
Nvidia calling gaming PC owners to put their systems to work fighting Covid-19 - micael_dias
https://www.gamesradar.com/nvidias-calling-on-gaming-pc-owners-to-put-their-systems-to-work-fighting-covid-19/
======
slizard
It would be nice if NVIDIA donated compute time on one of their large in-house
machines the DGX SuperPOD [1] or the DGX SAturn V [2] (#20 and #67 on the last
Top500, resp.) for COVID-19 research. Running simulations in a data-center is
far more efficient.

[1]
[https://www.top500.org/system/179691](https://www.top500.org/system/179691)
[2]
[https://www.top500.org/system/178928](https://www.top500.org/system/178928)

~~~
dahart
Sure, agreed. But Folding@Home is setup for home, and both of those machines
put together add up to the equivalent of maybe 1k-2k gaming rigs. Putting
aside looking for the maximum possible efficiency, crowd sourcing has the
potential to scale to many orders of magnitude larger than what can be done in
a data center.

~~~
slizard
> But Folding@Home is setup for home,

Nothing prevents running the fah client on nodes of a compute cluster -- in
fact my colleagues did that (while running a local F@H server), though that
was a number of years ago just because they wanted take advantage of the
distributed computing facilities provided by the client-server setup and
built-in algorithms.

> crowd sourcing has the potential to scale to many orders of magnitude larger
> than what can be done in a data center.

Potential it does have, but I am skeptical of the "many orders of magnitude"
claim ever having a chance to materialize. I'd love to see a cost / benefit
analysis on the effective amount of useful work contributed vs the cost of the
same in a data center.

~~~
dahart
> I am skeptical of the "many orders of magnitude" claim ever having a chance
> to materialize.

The many orders of magnitude has already materialized
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI@home#Statistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI@home#Statistics)

“On September 26, 2001, SETI@home had performed a total of 1021 floating point
operations. It was acknowledged by the 2008 edition of the Guinness World
Records as the largest computation in history.[22] With over 145,000 active
computers in the system (1.4 million total) in 233 countries, as of 23 June
2013, SETI@home had the ability to compute over 668 teraFLOPS.[23] For
comparison, the Tianhe-2 computer, which as of 23 June 2013 was the world's
fastest supercomputer, was able to compute 33.86 petaFLOPS (approximately 50
times greater).”

~~~
XMPPwocky
"On September 26, 2001, SETI@home had performed a total of 1021 floating point
operations."

Just to clarify, I think HN formatting ate a caret here (now dang can see in
the dark!) and it's supposed to be "10 to the 21"; either that or floating
point math is much harder than I remember.

~~~
pvg
No caret was in the original so none was eaten - it's just a superscript.

------
nicholsonpk
It's a nice thought from a community manager but I just checked Nvidia's
GeForce Now game streaming service where I pay $5 a month to get access to 6
hour sessions and a ray tracing GPU and it's not available. Seems like a
better headline would be "Reddit user reminds PC gamers that Folding@Home
exists. Nvidia's twitter account agrees."

~~~
anamexis
Certainly Nvidia could just use the spare capacity themselves to do it,
instead of asking paid subscribers to do so.

~~~
readingnews
You would think. And where is AWS? Spare cycles for humanity?

Its like driving through some burger joint where they ask you to spare change
for the needy... since you know, you have so much money, and the burger joint
can not possibly afford it.

~~~
ubercow13
Is it likely that a large cloud company has more spare capacity than the sum
of all home GPU owners? I'd have thought a cloud company would optimise for
the maximum possible utilisation of their infrastructure, whereas most gaming
GPUs are probably off 99% of the time.

------
bestboy
Reddit's r/COVID19[1] has gathered big teams for Folding@Home and Rosetta@Home
to crowd-source computing power against COVID19.

The F@H team COVID19@REDDIT[2] has ID 236269, if you are interested to join.

[1] [https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19](https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19)

[2]
[https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&...](https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=236269)

~~~
dunefox
Where does it say that they're actually using the compute for COVID-19?

~~~
bestboy
They have an announcement on their web site[1] and on twitter[2].

Also the web client shows information about the executing tasks (e.g. [3][4]).
The COVID19 tasks are prioritized and will be executed when you keep the
target settings of the client at default ("Any").

