Folding@Home for the Nintendo Wii?

[icecoolwas]

The Wii looks like to me, a good console to run folding@home on. The wii has standby mode where the WIFI connection/LAN Adapter is activated and is constantly tranfering data from the internet, thus you could have your wii on standby mode and it will still fold (If the application is made in the correct way)

specs:
Processors:
* CPU: PowerPC-based "Broadway" processor, made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process, clocked at 729 MHz
* GPU: ATI "Hollywood" GPU made with a 90 nm CMOS process, reportedly clocked at 243 MHz[84]

Memory:
* 88 MB main memory (24 MB "internal" 1T-SRAM integrated into graphics package, 64 MB "external" GDDR3 SDRAM)[86]
* 3 MB embedded GPU texture memory and framebuffer.

[ashleylist]

Hi there,

Not to sure on the power in comparison to the PS3 cell processor, though i am guessing it’s not as good. Other tec head can help with that.

You would need a team at Nintendo to develop the code with Stanford uni as the PS3 team have, and given the current economic climate I cannot see it happening. Though a letter to Nintendo seeing if they would be interested in working on the project is worth a go, If feasible from a pure technical point of view.

[7im]

Hello icecoolwas, welcome to the folding forum.

This has been discussed before.

http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=68
http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=713

[Zagen30]

Folding@home doesn't constantly transfer data over the internet; it only uses the internet to upload/download WUs, while all other work is done solely on the hardware. As 7im's linked posts indicated, a 729 MHz single-core PPC is pretty slow by today's standards, and while the Pande Group certainly appreciates any and all contributions, as ashleylist said, a lot of time and money would have to be invested in creating a new client which would probably not give significant returns on the investment.

Not that I'm saying that every Wii owner is tech-illiterate, but as we all know it's sold so well in large part due to the casual crowd who are not very tech-savvy. Do you think they'll really jump on board a project like this if it means they have to leave their console on a lot? I get the feeling that a lot of Wii owners would be hesitant to risk damaging their consoles (especially since they're still not all that easy to find!), even though the Wii seems to be well-constructed and sturdy (i.e. not the 360 with the RROD, disk-scratching, etc.).

[ztmike]

Its to bad Mircosoft hasn't ported a Folding@Home project to the Xbox 360, that is the only other console that has the technology in it to run this.

[7im]

Its to bad Mircosoft hasn't ported a Folding@Home project to the Xbox 360, that is the only other console that has the technology in it to run this.

I see you found the Xbox thread here: http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8342

Regardless of the hurdles, neither is likely to become part of the fah project. Maybe the XBOX 720 or the Wiii will fair better.