Folding@home 1.2 released

Download the latest version of Folding@home to enjoy the latest features and functionality.

Developed by Stanford University, Folding@home is a distributed computing project that can be run on PlayStation 3 and which aims at understanding protein folding, misfolding and related diseases. Effectively, people throughout the world download and run software to band together and make one of the largest supercomputers in the world.

A new version of Folding@home was released in August 2008 and includes a number of new features:

Support for Remote Play for PSP: Folding@home can now be operated through the Remote Play feature of your PS3 system, meaning you can use your PSP to access the application remotely (latest PSP system software required.)

Visibility of PS3 Donor Locations on the Globe: The markers indicating PS3 system donor locations on the globe have been improved to differentiate between daytime and nighttime areas.

Support for Additional Proteins Simulations: Additional computation cores are now supported. This allows Folding@home for PS3 to support a wider range of protein-folding simulations.

Advanced Participation Mode: An advanced participation mode has been added to Folding@home for PS3. This mode allows Stanford University to send simulations of varying computational lengths to users of Folding@home for PS3.

In Advanced Mode, an energy graph during the simulation will also be displayed. In this graph, the blue line represents the total energy level of the protein over time. The red line represents the average temperature level at which the current simulation is run.

Because the simulations in this Advanced Mode can take significantly longer, Advanced Mode is only recommended for contributors who run Folding@home for PS3 for at least eight hours per day.

Screensaver Mode: A screensaver mode can now be activated via the Settings menu. After no controller input has been detected for three minutes, the screen will go blank except for a logo that periodically moves to avoid screen burn-in. Any controller input will exit the screensaver mode. This feature allows your PS3 system to consume slightly less power and to increase performance of protein-folding simulations.

Link to Project Description: A link has been added to the Information menu that allows you to obtain additional information quickly about the specific research project that you're currently contributing to.

Protein Visualisation Enhancements: All visualisation modes have been enhanced with improved shading, highlighting, and focus effects. In addition, four new visualisation modes have been added: Backbone (not available for all proteins), Tapioca, Caviar and Licorice.