Folding Forum

I got a new CPU, and ran some basic tests on it before using it for Folding@home. But it would be great if I could find out (eventually) whether my results cross-validate successfully. If not, I can take my client offline to avoid further pollution, unless the issue turns out to be other users' hardware.

I'm assuming Folding@home gives every work unit to at least two clients, and verifies that both produce the same result.

The folding core does some basic sanity checks while processing, and the WU is checked further when returned to the server. But due to the nature of how F@h works, as much as possible each WU is only assigned once.

Welcome to the F@H Forum joeyadams314,

As Joe_H explained, F@H is unique when compared to other Distributed Computing projects where generally speaking, the WU you fold is unique to you. Any errors in folding will be logged into the log file for you to review. If you're unsure, you can always post the log file here for us to analyze. If you require guidance on posting the log file, please review this topic: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=26036

You can check all work units returned by your username
https://apps.foldingathome.org/cpu?q=

There are rare instances where a Work Unit is assigned multiple times:

If you remove the slot it is working on, this is reported to F@H and the WU is reassigned.

If your hardware is so slow that the time outs expire, it will be reassigned.

For some error conditions, your WU is sent back to the server and reassigned.

But, in general, your WU proceeds uneventfully to completion and is never reassigned to any other volunteer.

F@H is not assigning make work.

joeyadams314 wrote: I'm assuming Folding@home gives every work unit to at least two clients, and verifies that both produce the same result.

False assumption.

That's what Seti@home does but they have a lot more donors than they have work so reprocessing WUs that somebody else has done is not considered as wasteful. Except for the recent COVID surge, FAH has been much more sensitive about needing every donor working on unique work units.

It's possible that the surge in donors is temporary and things may change once the virus issues are resolved. (Donors will probably change their Cause_Preference setting back to "any" disease.)