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Folding @ home: Corona support from the gaming scene

While aid in the corona crisis is currently being organized through local neighborhood aid on a small scale, international research can rely on support from the gaming scene. Among other things, Stanford University and hardware developer Nvidia called on players to take part in the “Folding @ home” project.

This is software that enables users to donate the computing power of their computer. It was developed by Stanford University at the beginning of the millennium and specializes in supporting medical research projects with unused computing capacity. In particular, it deals with studies from molecular dynamics and the folding of proteins, which is elementary for the research of many diseases and which requires high processor performance. Since then, several scientific institutions worldwide have used the offer to research vaccines and therapies against Covid-19. On the Project website describe the exact research objectives in detail.

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“Folding @ home” server overloaded

Many users apparently followed the call, the rush to the project was sometimes no longer manageable. In the Folding Forum, donors complained that the servers no longer worked, as “Gamestar” reports. “We are overwhelmed by the support we receive from our new donors,” writes the initiative in the forum. For a quick solution, two new 100-terabyte servers were installed to intercept the large request. In the meantime, more than 200,000 teams, each with several donors, have been registered.

To help, users can simply install the appropriate software on their device. In a three-stage model, everyone can decide for themselves how much the CPU / GPU performance of their computer is used. In between – for example when playing – the software can be paused again and again.

RND / mkr

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