[1]
[https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/10/covid19-update](https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/10/covid19-update)

[2]
[https://twitter.com/foldingathome/status/1238568504200253442](https://twitter.com/foldingathome/status/1238568504200253442)

[3]
[https://apps.foldingathome.org/project?p=11749](https://apps.foldingathome.org/project?p=11749)

[4]
[https://apps.foldingathome.org/project?p=14329](https://apps.foldingathome.org/project?p=14329)

------
juskrey
Any actual progress have been made from all that decades of distributed
folding?

~~~
mwill
folding@home alone has 223 peer reviewed papers

[https://foldingathome.org/papers-results/](https://foldingathome.org/papers-
results/)

~~~
juskrey
I was asking about actual progress

~~~
zouhair
How do you think science work? It's like losing weight and gaining muscle, you
have to work hard at it and there is no moment in time where you can say that
that's the moment you lost weight or gained muscle. It is all incremental
progress.

~~~
burntoutfire
Still, would be nice to be able to point to some tangible result, such as
"knowledge obtained eventually led to developing of better treatment for bone
cancer" etc.

~~~
Mirioron
Doesn't even have to be that. It would even be interesting to know what has
been figured out based on the folding even if it hasn't led to any
improvements in medical treatments.

------
einpoklum
I went here to get started:

[https://foldingathome.org/start-folding/](https://foldingathome.org/start-
folding/)

and started running the client, but...

* The fahcontrol DEB package is not compatible with Debian 10 / Devuan 3.

* There is no APT repository.

I'm willing to do folding@home, but not take-care-of-their-devops-issues@home.

 __Edit: __Apparently, indeed, the folding@home work I would be doing doesn 't
have much in particular to do with covid-19. I feel a bit cheated here.

~~~
wtracy
Maybe someone's already done this and I haven't noticed, but having Docker
and/or Flatpack images for this seems like an obvious way to include as many
machines as possible.

~~~
bestboy
docker images:
[https://hub.docker.com/search?q=foldingathome&type=image](https://hub.docker.com/search?q=foldingathome&type=image)

kubernetes:
[https://github.com/richstokes/k8s-fah](https://github.com/richstokes/k8s-fah)

~~~
SNaf5aa48
Kubernetes chart which runs with StatefulSet so compute time would not be lost
when node is going down and/or pods are being rescheduled:

[https://github.com/pcktdmp/charts](https://github.com/pcktdmp/charts)

This design pattern is extremely useful when running for instance on AWS Spot
Instances.

------
xvilka
There is also Rosetta@Home[1] and they have a related research too. They even
provided some useful results[2] already.

[1] [https://boinc.bakerlab.org/](https://boinc.bakerlab.org/)

[2] [https://www.ipd.uw.edu/2020/02/rosettas-role-in-fighting-
cor...](https://www.ipd.uw.edu/2020/02/rosettas-role-in-fighting-coronavirus/)

------
Austin_Conlon
Also take a look at Rosetta@home:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22528992](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22528992).

~~~
Bombthecat
Yap, running it right now on my pc with a rtx 2060.

~~~
Leo_Verto
Does Rosetta have GPU projects these days? I was under the impression that it
only ran on CPUs.

~~~
pauliephonic
Yeah, version I'm running (7.14.2) will use GPU and/or CPU

~~~
schwarze_pest
No, you are misinformed. For rosetta there is neither a version 7.14.2 (that
would be BOINC) nor are there any GPU projects.

------
radarsat1
Upate: Service still fails to start but I just ran FAHClient manually again
and it connected and is now processing a job apparently, so must have been a
temporary glitch. Cores and GPUs at full throttle according to htop. Don't see
anything indicating whether what it's doing is related to COVID-19, so blindly
hoping it's helping with something, but I'll leave it on. (Says: "project
14307"??)

\---- original post ------

I was just trying to get it running on Ubuntu 18.04 in response to this post
but I'm just getting a lot of errors with not very useful error messages. Any
ideas?

When I run FAHClient manually I get, 21:04:10:WARNING:WU01:FS01:Failed to get
assignment from 'X.X.X.X:8080': No WUs available for this configuration

(I replaced the IP address with Xs)

When I try starting the service I get an error and journalctl -xe gives me,
e.g., (unedited, it actually says "result is RESULT")

\-- Unit FAHClient.service has begun starting up.

