People running Chrome browser usually brag about speed and simplicity. Now, they have another reason to brag about, helping scientists fight diseases, such as cancer, by donating their unused CPU Cycles to the Folding App. The Folding App is currently in Open Beta testing and is available for download in the Chrome Web Store. Read on to learn how you can make a difference by helping humanity...
The new Folding@Home App was made possible by a collaboration with Google, Huang Lab (at UST Hong Kong) and Pande Lab (at Stanford University). The primary objective for this Folding App is to make it as simple and easy as possible to fold, thus regardless of your technical skills, you can participate in the Folding@Home Project. It is currently in Open Public Beta and is available in the Chrome Web Store.
In order to use the Folding App, you need to cover these three basic requirements:
1) Use the latest Chrome Browser in Windows, Linux, or OSX (Details)
2) Install the Folding App from the Chrome Web Store (Details)
3) Launch the Folding App and you are now folding!
Remember, you may configure the Folding App with a username (Details), Guru3D's Team number (69411) and a passkey (Details). Do note that the passkey is needed if you want to earn additional points for successfully finishing the Work Unit (WU) quickly.
Those unwilling to sign-up for a Google account to access the Chrome Web Store, worry not, we have you covered! There is a direct link which currently works in any Chrome Browser installed on Windows, Linux and OSX (Details) so you too can help in this worthy cause.
This is the first F@H Client that is fully open sourced and is powered by Google's Native Client (NaCl) technology. The Folding App uses a new Assignment Server (AS) and a new version of the Work Server (WS) which exposes a JSON interface with additional security for third party developers. The folding is done on a Gromacs (version 4.6.5) based FahCore which is closed-source for security reasons. Third party developers are encouraged to participate in the development (Details) and users can also keep track of open issues (Details). Developers can view the log file generated from NaCl by choosing the console view from the DevTools Window.
Since the initial step to fold in a browser on a computer has been achieved, it is quite possible to see the same happening on smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices.
Finally, those Guru3D Members who dislike their GPUs idling can always install the V7 F@H Client which can make full use of your AMD/Nvidia GPUs when you aren't gaming or benchmarking them. Windows support all recent AMD/Nvidia GPUs (Details). Currently, Linux supports only recent Nvidia GPUs but AMD GPUs are expected to be supported in the future (Details).
For further details, you can refer to these links:
Official Folding App Forum
Folding App FAQs
Third Party Forum
Folding@Home Homepage
Chrome DevTools
