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• e r.- December 31,2008 VouR COMbIUNITV Page 7
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doing on my adventure motorcycle
forum," Tomic said. "It struck a
competitive chord for me."
The forum has about 17
members who actively contribute
to the Folding@home program,
Tomic said. Overall, the project has
approximately 25.0,000 actively
participating CPUs.
He has since managed to move
up into the top 10,000 for amount of
work processed, he said. "But I've
got some heavy-duty horsepower
running here at no small expense, I
might add. That competitive gene
is expensive."
He has tried several different
video cards to find out which
perform the best, he said. The
program uses video card processors
first, followed by the CPU if the
video card isn't appropriate.
Many video cards in the
Nvidia 8000 and 9000 series are
able to handle the software while
older cards cannot.
"If I find a good cause and it
includes competition, so much the
better," Tomic said.
In addition to his own
computers, he is running satellite
machines in Bend, Phoenix and
Portland as well as some in the
shop for service.
The project started in Dr.
Vijay Pande's lab in Stanford's
Department of Chemistry and
Structural Biology. In 1999 Pande,
an associate professor in physical
and biophysical chemistry, wrote
algorithms that would enable
thousands of isolated computers to
calculate tiny portions of a folding
Garth Tomic's computer monitors shows the folding process at work at left. On the right side, he monitors fan speeds and performance.
sequence and combine their
solutions.
The "software downloads
work units from Stanford and then
processes them in the background
by simulating the folding of
proteins.
Proteins are biology's
workhorse, but before they can
perform their-functions in the
body's cells, which include
serving as antibodies, enzymes,
messengers, structural components
and transport/storage units, they
must transform themselves from
long chains of amino acids into
three-dimensional structures, a
process called "folding." This
folding process remains a mystery
in many ways to scientists,
When proteins do not fold
correctly, serious consequences can
result, including many well-known
diseases such as Alzheimer's, mad
cow, CJD, ALS, Huntington's,
Parkinson's, many cancers and
many cancer-related symptoms,
according to the program's Web
site.
Pande's program requires
massive processing power to
achieve simulations of the folding,
and Folding @ home received
recognition for this in the 2007
Guinness Book of World Records
for achieving the computing power
of one petaflop or 1 quadrillion
"floating point operations per
second."
The program has received
a number of awards, including
recognition for significant advances
in simulating protein aggregation at
the heart of Alzheimer's disease.
The software can run on
virtually any computer, although
the output of older machines will
be lower, Tomic said.
Even the lowliest laptop can
help to some extent, he said. He has
one laptop producing 67 points per
day while one of his big desktop
computers folds more than 2,000
points per day. Points are how
Folding@ home keeps track of how
much has been processed.
The software uses 100 percent
of the CPU's or graphic card's
processing power, but that isn't
anything to worry about.
"If the machine was designed
properly (and most are), it's
designed to run at 100 percent
without any grief," he said. "When
running properly, this shouldn't
slow down anything in the
foreground."
The software does not prevent
the use of other computer software,
although Tomic suggests turning
it off while playing graphically
intense games. Thesoftware works
in the background and backs off as
other software is in use.
He does have one caution
though, he said. "The interior of
the machine needs to be clean
because it's going to run at 100
percent."
Dust that coats heat sinks and
electronic components can cause
higher heat buildup, he said, and
that could lead to problems.
He recommends removing
the computer cover, blowing off
the dust and looking for failed
capacitors or obvious failures
before running the software.
Tomic said he will inspect and
clean towers for $20. He will send
all of that cash to the program at
Stanford University.
For those looking for further
information or interested in
donating to disease research this
way, visit folding.stanford.edu
on the Web, click on "Download
Folding@home" and follow
instructions. Tomic may be reached
at 367-6660.
To join Team Sweet Home,
Oregon, join team number 156891
inside the user account page.
For the sake of the friendly
competit!on between nearby
communities, Tomic is hoping
Lebanon and Albany will
create teams of their own, and
he is planning to contact other
computer technicians to join the
cause and take the lead in those
communities.
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