Mar 14 22:02:27 poole FAHClient[17956]: Starting fahclient ... FAIL

Mar 14 22:02:27 poole systemd[1]: FAHClient.service: Control process exited,
code=exited st

Mar 14 22:02:27 poole systemd[1]: FAHClient.service: Failed with result 'exit-
code'.

Mar 14 22:02:27 poole systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Folding@home Client.

\-- Subject: Unit FAHClient.service has failed

\-- Defined-By: systemd

\-- Support: [http://www.ubuntu.com/support](http://www.ubuntu.com/support)

\--

\-- Unit FAHClient.service has failed.

\--

\-- The result is RESULT.

~~~
qiqitori
[https://apps.foldingathome.org/project.py?p=14307](https://apps.foldingathome.org/project.py?p=14307)

For a more user-friendly UI, you can also go to
[https://client.foldingathome.org/](https://client.foldingathome.org/), which
will then attempt to communicate with your client on port 7396 and display the
project description among other things. (This also lets you change some
settings)

For those running on servers, you can telnet 127.0.0.1 36330 to control your
client.

If you just want the project numbers quickly, you can do grep project
/var/lib/fahclient/log.txt

------
ralphc
I've taken my "gaming PC" to Ubuntu for running Tensorflow & Keras. Is there a
Linux version of this?

~~~
inamberclad
Yes, the Folding@Home site has debian packages.

------
arprocter
It's a shame there isn't a Folding app for PS4, considering you could run it
on PS3

~~~
igetspam
Agreed. I have an unused ps4 in a box that could be used. I already have a
spare laptop doing some work right now.

------
SCdF
You can of course just run folding@home on your CPU as well, no nvidia
requirement... required.

~~~
cbg0
At this time they are not sending covid CPU projects to clients, only GPU
ones.

~~~
DelightOne
I only got a CPU project, but no GPU (GTX 1080).

> No WUs available for this configuration

~~~
SpikedCola
Same problem on my GTX 1050 (just tried updating drivers, no change). However,
my laptop's GTX460M has pulled down project 11745 and is folding away.

EDIT after fiddling with gpu-index, cuda-index, and opencl-index (had to
manually set them to point to my GTX 1050 [also have a BARTS card that is
unsupported]) I was able to get a WU to download :)

~~~
nocture
how do you find the correct index values? My 2080 Ti receives no work.

~~~
SpikedCola
In my log window I see:

    
    
      GPUs: 2
      GPU 0: Bus:1 Slot:0 Func:0 AMD:4 Barts XT [Radeon HD 6800 Series]
      GPU 1: Bus:2 Slot:0 Func:0 NVIDIA:7 GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 LP] 1862
      CUDA Device 0: Platform:0 Device:0 Bus:2 Slot:0 Compute:6.1 Driver:8.0
      OpenCL Device 0: Platform:0 Device:0 Bus:2 Slot:0 Compute:1.2 Driver:378.49
      OpenCL Device 1: Platform:1 Device:0 Bus:1 Slot:0 Compute:1.2 Driver:1800.8
    

I want to use the GTX1050, so I set gpu-index to 1. Only 1 CUDA device so I
set cuda-index to 0. To use the OpenCL device for the GTX, I looked at the bus
# (bus 2), found OpenCL device on bus 2 (device 0), so I set opengl-index to
0. Not sure if this is the right way, but it worked for me.

------
rdiddly
If it's crowdsourced GPU compute you want, why not hit up crypto miners too?
Maybe slightly less altruistic than gamers, but still.

~~~
bestboy
Many crypto miners are indeed doing F@H at the moment. Either via curecoin[1]
or by lending/joining their rigs to one of the teams[2].

[1] [https://curecoin.net](https://curecoin.net)

[2]
[https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_list.php](https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_list.php)

------
deadmutex
Are others able to download the fah client for Windows? I am getting a 502
when I try to visit
[https://download.foldingathome.org/](https://download.foldingathome.org/).

------
scotty79
Is there a way to force foldit@home to work specifically on coronavirus
related jobs?

I installed it few days ago but got so far random assortment of other tasks
and nothing about coronavirus so far.

