Preparation for SMP Client
There are many ways to aid in the research for Folding@Home. Depending on one’s specific situation, a different client may be of more benefit than other ones that are available. The two primary clients that are in use today are the GPU client and the SMP CPU client. The GPU client runs the processes on the user’s graphics card, which with recent technology has allowed for the increase in processing power and a decrease in output time. The SMP CPU client is a multi-core client that utilizes all (or a specified number with a special client parameter) of CPU cores and is currently the most popular client to date as more and more users are shifting to dual- and quad-core CPU’s. Instead of going over the setup procedure for all of the clients, I will be going over the client console for the SMP program. In my opinion it is one of the best clients to use and allows for larger outputs of data, which means more information for the scientists to use.
The first thing that you will need in order to configure the client is the actual program, which can be found here: http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/release/FAH6.30-win32-SMP.zip. This is a Windows SMP2 client that can be installed on either 32- or 64- bit systems. Once you have downloaded the file, the next step is to find a place that you want to hold the folder as well as the working data for the client. A good place to put it would be in your C:\Users\<YourNameHere>\Documents folder, under the name Folding. It takes up between 75 and 150 megabytes while it is running so you will not be at a loss for space because of this program. Once the folder is created, extract the .zip file you downloaded from the previous link into the new folder.
- To make the following steps are easier to complete, rename the Folding@home-Win32-x86 executable file to something simple, such as folding.
- The next step assumes you have extracted the contents to C:\Users\<YourNameHere>\Documents\Folding and changed the .exe file name to folding.
Open up a command prompt window and type cd c:\users\<YourNameHere>\documents\folding. This changes the directory to where the .exe file is that we need to configure. Next, type folding –configonly –smp. This brings up the console for the SMP client. If you have done everything correctly so far, this is what your screen should look like:
[…] Quote: For years distributed processing projects have been running in order to speed up the research process. Distributed processing clients are programs that are run across multiple machines worldwide. This allows for the researchers to gain access to a wealth of information faster than if they were to use a supercomputer. LINK: TechwareLabs Editorial: Folding@Home Configuration Guide […]
[…] Folding@Home Configuration Guide @ TechwareLabs […]
[…] Quote: For years distributed processing projects have been running in order to speed up the research process. Distributed processing clients are programs that are run across multiple machines worldwide. This allows for the researchers to gain access to a wealth of information faster than if they were to use a supercomputer. LINK: TechwareLabs Editorial: Folding@Home Configuration Guide […]