Measuring Folding@Home's performance impact
Posted by Mr magoo on 11 November 2002 - 20:05 · 5 comments & 648 views
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Mr magooContact: via forum PM
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#1 Posted by Bant on 11 Nov 2002 - 20:43
- fold fold fold!
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#2 Posted by Yvo on 11 Nov 2002 - 23:58
- This is absoluut bs... Folding is awesome... best thing to spend those wasted CPU cycles on.
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#3 Posted by mcb on 12 Nov 2002 - 00:08
- what distributed prog uses the least amount of memory (i dont care about cpu--since thats the whole point!)
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#4 Posted by Vlad on 12 Nov 2002 - 04:37
- Wait, this is a joke, right? They actually think this program is going to slow down how fast a person types? Or prints? Or *gasp* browses the web? What kind of idiot - and I mean this with the most extreme prejudice - actually worries about folding@home [i]slowing down their computer[/i] when typing on a machine that can perform millions of operations per second? Now, running the client on an old 387 with 8mb of ram is going to slow your machine down. I could see a performance decrease when playing quake3 -- of course, few people, if any, can actually tell the difference between 117.1 and 118.9 frames per second.
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#5 Posted by DrunkenMaster on 12 Nov 2002 - 04:43
- Considering the CPU is still using power, etc when its doing nothing you might as well use it to do something productive. I consider this to be the best reseach project since its looking at protein strands more generally rather than focusing on Cancer or AIDS. The results could have impacts on cures for many things and not just one specific goal.
"THERE ARE A FEW legitimate reasons not to run Stanford's Folding@Home client. You could be without an always-on Internet connection, or barely able to scrape together enough change to make your next utility bill payment. Heck, you may even think that searching for aliens is a better way to spend your spare CPU cycles, and that's your choice. However, some have raised questions about whether or not the Folding@Home client has an impact on overall system performance, something that could prevent individuals and especially businesses from running the client on their machines. "
Microsoft is hoping to parlay its experience running networks and large online services, such as its free Hotmail e-mail service, into success with Xbox Live. The company is already using technology derived from its Passport online sign-in service to help people log into Xbox Live. Its approach to online gaming is similar to the proprietary strategy it pursues in many of its core businesses: The company sells its software with components that work well together but don't necessarily operate with competitors' programs.
Microsoft has set a high bar as it readies to do battle with Sony and Nintendo. To use Xbox Live, gamers must have an expensive, high-speed "broadband" Internet connection, instead of merely a dial-up connection, and also must buy a $50 set-up kit in addition to the standard Xbox console and games. The kit includes a headset used to talk to other players and a year's subscription to Microsoft's gaming network, which is accessible only by using the Xbox connected to a TV.
Mr. Allard says the focus on broadband and a proprietary network give Microsoft more flexibility to add features, such as, potentially, speech-recognition technology or an instant-messaging function to chat with other players. Microsoft may eventually allow online players to download music and videos from the Web, he says.
Sony and Nintendo, in contrast, each require the purchase of a separate modem, priced under $40, to connect their machines to high-speed or dial-up Internet lines; neither has a sign-up fee. Sony is banking on the wide lead the PS2 has over the Xbox and GameCube. Sony has sold more than twice as many PS2 machines in the U.S. as Microsoft and Nintendo combined, according to industry analysts.
In touting its data center, Microsoft is clearly hoping to build excitement among die-hard gamers long before online gaming goes mainstream. Most game makers concur it will be years before they develop sophisticated online games, in part because today's way of distributing games, via discs, is so profitable.
Microsoft has invested heavily in its online-gaming push, opening the Tukwila data center and three others, in downtown Seattle, London and Tokyo. The Xbox group is funding some outside companies that are creating games for Xbox Live. The company has said it expects to invest $2 billion over the next five years on Xbox, including its online service. The network should give Microsoft a leg up over Sony if Sony doesn't build its own network soon, says Robbie Bach, head of the Xbox business. "They can invest now or they can invest later," he says. "But if they invest later, they'll be behind."
For Sony, however, networks aren't the only strategy for attracting online gamers. When Sony put the finishing touches on the PlayStation 2 in the late 1990s, it figured that networks wouldn't be fast enough to run the graphics-intensive games that gamers demanded, Sony executives say. But the company is bringing over well-known brands from the offline world to attract gamers to the online domain. In addition to Electronic Arts Inc.'s Madden NFL football title, Sony is also offering online versions of Twisted Metal: Black, its popular vehicle-combat game, and Final Fantasy, a leading game from Square Co. None of those games can be played online on the Xbox.
Nintendo, in contrast, is entering the online derby with caution. "In the short term [online gaming] creates some buzz and excitement," says Peter MacDougall, executive vice president at Nintendo's U.S. unit, also in Redmond. Yet, in a tough economy, "discretionary items like online gaming might be the first one to go," he says.