You may not be aware that CFC has a team (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=157496) running in the Folding@Home research exercise. It's one of those highly distributed computing projects, like seti@home, where your spare CPU cycles are put to good use.

Folding@Home is concerned with modelling the processes that go on when protein molecules fold, which is apparently a key process that keeps us all alive. And when it goes wrong we get things like CJD, Alzheimers, cancer ... So this research is a very worthwhile cause to put your spare cycles into.

What does this have to do with the Mac forum?

Well. The latest Intel-native SMP version of the Folding@Home client software runs like a dream on the new dual-core Macs, and my Mac Pro is currently delivering about 20 times its previous rate. There currently isn't anything close to it among the rest of the CFC team, as ... guess what! There isn't a multi-processor (SMP) version of the software for Windows yet.

So if you've been wondering what to do with all that computing power you got for Christmas, run over to the local Folding@Home thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=157496) and give TeamCFC some support. You'll be helping with some important research, and you'll be showing CFC what a few Macs can do. Big time. :thumbsup:

Which do you recommend: console or installer?

I used the SMP installer for Intel. The bottom of the list. It's easy and it "just works". You get a System Prefs panel with it for set-up, and there's a Viewer that doesn't do anything yet. This is beta software, but it seems stable on my system

Yep, your all very welcome to rub it in our windows :)

I may be dealing w/ a bug.

I did say the viewer doesn't do anything yet. Ignore it. It's not a bug, it's a feature :)

Where do I enter 47958 to join the CFCteam?

Do I leave it running/open? Hide the viewer?

System Preferences is where you enter your team number and user name. There's a little F@H icon at the bottom when you Show All. Click it. Enter the data, then click the button at the bottom.

Don't open the viewer application. Ignore it. Pretend it doesn't exist. It is a non-program; it has gone to meet its programmer; it is a dead program [pace, Monty Python]

Got'cha. Where do I view results?

There's a text log file on your system that lists the process of grabbing a work unit and starting it, then it's updated as each 1% of the work is done, and you then see the results being sent back.

The log file is at ~/Library/Folding@home/FAHlog.txt

NOTE> Don't interrupt a work unit. This version of the client doesn't checkpoint the work, so if you stop it in midstream it has to go back to the beginning again. Note also that the work units they are giving out to SMP clients are required back in 2 days. So if you interrupt a work unit the deadline will very likely time out.

There's a text log file on your system that lists the process of grabbing a work unit and starting it, then it's updated as each 1% of the work is done, and you then see the results being sent back.

The log file is at ~/Library/Folding@home/FAHlog.txt

NOTE> Don't interrupt a work unit. This version of the client doesn't checkpoint the work, so if you stop it in midstream it has to go back to the beginning again. Note also that the work units they are giving out to SMP clients are required back in 2 days. So if you interrupt a work unit the deadline will very likely time out.

Thanks.

To interrupt a work unit, I'd have to turn it off or shut down I'm assuming?

That's right. As long as the button in Sys Prefs says "Disable ..." it's running. My system doesn't sleep. I imagine that would at least cause the process to suspend. Not sure if it would kill it.

I allow mine to sleep as well, unless I'm away for an extended amount of time - many days.

This new version has been a big boost for the intel macs. I was running linux in parallels in order to be able to run a decent client. This is a lot easier and also runs faster for more points.

Since I have been on a team for a long time so I am not going to be joining the CFC team, but I do feel that this is the best distributed computing project out there at the moment.

Hey, Dojo! How's it going?

What processing rate are you getting? My system does 1% in about 5 - 6 mins unless I run Civ4, when it drops to 7 - 8 mins per percent

Hey, Dojo! How's it going?

What processing rate are you getting? My system does 1% in about 5 - 6 mins unless I run Civ4, when it drops to 7 - 8 mins per percent

Not that good, it looks like 1% every 10 min.

[18:05:28] Writing local files
[18:05:28] Completed 4500000 out of 5000000 steps (90 percent)
[18:15:21] Writing local files
[18:15:21] Completed 4550000 out of 5000000 steps (91 percent)
[18:25:10] Writing local files
[18:25:13] Completed 4600000 out of 5000000 steps (92 percent)

Only 8 x 10 mins to go, from an hour ago! Should be cooked in another 5-10 minutes :)

[EDIT] 1% every 10 mins sounds right for a single Core 2 Duo CPU. Two cores = 10 minutes, four cores = 5 mins plus a bit for overheads.

