We are happy to announce that version 7.2.9 of the Folding@home software
is now available at foldingathome.org. The ultimate goal of Folding@home has always been to support disease research
but we've also understood that one of the best ways to do this is to make
folding fun and easy. This is why we continual push to make the
Folding@home software easier to install and use while still adding
advanced features for power users optimizing their machines for maximum
points. This software release makes strides forward on all fronts.
One of the more visually interesting and fun features is our much improved
3D viewer. It is now able to display proteins from many more folding
projects, works on more graphics cards and uses less CPU time. This code
is also being used as the basis for the upcoming screensaver which is
currently in testing.
Those with the latest and greatest hardware will be glad to know that this
version supports automatic updating of the GPU white-list. In practical
terms, this means Folding@home will be able to support new graphics
hardware more quickly, as it becomes available and with out requiring new
software. We will publish a new GPU white-list periodically and the
client will automatically update its list of supported GPUs on startup.
We are also proud to announce that we recently hired OSX guru Kevin
Bernhagen. He has been working hard to bring the OSX release up to our
standards. With the v7.2.9 release we are taking the v7 software for OSX
out of beta for the first time. There is still much work to do but this
release should offer many improvements over the v6 beta that was
previously the recommend release for OSX and should integrate better with
the OSX environment better than the previous beta software.
Many other improvements have been made. The folding forum thread titled
FAHClient
V7.2.9 (8th Open-Beta) lists the changes in more detail. While you're
at it, join in the forum discussions and let us know if you run into
problems, have a great idea or just what to tell us about the awesome new
folding rig you've setup.
We are far from done improving Folding@home. Many new features are in the
works including simpler installers, even better OSX support and easier
more intuitive user interfaces. There are also some surprises on the
drawing board which we are very excited about but not yet ready to
announce. So stay tuned and thank you for continuing to help support
disease research at Stanford and universities all over the world.