Folding@home Update

I just wanted to follow up on some comments from my earlier Folding@home post and provide some quick statistical updates.

Some people wanted to know what this “folding” is all about and why it makes sense on the PS3. To learn more about the project, you should visit the Stanford Folding@home site and have a look at the PS3 FAQ. But why PS3? First of all, there is no obligation to run the program, you can always ignore it if you prefer. The PS3 has two valuable things to offer researchers at Stanford: its powerful Cell Processor plus a large, dedicated PS3 community that is willing to help. These two things combined result in a significant contribution to the work that is done at Stanford to fight diseases.

There have been a lot of feature proposals. The F@h client on PS3 will be updated from time to time, and I am sure that we are picking up some of the suggestions. Stay tuned for details…

Many folks posted their WU scores – good work everyone! You probably know that there are statistics pages at Stanford where you can lookup your scores. But did you know that there are also other sites that take those scores and come up with a much more in-depth analysis? Take a look at Kakaostats or ExtremeOverclocking, just to name a few. You can figure out when you would reach a certain milestone, which rank your team would have a month from now, or review your contribution history. Some PS3-related highlights are below:

The PS3 dominated team 2CH@PS3 is currently rankd 47th since the PS3 F@h client release, which is simply amazing. But they need to fold a little more, otherwise they will be taken over later this week by the rocket-like DL.TV team (these guys are serious).

Another PS3 power team is PS3Forums.com, already ranked 67th.

Also check out the rise of the Official-ish PS3Fanboy Folding Team (soon to break into the top 200) and IGN-PS3 – also, quickly approaching the top 200 milestone.

And of course, there is PlayStation 3 (SCEA), in two weeks they’ll be closing in on the 200 position rank and they just passed the SCEA PDIT team. I can imagine these guys scrambling in the aisles now to recruit more team members…

Thank you to all the contributors, and look for more Folding@home updates here in the near future.