One element of this I’d like to understand better is the trade-off between donating your own compute (i.e. donating money you’re spending on electricity) compared to donating money directly to a protein folding effort that utilizes cloud computing. In general, how do the hardware savings of using an existing device compare to the greater efficiency of cloud computing? Is the key innovation of Folding@Home that they’re able to obtain in-kind electricity donations from people who wouldn’t otherwise donate money to fund the effort?
One element of this I’d like to understand better is the trade-off between donating your own compute (i.e. donating money you’re spending on electricity) compared to donating money directly to a protein folding effort that utilizes cloud computing. In general, how do the hardware savings of using an existing device compare to the greater efficiency of cloud computing? Is the key innovation of Folding@Home that they’re able to obtain in-kind electricity donations from people who wouldn’t otherwise donate money to fund the effort?