Not all of the work units run at the same rate. Here is a list of the proteins:

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/psummary.html

The GRO-SMP proteins are near the bottom. The current ones do only have a range of 587 to 716, so comparisons without taking this into account are reasonable. But there can be a wild variation in what the work units are worth, so if you find that it is taking a lot more time to do 1%, it is probably that the unit is worth more also.

You can use the Console app in the Utilities folder to look at FAHlog.txt as it runs, I think that it uses the least resources to do this.

The points values of these SMP units don't seem to correlate with the seconds per percent that I see. On an idle system I get 5 mins 30 seconds for some units and 5 min 40 seconds for others, but the faster units may be worth 691 and the slower ones may be worth 587, which is the wrong way around.

Since they are rating work units on the basis of the time taken to process on the single CPU, older generation software, I suspect the points values are a tad approximate. Which is why I treat all the SMP work units as roughly equal CPU loads.

[EDIT] Meanwhile, Dojoboy's work unit is taking its time to appear. Has it finished yet?

105 dojoboy 587 1

Well done, Dojoboy :thumbsup:

Well done, Dojoboy :thumbsup:

:D

Now, what does that mean? :blush:

:D

Now, what does that mean? :blush:

With one bound (i.e one work unit, worth 587 points), you and your iMac have leapt to position 105 in the TeamCFC league table. If you fold one of those work units every two days you'll be running at a rate of around 300 points per 24 hours, and that will put you in the top ten producers for the team, as listed here (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=47958).

PS In fact, you are already there. They just updated the page, and your single work unit, averaged over seven days, already puts you at number nine. Such is the power of your CPU :D

Wow, those of us with PCs are soon going to be overtaken by the Mac users, the speed difference is phenomenal!

Come on Mac users - show us PC users how it's done!

Hey Dojo! What's up? Four days since your first unit, and nothing since?

I notice you said your system *does* sleep? That would stop it folding, andprobably mean your deadlines will expire. Mine never sleep.

Hey Dojo! What's up? Four days since your first unit, and nothing since?

I notice you said your system *does* sleep? That would stop it folding, andprobably mean your deadlines will expire. Mine never sleep.

That must be it then.

Are there no risks allowing it to remain awake 24 hrs. / day?

Only to your electricity bill :p

All of my rigs have run full speed 24 hours a day for the last 7 years. I don't run dc projects on laptops, but everything else works hard. I think it is better for the processor since it is always the same temperature, no thermal stress from cooling off and warming back up. :)

Well, I'm only sleeping the display now. But, I've not had any more units begin. Is there something I need to do to "restart" the process?

What does the log say?

It's at ~/Library/Folding@home/FAHlog.txt. If you view it in a Console window and scroll to the bottom, you'll keep the end of the log in view.

It says I've got work on-going. When does it update?

It updates every time it finishes 1% of its work.

[18:04:46] Writing local files
[18:04:46] Completed 1000000 out of 50000000 steps (2)
[19:04:12] Writing local files
[19:04:12] Completed 1500000 out of 50000000 steps (3)
[20:00:05] Writing local files
[20:00:05] Completed 2000000 out of 50000000 steps (4)

The times are GMT. So in this case it is updating about once an hour. I think most of the SMP work happens way faster.

My G4 tower finishes 1% every 2.3 hours. My Mac Pro finishes 1% every 5.5 minutes. The work units they are doing are worth about 400 and 600 points respectively.

Here's what I got as of right now.

[17:40:43] Folding@home Core Shutdown: FINISHED_UNIT
[17:40:48] CoreStatus = 64 (100)
[17:40:48] Sending work to server


[17:40:48] + Attempting to send results
[17:43:31] + Results successfully sent
[17:43:31] Thank you for your contribution to Folding@Home.
[17:43:31] + Number of Units Completed: 2

