Adding a completely new way to fold, directly in the browser

['Cuda340]

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February 24, 2014 by Vijay Pande ·

Through a collaboration with Google, the Huang lab at UST Hong Kong, and the Pande Lab at Stanford University, we’ve been working on a new way to run Folding@home –– through the browser. The primary goal here is to make folding much easier to run, especially for non-expert computer users.

Open beta. We are happy to announce that we now ready to release a first open beta test of the web client. It uses Google’s Native Client (aka NaCl) technology, allowing one to run Folding@home in a browser.

launch_appIf you’re curious to check it out, you can go to the FAH Chrome Store link. Note that this only runs in Chrome (minimum version 31). For support questions, we have created a new subforum at foldingforum.org.

Requirements. In order to use the Folding App, you need to cover these three basic requirements:
1) Use the Chrome Browser (Details) in Windows, Linux, or MacOS-X
2) Install the Folding App from the Chrome Web Store (Details)
3) Launch the Folding App and you are now folding!

Please note that there are some additional options which you can use to enhance your Folding experience:
1) You may configure the Folding App with a username (Details), Team number (Details) and a passkey (Details) though none of these are required. Please note that passkey is needed if you want to earn additional points for successfully finishing the Work Unit (WU) quickly.
2) If you don’t want to install the Folding App, you can always use the direct link in any Chrome Browser installed on Windows, Linux and OSX (Details).

Open source. This is the first F@H Client that is fully open sourced. The F@H Native Client (NaCl) 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.

Next steps. Finally, as many will probably notice, this opens the door to naturally moving Folding@home from the browser on a computer to a browser on a phone or tablet. We are actively investigating those possibilities.

Goto source page for links.

 

['Cuda340]

Don't know how many of you gave this a try but fyi the servers are down.....

Postby xhuang » Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:42 pm

The NaCl server (folding5.ust.hk) is down for maintenance. The estimated back time is Friday, Hong Kong time (Thursday night, CA time).

 

[harlam357]

Very cool... and now I know why I've been getting emails about monitoring "Chrome Folding".

 

[Janus67]

That's pretty cool. Wonder how configurable it is for number of cores/etc.

 

['Cuda340]

It's not.

Please note that there are some additional options which you can use to enhance your Folding experience:
1) You may configure the Folding App with a username (Details), Team number (Details) and a passkey (Details) though none of these are required. Do note that passkey is needed if you want to earn additional points for successfully finishing the Work Unit (WU) quickly.

Aside from those three, there is nothing to configure. Though that is not a negative, rather what they were after.....Simplicity

 

[Janus67]

That's what I thought. But that leaves to question how much power it will decide to use. I wouldn't have a problem running it on my machines (granted they already have full client) but not if they will use all cores/threads and bring browsing/etc to a crawl.

 

['Cuda340]

You can select how resources are allocated. Sorry for not mentioning this earlier but when setting up a client i'm always all in so i don't look for settings like that. My bad.

Just a simple slider: light -- Med -- Full

 

[HankB]

As I'm looking at that image, I'm trying to click on the little 'x' in the upper right of the popup to see what is under it.



<sigh>

 

[MongGrel]

As I'm looking at that image, I'm trying to click on the little 'x' in the upper right of the popup to see what is under it.



<sigh>

 

['Cuda340]

It appears servers are offline again.....

DEBUG: Warning: Unexpected response to WU assignment request: error,PLEASE_WAIT (464)
DEBUG: Status: waiting: Waiting to retry work server assignment

 

[HayesK]

looks like the server is back on-line. started getting a credit for a few nacl wu at the 6pm cst update, and back to normal at the 9pm update.

 

['Cuda340]

FYI....

There appears to be a points issue with the NaCl client (Chrome). Currently being addressed.

Re: Problem with points

Postby VijayPande » Mon Mar 31, 2014 2:17 pm

We'll look into this. There should be no change in points for NaCl -- the projects should be the same as when we launched into open beta.

 

['Cuda340]

FYI........it appears NaCl client servers are offline again.....

DEBUG: Warning: Unexpected response to AS assignment request: error,No appropriate assignment main.js:77
DEBUG: Status: waiting: Waiting to retry work server assignment main.js:77
DEBUG: Status: downloading: Requesting a work server assignment. main.js:77
DEBUG: Status: downloading: Requesting a work server assignment. main.js:77
DEBUG: Warning: Unexpected response to AS assignment request: error,No appropriate assignment