Folding Forum

For a class project, I am looking to implement a Linux based cluster. I currently am looking to build this cluster to implement a folding@home farm. I only have three computers to work with, they are all Pentium 4 processors that do not have hyper threading capabilities. I know that these processors will provide far less power than the energy required to run them, it's more to serve as a concept than an actual work horse. My question is, will Pentium 4 processors be able to be used in the Folding@home project without being able to hyper thread? I don't seem to find a definitive answer on if single core processors can be used in a folding farm setting.

Welcome, Dan2539.

Unfortunately I don't think you've come to the right place.

FAH is not designed to run on clusters. It is designed to run on computers typically found "at home." It will make excellent use of a multi-cored CPU (they're pretty common now) but if you installed it on your cluster, you'd have to run INDEPENDENT copies of FAH on the individual nodes of your cluster.

There are some tasks that can benefit from effectively dividing a complex task among a cluster of slow computers but FAH is not one of them. It just sees a number of slow computers, -- essentially treating them as if they were not a cluster.

Thanks, I could have sworn that I saw examples of diskless nodes attached to one single controller used for clustered folding. If I remembered correctly they were HT P4 processors however. I may have been incorrect with their application in folding.

FAH can run on a diskless node as long as it has access to permanent storage somewhere, but it still runs on a single node.

FAH is, in fact, a massive cluster of single computer nodes interconnected by a very low speed connection (the internet). It's not written for clusters within its nodes. It does distribute assignments that will run on individual P4 processors, whether they are running Linux or Windows (or MacOS, although there really aren't any Mac systems that have less that a CoreDuo.)

Origami should satisfy your needs (I think)

http://origami.zelut.org/documentation.php

Can you tell us the intent of your class project?

Your post seems to mix terms vs fah capabilities. Yes, you can run a diskless, headless folding farm of individual blades doing individual work. I started with PentiumII-300 x 6 and grew it to about 30 ( mixing PII, PIII, P4 and AMD chips). But you need a tftp server or network cards capable of PXE boot ( most every NIC these days ) and a boot server containing the boot image.

Beowulf Clusters were also popular back then. Think they are called blade servers now with better interconnects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_cluster

Current fah clients produce more work on singe Multi-Core CPU than what 3 P4 singe core cpu's produce. For instance, I just removed a P4 2.8 from my rack because it was putting out more heat than my 2 Processor ( 32 core ) machine.

It's great to see that your interest is peaked by distributed computing, but we need more info of your intent. Then we can point you in the right direction.