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Folding@Home 3.0 FAQ

What's new with Folding@Home 3.0? We've made several changes to the 2.0 client -- enough that everyone should strongly consider upgrading (and well worth the "3.0" label). However, many of the features work with the old client (in particular the new scientific cores) so if you're client is working well, you don't need to upgrade.

Download the beta

You can download the betas at http://vsp27.stanford.edu/beta3. There are beta versions for linux and windows. Since these are betas, we have expiration dates on them and they will expire on June 4, 2001. By then, we will either have new beta versions or hopefully a release version. Please post comments about the betas to the forum (http://forum.folding-community.org).

What's new?

1. Better user security. There is now extra protection for users running Folding@Home (we use schemes similar to SSH [a public/private key infrastructure] for maxmimal security).

2. New scientific cores. We have integrated Genome@Home into the F@H infrastructure. Soon, the F@H 3.x client will allow one to choose which project (and eventually, sub parts of the project).

3. Faster scientific cores. Our new MD core (based on Gromacs) is considerably faster (10x to 20x).

4. Better network compatibility. We now be able to transmit packets over HTTP port 80 if needed. The last firewall problems should be solved.

5. Improved client. There are lots of miscellaneous fixes to the client, including a completely overhauled graphics engine, better configuration, etc.

6. New forum. We are encouraging people to switch to the new forum (http://forum.folding-community.org). We will check the Yahoo groups pages occaisonally, but we will treat the new forum as the primary discussion area.

We are working on additional features which will likely also become part of "3.0", but these are the changes we are currently rolling out.

What will remain the same?

Essentially, everything else will remain the same. Unlike our big jump from 1.0 to 2.0, going from 2.0 to 3.0 will not be a big deal. Mainly, we're adding a lot of new functionality (especially on the science side), but nothing significant changes to how you use it (eg no changes to the stats).