat.

What about security issues?

We have worked very hard to maintain the best security possible with modern computer science methodology. Our software will upload and download data only from our data server here at Stanford. Also, we only interact with FAH files on your computer (we don't read, write, or transmit any other files, as we don't need to do so and doing so would violate our privacy policy). The Cores are also digitally signed (see below) to make sure that you're getting the true Stanford cores and nothing else.

How is this possible? We take extensive measures to check all of the data entering your computer and the results we send back to Stanford with 2048 bit digital signatures. If the signatures don't match (on either the input or the output) the client will throw away the data and start again. This ensures, using the best software security measures developed to date (digital signatures and PKI in version 3.0), that we are keeping the tightest possible security. Finally, the client/screen saver are available for download only from this web site (or in certain cases, also from our commercial partners such as Sony, NVIDIA, and ATI), so that we can guarantee the integrity of the software. We do not support Folding@home software obtained elsewhere and prohibit others to distribute the software.

Why no client version for IRIX, Solaris, OS-2, AMIGA, Commodore, Macintosh OS9, iPhone, Smart Phone, ARM chip, XBox, Wii, etc.?

We've been deluged by requests for other versions. Due to limited resources, we can only support a few client versions. We try to pick operating systems and hardware types which are likely to be popular with donators, that we can suitably support in house, and that will perform well on the scientific calculations. We do support BSD via its Linux emulation layer (see above).

What are you going to add in later versions of the software?

A good place to hear about new versions, beta versions, etc., is Vijay's blog, i.e. the Project News page, and the Folding Support Forum.

Screen saver (Windows: version 4 and earlier; OSX: all versions)

Should I run the Graphical, Screen Saver, or console client version?

The Graphical (GUI) clint shows the same info as the screen saver client, but inside an application window. You should run the GUI if you

    * want to be running Folding@home all the time
    * don't want a screen saver
    * like to see the guts of what's happening

You should run the "screen saver only" version if you

    * you don't want to run Folding@home all the time, just when you're not using the machine

Run the console (text only) client if you prefer access to more expert settings, a more basic interface, or to run the client as a service.

If you're still not sure, try them all!

What is the Graphic Client showing?

Our graphical client shows real time visualizations of the simulations being performed. The molecule drawn is the current atomic configuration ("fold") of the protein being simulated on your computer and the graph on the bottom shows the potential energy in femtosecond increments. We display the protein in a variety of visualization styles and orientations both to get a better look at the protein fold as well as simple aesthetics. The fact that the protein visualization "scrolls" out does not have any biological meaning; it's just a non-CPU intensive and visually appealing way to show the protein.

There are currently two visualization modes: Space-filling and ball-and-stick. In ball-and-stick mode, each small ball represents an atom, and the sticks represent bonds between atoms. In the space-filling model, each filled sphere represents the approximate volume that the electrons occupy around each atom. In both modes, carbon atoms are drawn in dark gray, hydrogen atoms are drawn in light gray (although some hydrogen atoms are not drawn at all), oxygen atoms are drawn in red, nitrogen atoms are drawn in blue, and sulfur atoms are drawn in yellow.

The pie charts denote the completed fraction of the current run and the fraction of the frame completed, respectively.

My monitor is set to turn off after a while.

Can I still run the screen saver? Energy saving features, which turn the monitor off after a specified period of time, does not affect the screen saver. As long as the computer is running, the screen saver will continue to run and accumulate useful data, even if the monitor is off.

Does the screen saver use a lot of CPU time?

The screen saver is designed to use very little CPU time. Even without any OpenGL hardware, the screen saver only uses about 5% of the CPU time for graphics. If you have some sort of OpenGL support on your graphics card, the CPU time becomes virtually zero. Since the space filling ("orb") drawing of the atoms can be seen in the process of drawing, it may look like it is taking a lot of processor space, but that delay is set by a timer, and does not occur because it takes a long time to draw.

Will extra 3D hardware help make the screen saver go faster?

3D acceleration cards will make a small difference for complex proteins. However, the accelerator does not aid in processing the proteins, is simply offloads the graphical workload from the CPU so it can fold faster.

How do I shut down the screen saver?

The screen saver is designed so that it shuts down on mouse click or key press. It will NOT shut down by simply moving the mouse. This is to prevent users from inadvertently closing down Folding@home, since it takes a short while to start processing every time it starts up.

For More Information, Please See:

• FAH FAQ Index
• Folding Support Forum
• Pande Group on YouTube
• Folding@home article on Wikipedia

Last Updated on May 30, 2012, at 11:06 PM by