Table of Contents

Overview

Software

Folding@home’s software consists of five key components

Web Control

is a simple web-based page with high-level controls for managing the Folding@home software

Advanced Control

formerly known as FAHControl, is a detailed interface aimed at more technical users

FAHScreensaver

is a screensaver that waits for the system to become idle, then activates FAH and a simple visualization

FAHClient

is the behind-the-scenes manager of the folding process. It processes commands, and communicates with the servers when receiving and sending Work Units.

FahCores

any of a series of underlying highly technical and scientific programs that performs the molecular dynamics simulations such as protein folding.

FAHClient is the central piece of software. Web Control and Advanced Control are graphical interfaces on top of it, and they as well as the FAHScreensaver communicate with FAHClient. FAHClient downloads Work Units and needed FahCores from the servers, and uploads completed WUs when the FahCore finishes its work. For new installs, FAHClient will now start off paused while it waits for you to either tell it to fold anonymously or configure a name and/or a team and/or passkey before the first Work Unit is downloaded.

In Windows, FAHClient has gained its own system/notification tray icon which now has features found previously in Advanced Control. This allowed us to run FAHClient behind the scenes in Windows, just like it does in Linux and OSX, yet still give you control over the process without having to run a low-level tool like Task Manager. It has a popup menu which allows you to quickly control folding or shut it down completely. Please note that in Windows 7 and above, system/notification tray icons automatically go in to the overflow area after 45 seconds. This is a “feature” of Windows and Microsoft has intentionally made it very difficult to get around this. You can configure Windows to always show the icon or you can find it again easily by opening the icon overflow area.

FAHClient can be run in the command-line; this means that is possible to run Folding@home without Web Control or Advanced Control. FAHClient has an API for third-party applications and can be controlled via Telnet. For documentation on all of these things, see the V7 Advanced page.

Servers

Folding@home uses a client-server architecture. The software first asks the Assignment Server (which acts as a load balancer) for an available and appropriate Work Server. The Work Server then sends back a Work Unit (WU). A FahCore may also be downloaded from a Web Server, depending on the WU. The completed unit is then sent back to the same Work Server, with a designated Collection Server as a backup. Log files and credits are then collected from the Work Servers and passed to the Statistics Server for tabulation and display.

Advanced V7 Details

Performance Levels for Web Control’s folding power slider

Advanced Control

Documentation for Advanced Control is currently at this page on the V7 wiki.

FAHViewer

FAHViewer’s documentation is currently located at this page on the V7 wiki.

For More Information, Please See:

• FAH FAQ
• Folding Support Forum

Last Updated on May 05, 2015, at 04:20 PM