~~~
bestboy
Explanation by the director of F@H on twitter:
[https://twitter.com/drGregBowman/status/1238930030585143297](https://twitter.com/drGregBowman/status/1238930030585143297)

------
ConcernedCoder
I'm so glad to see people stepping up to donate compute resources to one of
the best (IMHO) uses of computers, helping humanity.

Thank-you everyone.

------
caycep
In this day and age when one can spool up any number of GPUs on AWS, how much
can crowdsourced GPUs add?

~~~
aharrison
Assuming your question is in good faith, the answer is: when you rent
something on AWS, you are paying for total cost of ownership sliced out. When
you run something on your gaming rig GPU, you already paid for the machine/GPU
- now you are "just" paying for electricity and depreciation. So if you have a
gaming rig sitting around while you are writing a web app or whatever, let it
do some science for just the cost of electricity.

------
bullen
For people heating their home with electricity this is an option,
unfortunately you cannot force GPU only!

~~~
lancemjoseph
Not true. You can select CPU and/or GPU. You can even choose to use specific
GPUs by index number. So it's quite flexible.

~~~
bullen
In that case it's a GUI problem, I could not figure out how to do any of that.
I only want to use the GPU = preferably zero CPU cores.

------
fortran77
Out of curiosity, are Macs and AMD GPUs not powerful enough for this sort of
thing?

~~~
pwg
Some AMD GPUs are supported (in beta test). Here's the 'requirements' page:

[https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/installation-
guides/li...](https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/installation-
guides/linux/requirements/)

------
marcosscriven
I’m unable to view this page - it refuses to accept my ad blocker on iOS

~~~
saagarjha
Try using Reader mode.

------
bionhoward
This is cool because it can help quickly determine structures if the virus
mutates. However, the obsession with structural biology isn’t necessarily
optimal, because we’re talking about shapes of things (analog, constantly
changing) instead of discrete states of molecular circuits. Check out the book
“wetware: a computer in every living cell” —- cells figured out logic long
before we did. Treatments which operate from a structural paradigm, like small
molecules, antibodies, and vaccines, are analog. Treatments which operate from
a sequence / switching / circuit paradigm are digital.

The digital solution is stronger: delete Coronavirus RNA. This isn’t dependent
on shape of some molecule and how some other molecule docks with that inside a
molecular blender. Genome engineering targets sequences directly, works with
novel viruses right away, tolerates mutations with wobble base pairs, works in
immunocomprimised patients, has potentially zero side effects, etc etc

I applaud these efforts but implore you to consider: why throw a fancy
molecular wrench into the virus machine when you can instead set the “virus
switch” to “off?”

If anyone’s gonna grok the benefit of digital over analog, it ought to be the
Hacker News community. The hardest part is delivery, we need to affordably
mass produce nano particles with the CRISPR DNA inside. That’s the number one
thing holding back biotech from curing many diseases including this one: AAV
is the standard vector but it only works once before you’re immune to the gene
therapy.

here’s a link to a repo (WIP) to target nCoV with CRISPR
[https://github.com/bionicles/coronavirus](https://github.com/bionicles/coronavirus)

If you can help mass produce nanoparticles with microfluidics or self assembly
please email me bion@bitpharma.com

Folding At Home is cool. Is folding and shape-medicine the best way to cure
human disease? How do we know the answer to that unless we try to program
cells like we program computers?

------
dzhiurgis
How does this compare with results published by DeepMind?

------
q3k
Wouldn't this qualify as datacenter use and as such violate the consumer
nvidia driver EULA?

------
jchallis
These are the victory gardens of our new home front.

------
nu11p0inter
I find it ironic that this is behind a paywall. My default policy is to just
find the article elsewhere.

------
doteka
82

------
mtzaldo
Imagine putting those bitcoin farms to work...

------
doteka
Ppl pmllsiqqhq hlaz pp. plans

~~~
teddyh
Are you all right?

------
fritex
Someone gets $$$$ from mining my CPU, great one! :(

~~~
johnghanks
What an amazing hot take.

------
microcolonel
It'd be interesting if they added a F@H button to GeForce Experience.

------
xwdv
Wouldn’t AMD chips be far more powerful for this?

