Distributed Folding

MancabusMancabus Charlottesville, VA
edited July 2003 in Folding@Home
This may seem like a silly idea, but does anyone know of a way to use multiple computers to fold a single WU.

I mean taking maybe 10 computers and dedicating all the CPU's in each to a single WU.

This would involve something with clustering I think.

I'm just not sure how that would be implemented though.

Any Ideas?

Comments

  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    I really do not think this is possible. Unless you'd like to write your own client...
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    there are several linux "farm" programs that can combine several PC's to run like one PC and then you could run F@H on that.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    I can't find the link, but I read about a guy who built his own linux super computer. No cases, just had the MB's lined up on shelves, like the ones you buy at IKEA.

    He had about 20 boards with memory and processors. One monitor, one OS install, one keyboard, one mouse and one HD!

    And lots & lots of cables.


    Prof

    edit - Kant Spel
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Better yet, find his e-mail and get him FOLDING for us!! :eek:
  • tychotycho Santa Barbara, California!
    edited July 2003
    yeah thats what we need

    /me ponders his thought for a second
    i propose that SM18 be built as a supercomputer

    i even saw an article where these guys took a whole bunch of PS2's and rigged them together to act as a supercomputer.... food for thought ;)
  • mondimondi Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    heh, what are the chances of one us geeks (thats right .. I called you a geek) housing a supercomputer and just leaving it folding ... probably pretty slim :)
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    tycho said
    yeah thats what we need

    * tycho ponders his thought for a second

    i propose that SM18 be built as a supercomputer

    i even saw an article where these guys took a whole bunch of PS2's and rigged them together to act as a supercomputer.... food for thought ;)

    You won't get much technical help from me with linux (I'll be happy to learn what I can), but I might have some parts which aren't up to snuff for a standalone Folding box which might be useful in something like that.


    Prof
    (See - I'm learning linux already: I referred to a computer as a "box"!):crazy:
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    I still can't find the one I was referring to, but here are a few interesting links:


    http://nasw.org/users/bschachter/Tree.html

    http://www.amnh.org/science/genomics/research/computing.html

    http://www.gcn.com/archives/gcn/1998/september7/43.htm

    http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=4361


    The last link mentions a book which looks very interesting. The guy writing the book review started with five AMD 400MHz K6's.


    Prof
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2003
    Yeah there are a lot of those seti monsters of such.

    As for breaking up a folding WU and splitting it to several other computers wont work. The WU builds upon itseld. Its sequencial. One part has to be done before the next part.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    what's the point really?
    actually it would be nice to have an os to use all of the cpus as one ...sorta like reverse hyperthreading I suppose ...just to generalize.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Mmonnin is correct. The program I was thinking of is openmosix ( www.openmosix.org ) or there is a program that clusters (knopix, I think). Either way, if you had 4 PC's running the cluster/ farming program, you would have one PC that could perform 4 threads concurrently. But like mmonnin stated, F@H is sequential and thus a cluster/ Farm would not work. You <b> could </b> run 4 instances of F@H at the same time though.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Aren't the Ausies folding with a few of these?
    It might be fun to try a few of these.
    I have a couple of old KT7 boards that might work for this.
    But I don't know Linux so I can't do it.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2003
    Prof: Is this the page you were looking for?

    http://ws9.jobnegotiator.com/html/flinks.html
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    mmonnin said
    Prof: Is this the page you were looking for?

    http://ws9.jobnegotiator.com/html/flinks.html

    Nice find, mmonnin. I looked for that rascal for an hour last night. :respect:
    Looks like some fun stuff there.


    Prof
  • MancabusMancabus Charlottesville, VA
    edited July 2003
    I figured there would be some kind of gotcha.

    I only wondered cus I can get pc's for about $10 or so, but they are all Pentium 2 proc systems which probably don't fold that fast.

    I would like to see 2 min per frame, but that won't work I guess.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    $100 would probably equal between 3 and 4Ghz - Hard to beat that :D.

    Too bad P2's don't have SSE.

    I'd love to have a cluster folding for us. Think we could stash it next to the webserver and make Prime take care of it? We don't keep him busy nearly enough :bigggrin:
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2003
    Hehe prof that was my first google search. Search for prime and monster or seti and monster and it will go to the main site of that. Took me like 2 seconds for the master googler.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    mmonnin said
    Hehe prof that was my first google search. Search for prime and monster or seti and monster and it will go to the main site of that. Took me like 2 seconds for the master googler.

    Rub it in...;D


    Prof
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