The Folding@Home distributed computing project, which uses the computing power of the computers of the joined participants to research and develop drugs against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, has attracted more than 400 volunteers. Gregory Bowman, head of the Folding@Home initiative, spoke about this.
βWe had about 30 thousand users before the coronavirus pandemic. But in the last two weeks, 400 volunteers have joined Folding@Home,β said Mr Bowman, confirming that the project had seen a 000% increase in participation in such a short period of time.
Let us remind you that the Folding@Home initiative is a distributed computing platform in which the computer power of project participants is used to conduct scientific and medical research. At the end of February this year, representatives of Folding@Home announced the creation of a global computer network to facilitate the development of pharmaceuticals to combat coronavirus. According to available data, the computing power of the project participants is currently being used to study the functioning of protein molecules involved in the suppression of COVID-19 by the immune system. Folding@Home's computing power has previously been used in research into breast cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and others.
Not so long ago, it was announced that the largest American cryptocurrency miner Ethereum CoreWave redirected the computing power of 6000 of its video cards to the needs of Folding@Home. According to some estimates, dedicated graphics cards generated computing power at the level of 0,2% of the total hashrate of the Ethereum network. In recent weeks, several more major cryptocurrency miners have joined the Folding@Home project, and graphics chip maker Nvidia followed suit on March 14, calling on gamers to participate in an initiative to combat the coronavirus.
Source: 3dnews.ru