I’d like to be the first one to congratulate Folding@home users for being recognized by Guinness World Records as the most powerful distributed computing network in the world! The record was set on September 19, 2007 when F@h surpassed a petaflop.
For those of you who have been following the stats and have read my previous blog posts, which explain all about petaflop computing, this might not come as a big surprise. However, to get this sort of recognition does put things in a perspective.
Professor Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead, said it best:
“To have Folding@home recognized by Guinness World Records as the most powerful distributed computing network ever is a reflection of the extraordinary worldwide participation by gamers and consumers around the world and for that we are very grateful. Without them we would not be able to make the advancements we have made in our studies of several different diseases. But it is clear that none of this would be even remotely possible without the power of PS3, it has increased our research capabilities by leaps and bounds.”
More F@h news: thanks to the guys at Stanford University, the web pages have been updated to a new look, you can check that out by going to any of the information pages under the main menu of the program. For example, Folding news is now updated on a daily basis.
In team wars: DL.TV is fighting to get into the top 20 teams, and surpassed team engadget (which is now at the 24th place). SCEA team is at the respectable place of 126, so as you can see it’s a close race.
Click here for more details on this prestigious milestone.
Congrats to all those who’ve contributed to this milestone. Go, Playstation forums team #55265!
Good, I am over the 400 WU done.
Makes me proud to be a part of it all!!
now why dont you use the data for something…
congrats! i run an ibdie studio called Team KAIZEN–we are lookin to make a game for ps3—long story short we have a F@H team–our num is 55264 so, for those of you not on a team, PLEASE LOL we’d like to have more team members. (check out our site http://www.teamkaizengames.com we have the F@H banner at the top with our team num in it)
Out of curiosity, how many here are doing the more advanced computations (the ones you have to opt-in for, that take like 6-8 hours to complete but are worth more points)?
This is cool, congrats again everyone we kick @$$!
NICE!
Good PR at least!
I hope that someday all this folding will have a real outcome-
congrats!
what has this done??\
Folding@home rarely works with me.
[…] Sony Press release has more details: The record was initially set on September 16, 2007 as Folding@home surpassed one […]
Pretty cool!
little ole me has reached 46 units….going to speed up the units over the next two weeks….this news reminded me of folding home…ignored it because of playing so many games and blu ray movies. nice to help others plus a bonus i just started another series of cancer treament so have interest in folding home in a most personal way
@#8 try to delete it (hit triagle on the F@H icon on the XMB) then redownload it and reinstall it–that worked for me when it acted up.
Congrats to all of us.
We’re awesome, but I’m sure we all knew that already. ;)
Helping science FTW!!!
congrats everybody 200+ and folding hehehe
@zookey | November 1st, 2007 at 10:49 am
First congrats to Sony and PS3 owners!
Second, zookey i checked your site…very cool i like some blogs you guys posted there.
This studio is totally unknown to me (well i guess it has to be since it is young studio-2006)
I will keep my eye on your site and projects.
Keep on rocking the F@H. Go team 55265.
@JmChile
It’s given a lot of people something to do with their PS3 until a game could be developed for people to play. All seriousness aside; how is this worlds record a good thing? Doesn’t this scream that more PS3 are burning cycles folding instead of the PS3’s intended use…gaming?
congratulation :)
@PsychoEddie
Way to rain on everyone’s parade.
Making a statement like “how is this worlds record a good thing?” is like saying, “why are people donating their time to help /contribute to charities – doesn’t that just mean they have too much free time?”.
And since you obviously don’t have a PS3, have been in a coma for a while, or climbing Everest, let me bring you back in the loop. In the past few months, Heavenly Sword, Warhawk, Ratchet & Clank, Folklore, EyeofJudgment, and Uncharted later this month, so the whole “no gamez 4 PS3! ohnoesz!!” thing is way old by now.
@Solace-
no doubt about the games, i can hardly find any time to sleep as it is, and now Uncharted is coming out!
Goodbye sleep, hello caffeine!
lol
From the Folding@Home FAQ:
————————————————
What has the project completed so far?
We have been able to fold several proteins in the 5-10 microsecond time range with experimental validation of our folding kinetics. This is a fundamental advance over previous work. Scientific papers detailing our results can be found in the Results section. We are now moving to other important proteins used in structural biology studies of folding as well as proteins involved in disease. There are many peer-reviewed and published in top journals (Science, Nature, Nature Structural Biology, PNAS, JMB, etc) which have resulted from FAH. Currently, the FAH project has published more papers than all of the other major distributed computing projects combined!
————————————————
In short, if you’re looking for some tangible benefit to mankind from the project in use in today’s hospitals, you may not find one. However, this is a naïve and short-sighted way to view scientific research. The Folding@Home people are doing fundamental research on how proteins are built. This project, or one like it, is sure to have tangible benefits in the future, even if those benefits are far off. For example, when Watson and Crick discovered the double helix structure of DNA, no diseases were thereby immediately cured, but this discovery has clearly had many real-world applications in the decades since.
Folding@Home does not simply exist to provide positive PR for the PS3. It is useful for people to be running it. I run it on my PS3 during downloads if I wouldn’t otherwise be using the system.
@Solace
We’re getting off topic here. This isn’t exactly rain, it’s more like “The emperor has no clothes”.
Actually I have two 60gb PS3’s. One still in the box and the other spends most of its time folding.
Ghost Recon: bought it, played it, Done.
Rainbow six vegas: rented it, played it, Done.
Resistance: Bought it, played it, Done.
Heavenly Sword: Rented it, Played it, Done.
Warhawk: Bought it, played it, Done.
Ratchet & Clank: Bought it, Playing it.
Folklore: not for me
EyeofJudgment: not for me
Uncharted: not for me.
But none of that/this changes the real results of the folding data; does it? There are more PS3’s folding than gaming, and if anyones parade is being rained on, it’s mine. I’d much rather be gaming that folding.
N’est pas?
great job
When i get the 40gb i will be sure to fold, probably most of the time as i work crappy 3rd shift and im only up after work till noon.
Can we get some sort of Tax Deduction for donating our precious PS3 computing power for the greater good in the medicine field? hehe just playin’. I’m glad that F@H got this recognition. Congratulations!
@ 22
You are an idiot.