Greetings,

We are starting a beta test for the GPU version of AutoDock for the Open Pandemics - COVID-19 project. There are a few minor changes to the code still to come. However, this first version is running stable in our internal testing and we know volunteers are very eager to help.

Here are some important points about this beta test:

* There will be multiple batches as part of the beta test.
* We are using the OpenCL version (1.2) and a binary is available for NVIDIA, ATI, and Intel GPUs on Windows 64 bit, Linux 64 bit, and macOS 64 bit.
* Initial batches for beta will have multiple sizes, and the estimations on their runtime could be way off.
* Some of these work units will be set to run the same size as the CPU version, while others will run more jobs within a single work unit to allow for more efficiency.
* We will start the beta very slow, and monitor the initial results to determine if/when we can ramp it up.
* We are going to be having validation turned off initially, as we have done in the past betas.
* These work units will return 2 files, one that will be larger and has more logging details for the researchers.

To be able to receive any beta work, volunteers will want to make sure that on the website under My Contributions -> Beta Testing, they have checked the device profiles that they wish to participate in beta.

Also, there is a change to the website to allow work on each GPU vendor. For this, volunteers will need to go to Settings->Device Manager->Device Profiles. From there, select each device profile you wish to run GPU work on and scroll down to the Graphics Card Usage section. In that section you can select which type of cards you want to allow to run between ATI/NVIDIA/Intel. In this section there is also a setting to allow GPU work while your computer is in use. It is recommended to set this to no (which is the default setting). While GPU work is running on the card that drives your display, your general computer usage may be impacted.

Thanks,
-Uplinger