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F@H vs. Distributed Folding

C

coastertux

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
311
What is the difference between Folding@Home and Distributed Folding? Which is better and more worthwile? I currently am running F@H.
 
Not sure if there is an answer available on the [H] or F@H sites, but this is an excerpt from a discussion on this same subject in the Distributed Folding forums.

"F@H is asking the question, "How exactly do proteins fold, what's the process, what comes first?" DF is asking, "How can we rapidly determine the final shape so the drug guys can get to work?"

For the more techno-geeks among us, F@H is the equivalent of research into compiler optimization. Very useful for a small group of researchers and has a lot of deep follow-on effects. DF is working on the equivelent of a database engine. This is what a much larger number of people need so they can get on with their work. Calling both of them software doesn't make them competitors."

I hope that gives you some idea of the differences.
 
So, which one has more far reaching, effects and which one will be useful further into the future? Which do you do?
 
coastertux said:
So, which one has more far reaching, effects and which one will be useful further into the future? Which do you do?
Click to expand...
I do both of course but have a preference for Distributed Folding. DF is probably a more 'here and now' type of project with benefits that will be seen in the short term. Naturally I am part of the OCAU team for both projects but decided to answer your initial question as I realise DF does not have a large presence in your forums.

F @ H I believe though will have longer term benefits and the knowledge they gain can be used by many others in the future. It is a great project and also worthy of support.

[H] as a team have a preference for F @ H although they do have a small Distributed Folding team. It really is a personal choice which project you do. I'd suggest doing some of your own research on both of their web-sites and decide for yourself.
 
Yes, they can be run concurrently. Some members do this, then it is a matter of balancing out the CPU usgae, or giving priority to one over another. A bit of playing around is sometimes needed to get it the way you want.

The key thing to be careful of though is RAM requirements. F@H does not have a large memory requirement, but DF does. To run DF at optimum speed you will need at least 150MB of RAM free, and that is actual memory, not virtual. If you don't have a lot of free RAM in your machine, or it is a system with limited RAM (say only 128MB) then DF will not be an option.
 
I'm pretty sure DF has a low memory usage mode, but it's not very efficient.
 
isp said:
I'm pretty sure DF has a low memory usage mode, but it's not very efficient.
Click to expand...
In standard mode it uses around 25MB of RAM, but runs at less than 50% of the speed available when using the extra RAM switch. With the current protein, RAM usage with extra RAM enabled is around 109MB.

You can certainly run at the slower pace, but for production purposes it is a big hit to take.
 
Thanks for clarifying.

I did DF for a little while, their servers couldn't handle the fast proteins though. I hope it's still not like that, as it was a bit of a headache trying to upload gens back then.
 
Server load problems can definitely be said to have been eased. We have just been through a protein update which historically has caused long delays in uploading results but this time, there were no such delays at all.
 
Those of you interested in Distributed Folding and what it is trying to do, may want to check out these guys: Predictor@home
They came in #3 at the last CASP competition... where the DF project came in about 300 out of about 600 entries. The P@H guys did that without DC help which is very impressive by itself. Check out their About page for more info. They are also using the BOINC project with their app. Something else to consider if you are pondering a move to another project, or have tired of the current one. Just an FYI update. ;)
 
Thanks Larry. For those interested in the CASP series of projects, CASP6 is currently up and running. I know the Distributed Folding Team are planning an entry into CASP6 but it is not known at this stage whether they will be utilising the resources available with distributed computing or containing it to their own internal Linux cluster. Work so far as we understand has only been on that internal cluster.

[H] does have a small team in DF and I'm sure they would welcome any support anyone in these forums may wish to provide, should you wish to look at another health related DC project.
 
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