[17:47:40] - Preparing to get new work unit...
[17:47:40] + Attempting to get work packet
[17:47:40] - Connecting to assignment server
[17:47:41] - Successful: assigned to (171.64.65.56).
[17:47:41] + News From Folding@Home: Welcome to Folding@Home
[17:47:41] Loaded queue successfully.
[17:47:43] + Closed connections
[17:47:43]
[17:47:43] + Processing work unit
[17:47:43] Core required: FahCore_a1.exe
[17:47:43] Core found.
[17:47:43] Working on Unit 06 [January 10 17:47:43]
[17:47:43] + Working ...
[17:47:43]
[17:47:43] *------------------------------*
[17:47:43] Folding@Home Gromacs SMP Core
[17:47:43] Version 1.73 (November 27, 2006)
[17:47:43]
[17:47:43] Preparing to commence simulation
[17:47:43] - Ensuring status. Please wait.
[17:47:43] Created dyn
[17:47:43] - Files status OK
[17:47:43] - Expanded 291506 -> 1508361 (decompressed 517.4 percent)
[17:47:44] - Starting from initial work packet
[17:47:44]
[17:47:44] Project: 3027 (Run 6, Clone 12, Gen 6)
[17:47:44]
[17:47:44] Assembly optimizations on if available.
[17:47:44] Entering M.D.
[17:48:01] tial work pa- Starting from initial work packet
[17:48:01]
[17:48:01] Project: 3027 (Run 6, Clone 12, Gen 6)
[17:48:01]
[17:48:01] Entering M.D.
[17:48:07] SMP-nsv-03
[17:48:07] filename:
[17:48:07] Protein: SMP-nsv-03
[17:48:07]
[17:48:07] riting local files
[17:48:07]
[17:48:07] Writing local files
[17:48:08] Extra SSE boost OK.
[17:48:08] Writing local files
[17:48:08] Completed 0 out of 5000000 steps (0 percent)
[17:58:12] Writing local files
[17:58:12] Completed 50000 out of 5000000 steps (1 percent)
[18:08:16] Writing local files
[18:08:16] Completed 100000 out of 5000000 steps (2 percent)
[18:18:21] Writing local files
[18:18:21] Completed 150000 out of 5000000 steps (3 percent)
[18:28:25] Writing local files
[18:28:25] Completed 200000 out of 5000000 steps (4 percent)
[18:38:30] Writing local files
[18:38:30] Completed 250000 out of 5000000 steps (5 percent)
[18:48:35] Writing local files
[18:48:35] Completed 300000 out of 5000000 steps (6 percent)
[18:58:40] Writing local files
[18:58:40] Completed 350000 out of 5000000 steps (7 percent)
[19:08:44] Writing local files
[19:08:44] Completed 400000 out of 5000000 steps (8 percent)
[19:18:49] Writing local files
[19:18:49] Completed 450000 out of 5000000 steps (9 percent)
[19:28:53] Writing local files
[19:28:53] Completed 500000 out of 5000000 steps (10 percent)
[19:38:57] Writing local files
[19:38:57] Completed 550000 out of 5000000 steps (11 percent)
[19:49:01] Writing local files
[19:49:01] Completed 600000 out of 5000000 steps (12 percent)
[19:59:05] Writing local files
[19:59:05] Completed 650000 out of 5000000 steps (13 percent)
[20:09:09] Writing local files
[20:09:09] Completed 700000 out of 5000000 steps (14 percent)
[20:19:13] Writing local files
[20:19:13] Completed 750000 out of 5000000 steps (15 percent)
[20:29:18] Writing local files
[20:29:18] Completed 800000 out of 5000000 steps (16 percent)
[20:39:22] Writing local files
[20:39:22] Completed 850000 out of 5000000 steps (17 percent)
[20:49:26] Writing local files
[20:49:26] Completed 900000 out of 5000000 steps (18 percent)
[20:59:32] Writing local files
[20:59:32] Completed 950000 out of 5000000 steps (19 percent)
[21:09:36] Writing local files
[21:09:36] Completed 1000000 out of 5000000 steps (20 percent)
[21:19:40] Writing local files
[21:19:40] Completed 1050000 out of 5000000 steps (21 percent)
[21:29:45] Writing local files
[21:29:45] Completed 1100000 out of 5000000 steps (22 percent)
[21:39:50] Writing local files
[21:39:50] Completed 1150000 out of 5000000 steps (23 percent)
[21:49:54] Writing local files
[21:49:54] Completed 1200000 out of 5000000 steps (24 percent)
[21:59:57] Writing local files
[21:59:57] Completed 1250000 out of 5000000 steps (25 percent)
[22:10:01] Writing local files
[22:10:01] Completed 1300000 out of 5000000 steps (26 percent)
[22:20:06] Writing local files
[22:20:06] Completed 1350000 out of 5000000 steps (27 percent)
[22:30:10] Writing local files
[22:30:10] Completed 1400000 out of 5000000 steps (28 percent)
[22:40:15] Writing local files
[22:40:15] Completed 1450000 out of 5000000 steps (29 percent)
[22:50:19] Writing local files
[22:50:19] Completed 1500000 out of 5000000 steps (30 percent)
[23:00:25] Writing local files
[23:00:25] Completed 1550000 out of 5000000 steps (31 percent)
[23:10:30] Writing local files
[23:10:30] Completed 1600000 out of 5000000 steps (32 percent)

But, on the CFC team page, nothing has changed.

