Via the NCSA:

The NCSA wrote a very easy to understand, yet quite complete article with explanations about David Baker’s Rosetta project, an theoretical approach to deduct a protein’s structure using computer-simulations.

Things I learned from this article:

1. The code does not start with a “flat” protein-molecule, starting to wiggle it around, but with a “homologous known protein structure” as a starting point. I don’t understand if that’s good or bad, but it limits the permutations to be checked.
2. David created a portal known as Robetta, where other biologists can submit their models to be crunched.
3. The Rosetta-project (not to be confused with Rosetta@home) uses a lot of CPU-hours on NCSA’s clusters and supercomputers (Tungsten Linux Cluster, NCSA Condor Flock, and now possibly TeraGrid resources)

However, quite a nice read, go and grab it while it’s hot!

Tech Tags: BOINC distributed computing Rosetta@home Science

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search reports that they’ve probably found the 44th Mersenne prime:

“On September 4, 2006, a computer reported finding the 44th known Mersenne prime. Verification will begin shortly, probably taking a week or so to complete. If it is verified, this will be GIMPS’ tenth prime!”

A nice little introduction to Mersenne primes and Mersenne numbers in general can be found at Wikipedia.

Tech Tags: distributed computing

The probably heaviest request from users during the last BOINC user-survey was definitively “Introduce a more fair credit-system”. It’s still kind of frustrating that some projects hand out lots of credits per CPU-hour where others are more close-fisted with their credits. And there’s also the issue that we have “calibrating” BOINC-clients which sail around the known credit-issues and manipulate the claimed credits for a work-unit.

Some people consider this cheating, others claim that this is self-defence – their argument is “why should we get less credit in total even if we crunch more data per day?”

Both have a point, so some projects finally decided to go away from the naïve BOINC credit-scheme (which is based on the internal benchmarking algorithm) and create their own, CPU-hour based scheme.

For instance, Einstein@home recently “tuned” their credit-calibration (1) again to be more fair – silently – which caused an outcry from some people because they’ll issue less credits in general now. Rosetta@Home introduced a new credit-mechanism as well, but is more transparent (transparency is the major pro for Rosetta@Home anyway).

Why would someone who’s into science care about the credit-system anyway? There’re several reasons: Motivation and individual success is the absolute base for public voluntary distributed computing, something which some people out there didn’t understand yet. If you want to build up and maintain a large user base you need to give them incentives. Credits, public blessings, and – important – constant reports about the project’s success which show more than just how many percent of the project is already done like RC5 does. (OK, i have to admit, there isn’t much to report in the RC5-project, but you get my point, don’t you?)

And that’s the reason why you have to care about how many credits you issue and how you discuss the credit-issue in public – never underestimate the so-dubbed “credit-whores” – they’re your user-base and might wander of to projects which hand you more credits. If you’ve lost a user you’ll never get him back – most probably.

Be opportunistic and go for the high-performers even if they’re just after the credits. Be nice to your users and give them real reports every couple of weeks. Participate in the fori and give your users feedback. If possible, organize parties to meet your users (no one ever said anything about that you should pay). Optimize your science-application and be as fair as possible with the credits. Take rants and criticism serious. If people start optimizing your science-application: Embrace the changes and let them take part in the validation-process.

Remember: Even if tuning your science-application to be as efficient as possible takes a lot of effort, remember: Your users will thank you because they can crunch more data and you push your project onto a new level.

Corrections:

(1)

Bernd Machenschalk from the Einstein@Home-project correctly pointed out that they did not change the credit-system but only the calibration of the system they’ve introduced with the S5-run.

Tech Tags: distributed computing BOINC rants

Via the BBC:

Sony and folding@home start working together to develop a native folding@home application for the Playstation 3 which uses the Cell CPU. The BBC claims that 10,000 Playstation 3 consoles would make a raw processing-power of “a thousand trillion calculations per second” – read: 1-Peta-FLOPS.

“A graphical interface, also being developed between Sony and FAH, will eventually allow users and the scientists to look at the protein from different angles as it folds in real-time.
The graphics application is currently undergoing tests and is expected to be finished by September.
When the program is released to PS3 owners, the scientists say they will be able to “address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally”.

Tech Tags: folding@home Distributed computing

Ben Owen of the Einstein@home science-team posted an update about the ongoing efforts; this posting was done in the Science-forum, not on the frontpage, where one would expect it.

He reports that the National Science Board officially certified the project as “reached the initial design goal” which means “we’re officially in business”. He also points out that the S5 raw-data is twice as good as S4 was; they had some problems with the precission of their interferometers, mostly due to construction-works outside the L1-site.

Check out the forum for more details.

Tech Tags: einstein@home boinc distributed computing

Via rosetta@home’s Number Crunching forum:

RALPH@home is the official alpha test project for Rosetta@home. New application versions, work units, and updates in general will be tested here before being used for production. The goal for RALPH@home is to improve Rosetta@home.

So if you got any spare CPU-cycles and want to help improving cutting-edge rosetta@home applications, go and sign up!

Tech Tags: rosett@home boinc ralph@home distributed compunting

Today, on Monday the 7th, the CASP7-contest is over and the Rosetta@home-team needs to submit their results, as user Feet1st reminds us; so, if you’re a Rosetta@home-cruncher, return your result immediately through marking the rosetta@home application and pressing the “Update”-button in your BOINC-manager application:

Also, if you followed David Baker’s request for more more power, keep in mind that CASP7 will be partly re-evaluated and that further crunching helps science, although CASP7 is over.

Please keep also in mind that Rosetta@home got a 10-mio.-USD grant from the Melinda and Bill Gates foundation for searching a vaccine against the HI-virus. We don’t know yet when those new WUs will be issued, stay tuned for further updates.

Thanks you for crunching for Rosetta@home.

Tags:
rosetta@home, boinc, science, distributed computing, casp

The Register reports thath there are rumors in the wild claiming the SETI@Home has finaly found an extraterrestrial signal.

Some guy called Steven Greer of CSETI, allegedly a a “professional SETI watcher” according to El Reg, alleged that SETI-insiders told him that they’ve found a really strong signal which was jammed from earth right after the discovery.

Sounds like yet-another-conspiracy and i find it quite amusing that those news hit the ‘net after people started questioning if SETI@home is the right thing.

Dear cruncher-colleagues from SETI@home: Don’t let those people ruin your day and keep on crunching!

Tags:
CSETI, seti@home, BOINC, rumor, conspiracy