Distributed Computing Wikiclass | Tutorial / Distributed Computing Platforms

A Distributed Computing Tutorial by Steven Choy

Activitiy 1

Go to the website of Folding@Home

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved.

Folding@Home (also known as FAH or F@H) is a distributed computing (DC) project designed to perform computationally intensive simulations of protein folding and other molecular dynamics (MD). It was launched on October 1, 2000, and is currently managed by the Pande Group, within Stanford University's chemistry department, under the supervision of Professor Vijay Pande. Folding@home is the most powerful distributed computing cluster in the world, according to Guinness, and one of the world's largest distributed computing projects. The goal of the project is "to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases." (Source)

Download the Folding@home software application
Install the Folding@home software application
Run the Folding@home software application
Observe the CPU and RAM usage of your PC by FahCore_81.exe
Find out how long does it take to finish a work unit on your machine.

Some Questions to Explore

Can you download more than one unit at a time?
Why not just use a supercomputer?
How do the results get back to the main server?

Activitiy 2

Go to the website of BONIC. Study what BONIC is.

Some Questions to Explore

BONIC is an open-source software for volunteer computing and grid computing. Discuss the main differences between BONIC and Folding@Home.
Find out the user in Hong Kong who have done the most work on a single computer.
Find out five BONIC-based projects that have attracted the largest extent of volunteer computing.
Was there any linkage between Folding@Home and BONIC? (This webpage gives you a hint!)

Activity 3

Go to the website of World Community Grid. Study the project.

Some Questions to Explore

What is the linkage of World Community Grid and BONIC?
Find out the number of members in Hong Kong that joined the Grid Community Grid.