Edit: Well, now it has. Hmph!

Edit: Well, now it has. Hmph!

:goodjob:

The Folding@Home stats are updated at intervals. After you finish a work unit it typically takes 30 minutes or more for it to show up there. There are also some more analytical stats pages on the Extreme Overclocking (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=47958) site, but these are only refreshed every three hours or so.

Right now, though, your two work units have taken you to position seven on the top 20 producers list :)

:goodjob:

The Folding@Home stats are updated at intervals. After you finish a work unit it typically takes 30 minutes or more for it to show up there. There are also some more analytical stats pages on the Extreme Overclocking (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=47958) site, but these are only refreshed every three hours or so.

Right now, though, your two work units have taken you to position seven on the top 20 producers list :)

http://fahstats.com/usum.php?u=889494 takes you to your own page where it shows the last units you worked on - judging by your log you are due for another one in the next update!

That page is derived from the main Stanford data as far as I know, so until you appear on Stanford's progress page there's no point looking anywhere else.

Dojo's third unit has appeared, by the way, so he's now folding over 600 points per day :thumbsup:

Dojo's third unit has appeared, by the way, so he's now folding over 600 points per day :thumbsup:

He will average in excess of 1000 points per day based on the actual times of folding - putting him as comfortably the 3rd fastest folder in the team! - any of you ther mac users care to try?

As you say, Dojo's rate is 1% of a 600+ point work unit every 10 minutes or so. That comes out to close to 1000 points per day.

Half a dozen more iMacs and Mac Pro's, each turning in that kind of level, would DOUBLE our total team rate.

C'mon, guys. You're wasting CPU cycles! Get Folding :D

Top 20 Producers
Rank Name 24hr Avg Total
1 IglooDude 2,151 399,242
2 AlanH 1,342 41,111
3 sahkuhnder 1,001 87,862
4 dojoboy 865 7,360
5 VRWCAgent 515 149,117
6 HP&H 328 115,163
7 taper 281 40,176
8 Ruff_Hi 139 9,011
9 schmiddi 113 28,584
10 RFHolloway 113 7,172
11 JonnyB1 113 6,874
12 Minute_Man 111 23,137
13 lost_civantares110 72,307
14 Colonel_here 92 9,587
15 Lord_all_Mighty 73 10,841
16 Furiey 71 12,626
17 ironduck 60 15,617
18 Louis_Rogerson 57 14,623
19 Gingerbread_Man 57 8,805
20 gahst7 56 9,107

Dojoboy has just overtaken me after little more than a week of dedicated folding, I have been folding for about 3 months! Notice the 2 macs are in positions 2 and 4 in terms of rate. Igloo dude has a whole office full of PC's, and he's not folding that much faster than Alan!

Dojoboy has just overtaken me after little more than a week of dedicated folding, I have been folding for about 3 months! Notice the 2 macs are in positions 2 and 4 in terms of rate. Igloo dude has a whole office full of PC's, and he's not folding that much faster than Alan!

I set up my old eMac, G4, to fold as well. So, my totals are skewed in this respect.

The SMP client is working better now. The 4 threads get an equal load and there is no longer a little idle cpu time. It really does crank out the work and points.

My Mac Pro SMP client is churning out points at a crazy rate since I installed it at the end of last month.

I've had a couple of aborted work units that returned a percentage of the results, and on Sunday my system tried a work unit three times, each time it aborted at 44% without returning any results. But even with these reductions it's performing very well. It is now folding 1440-point units, taking 20 hours each. It's successfully completed two of them so far. This suppresses my apparent daily average by about 20%, until hopefully, two complete in the same day.

Dojoboy has leapt into the top echelons of TeamCFC with his iMac, folding close to 1000 points per day.

This looks like some really cool stuff. Can I switch between clients without messing up my stats? I'd like to try out both the graphical and CLI and see which I'm most comfortable with

Hello, welcome :wavey:

What sort of Mac do you have, and how much of the day do you leave it turned on?

If it's a dual core Intel Mac, and it's turned on most of the day then you'll be *much* more productive using the SMP (multiprocessing) client.

