Folding@Home on the PS3- Join Team AP

**Lyndon M STAFF** · #1 03-15-2007, 02:53 PM

Not sure how many have checked out the news item regarding the Folding@Home project coming to the PS3 in the next firmware update, happening next week. Details as to how it works are there but what it does is help process data from Stanford University to eventually find information toward cures for several diseases including forms of cancer.

The reason for this thread is to let everyone know there is now an Absolute PlayStation team set up for this project. Joining the team is as simple as adding the team number into the folding client's settings. When the update is available I will be adding in details on how to add yourself into the team.

They have a client available for the PC as well- anyone wanting to know a bit more about the project can check out their site- I'll link to it at the bottom of this post. If anyone decides to install their computer client (which is completely safe- it's from the medical research team at Stamford University, after all ) the team number to add when installing is 54263. Drop a note here to ask questions, say you've signed up, etc.

Folding@Home home page

Our team page

**Lyndon M STAFF** · #2 03-22-2007, 05:00 PM

Joining a team is made very easy on the PS3's Folding@Home client. I'm adding a couple of photos for visual aids.

Hit the triangle button to bring up the options menu and scroll down to Identity, then select "Join an existing team".

Once here just enter the team number 54263. Then hit the Start button on your controller and done.You can also change the username in the Identity section to, for example, match up with your name here if you like.

MCWHAMMER · #3 03-23-2007, 01:26 PM

OK, I signed up for Folding@Home AbPlay team today. I'm MCWHAMMER on there too. Is there a purpose of having the abplay folding team? I mean, VS. just folding without a team on there...

Just wondering. I like Folding... makes for a good screensaver too, for our TV's

(USEFUL NOTES: If you hit the SELECT button on your controller while viewing the planet Earth, it will change the screenview to 3-4 different views you can look at. Just noticed that.)

Also, straight off of a Sony page: "The locations of PS3™ systems that are running Folding@home™ are displayed on the world map that is visible in the background." In yellow, that is. That's cool too.

**Lyndon M STAFF** · #4 03-23-2007, 02:21 PM

The team thing is mainly a way to get more people into it. It's a bit more incentive to be part of a group. People set up teams to go with the web site, like I did. The more people in a team, the more work units get done and research is furthered that little bit more. There is a ranking system in place for teams based on the number of work units done- nothing awarded for it but still, makes for some friendly competition.

I'm still amazed at the speed of the frame processing- .043 seconds each with the unit I'm running right now. Makes my PC pale in comparison.

MCWHAMMER · #5 03-23-2007, 02:35 PM

OK, well, I guess I will show up in the standings for Absolute Playstation late tonight. That is when my first fold will be finished, it seems. I saw one my buddies on my PSN list was on Folding@Home earlier. So, its good to see that people are doing this.

I have two questions still: There is no way to "Pause" a protein fold while you go play a game is there?

And, on a related note:

I guess it isn't much of a question, because I probably know the answer to it... but anyway, there is no way to run the Folding in the background, without having to connect to the Folding@Home program on the PS3? I thought it was going to be like a little box in the corner of the screen, while you surfed the net or something. Under one of the Settings boxes on Folding@home, it says "Audio On or Off" and below that it says something like "Box View", but it doesn't let me change that at all. Is that feature coming soon?

**Lyndon M STAFF** · #6 03-23-2007, 03:01 PM

You can shut off the folding any time by hitting the triangle button and select "quit folding" in the menu that comes up. The current work unit will pause and resume where you left off when you fire it up again. Folding only runs when the PS3 is sitting completely idle. It does not run in the background while gaming, watching a movie, etc.

You can set the Folding program to start up after 10, 20 ir 30 minutes of sitting idle. Just hit triangle when highlighting the Folding icon in the Internet section of the XMB and make your choice.

MCWHAMMER · #7 03-23-2007, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyndon M STAFF

You can shut off the folding any time by hitting the triangle button and select "quit folding" in the menu that comes up. The current work unit will pause and resume where you left off when you fire it up again. Folding only runs when the PS3 is sitting completely idle. It does not run in the background while gaming, watching a movie, etc.

You can set the Folding program to start up after 10, 20 ir 30 minutes of sitting idle. Just hit triangle when highlighting the Folding icon in the Internet section of the XMB and make your choice.

Thanks Lyndon. Gosh, I thought I was going to have to wait until tommorow to play a game

. I didn't want to mess up my neat fold, lol.

That's good information. Maybe you could add that to the Folding@Home sticky, and make it a FAQ, since there really isn't much of one on the playstation 3 website.

**Jim B STAFF** · #8 03-25-2007, 10:04 AM

Just signed up for your folding team Lyndon, thanks for setting this up.

**Lyndon M STAFF** · #9 03-26-2007, 04:29 AM

Looking good, hope more will decide to hook up with us. You don't have to keep it running all the time- just leave it running a few hours a day and it will all add up.

With just the two of us having full work units reported in (MCW and myself) we are ranked 13,686 out of 54,281 teams. If we can get more folders going i know we can jump the ranks quickly!

Also, to give an idea to compare performance of folding on the PS3 vs Windows here's a current comparison of how much has been done. keep in mind that foldinghas been done on the PC for well over a year:

OS Type---------CurrentTFLOPS*----------Active CPUs----------Total CPUs
Windows--------------154-------------------162121-------------1629089

PLAYSTATION®3-------491--------------------30851---------------40000

In the short time that PlayStation 3 users have been folding just over 3 times the data has been processed overall with 300,000+ fewer machines going at it part time. they weren't kidding about the cell's power.

Jim, don't forget to add the team number into your folding if you haven't yet so that the team gets the proper credit.

**Lyndon M STAFF** · #10 03-26-2007, 07:17 AM

Just wanted to add that i left some photos up above to help with where to put the team number for anyone wanting to join the team.

MCWHAMMER · #11 03-28-2007, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyndon M STAFF

With just the two of us having full work units reported in (MCW and myself) we are ranked 13,686 out of 54,281 teams. If we can get more folders going i know we can jump the ranks quickly!

Hey, I noticed that Team rank too. That is great isn't it Lyndon? 13,686 for just two people in a team . That's amazing. I guess there aren't many ps3 team Folders yet, but I will definitely keep folding to get our team score as high as possible.

At first, I was thoroughly confused by the whole thing, but after you install Folding@Home, when you start it up, it has links to lots of information that explains what it is exactly that we are doing. That was really helpful to me, and I have a better understanding of the system now.

**Lyndon M STAFF** · #12 04-19-2007, 10:01 AM

Quick update here- we are now ranked at 10,284 out of 61,399 teams. Not bad for just the three of us (Jim has been folding a bit now when he can).

Still, we would like to see that number get better and to do that we need more APi members joining the folding team. Details for doing that are up above with pictures for easy guidance.

GRIM413 · #13 04-27-2007, 03:30 PM

I Signed Up For The Folding@home But Didn't Know You Had A Team But I'm Going To Join The Team Tonight

**Lyndon M STAFF** · #14 04-27-2007, 03:40 PM

Welcome aboard Grim- glad to have you on the team!

**Mike C STAFF** · #15 04-28-2007, 06:52 AM

I joined too on my pc. Im almost done with my first work unit.

Welcome to the team Grim!

**Lyndon M STAFF** · #16 04-28-2007, 04:27 PM

Our ranking is climbing pretty quickly- we are now #8341 out of 63,141 teams! We've cracked the top 10,000! Good work everyone, let's keep it going. The team is always open for new members that want to help the cause!

I've made the links to the Folding home page and our stats easily found on the top post.

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