If not then you should use a single CPU client. There's really no difference between the CLI and graphical clients, they both use the same actual processing software. The graphical client is easy to install and get going, and I never felt the need to even try the CLI one, so I don't know what advantages it offers.

If you have an Intel CPU, but it's either single core or not on all day, your Mac single-CPU client will suffer a performance hit, as they haven't compiled a Universal Binary version, so it runs in Rosetta emulation mode. You *might* therefore want to try running a Linux single-CPU client in a Parallels or VMWare virtual machine, where it will be running as Intel-native code.

This looks like some really cool stuff. Can I switch between clients without messing up my stats? I'd like to try out both the graphical and CLI and see which I'm most comfortable with

should be fine as long as you use the same user name (and team number;) )

I WISH i had an intel mac. But no, imac G5. Runs civ well enough...
After I configured the graphical client, and opened the CLI, the CLI client seemed to pick up the settings from the first one. Pretty cool... welll, that would make sense seeing as its basically the same app.

I think I'll stick with the cli, if for no other reason than seeing a semi transparent window of green text on my desktop is cool. :)

You know, I never would have heard about this if not for the post. Thanks!

Those of you running the SMP client might want to check it. The version that I had was a beta that expired Feb. 1, so I had to go get the latest version. It was the cli version, I have no idea if the fancier one is on the same schedule.

It's the same software, and both expired on 1 Feb. The will have finished the unit they were folding at the deadline, and will probably not have started another.

I run the one with an easier installer. It can be stopped and started in the System Prefs, and otherwise it behaves the same as the CLI version. Neither have a (working) GUI for status display, so the easy way to monitor them is by displaying the ~/Library/Folding@Home/FAHlog.txt file in the Console.

Has something changed on the Mac folding - You seem to be getting a bunch of 1440 point units, and poor dojoboy has hardly folded anying in the last week! are those 1440's large work units?

Yes, I wondered where Dojoboy had gone too. My system is still folding 1440 point units (projects 3024 and 3026, mostly). It does one every 20 hours if everything is stable. Unfortunately, every now and then something disrupts the flow, so my average is not up to scratch. My old Mac is still doing work as well, but it gets through 300+ point unit every 10 days or so.

I thought it might be something like not having set the large work unit flag so he wasn't getting the 1440's and was stuck with regular work units.

Dojoboy has the SMP client, so he'll get what he's given. There isn't a Large Unit option as far as I know. His Mac is a dual Core system, so he was getting the 600-750 point units when he was running.

My guess is he's stopped the client, or else he's switching his Mac off or letting it sleep too much and his client isn't returning work in time for the deadline. Another possibility is that he hasn't updated his client. The SMP client is a beta, and the one he was using expired on Feb 1.

Dojoboy has the SMP client, so he'll get what he's given. There isn't a Large Unit option as far as I know. His Mac is a dual Core system, so he was getting the 600-750 point units when he was running.

My guess is he's stopped the client, or else he's switching his Mac off or letting it sleep too much and his client isn't returning work in time for the deadline. Another possibility is that he hasn't updated his client. The SMP client is a beta, and the one he was using expired on Feb 1.

Unfortunately, I've had to restart my iMac a few times over the past week, due to updates and a random quit, which is likely a bug w/ the iMac. Also, we left town for a couple days and my wife shut down the eMac before I could stop her.

Man, I dropped out. I d/l'ed and installed the latest SMP Client last night. So, hopefully I'll be folding again soon.

Just lost about 30 hours while mine tried the same work unit three times and failed at 50% each time. Finally it's back on track having given up on that unit, reloaded the core, and just completed a new 1440 pointer.

is the multi processor core still officially in beta test? thats why you are getting more failures than usual (and also why you are getting some of the extra points ;) )

Yes, it's a beta.

I'm not getting extra points because of that, as far as I know. The points for each work unit are determined by working out how long it would take on a standard Pentium of some flavour, and giving a proportional score based on that. The work units that the SMP client runs are very big, and get a lot of points because I'm effectively running four computers in parallel.

Wow! Dojoboy is now running 1760 point units every 36 hours!

Go Dojo :thumbsup:

and he hit 50,000 points over the weekend - go Dojo!

w00t! w00t! :D

Bump! you ceerazy Mac people!

Bump! you ceerazy Mac people!

New OT Thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8169291)

Bump! you ceerazy Mac people!

New OT Thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8169291)

hahahahahahaha ! :crazyeye::lol: