(2009) Anton is a recently completed special-purpose supercomputer designed for molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of biomolecular systems. The machine’s specialized hardware dramatically increases the speed of MD calculations, making possible for the first time the simulation of biological molecules at an atomic level of detail for periods on the order of a millisecond—about two orders of magnitude beyond the previous state of the art.

(2010) The distributed-computing project Folding@home has achieved aggregate ensemble simulation timescales similar to those Anton has, specifically achieving the 1.5 millisecond range in January 2010.
(2012) With some innovative coding, a GPU that retails for about $500, and the widely used software package of molecular simulations called Amber, the researchers were able to run a simulation showing the same five long-lived structural states of a specific protein as observed in a simulation conducted by D.E. Shaw Research’s Anton, a purpose-built molecular dynamics (MD) supercomputer.
While the team’s aMD simulation was only 500 nanoseconds long, or .0005 of a millisecond, the group was able to sample all of the structural states seen in the longer timescale simulation run on Anton.

This really is quite baffling. I am baffled.

(2009) Anton is a recently completed special-purpose supercomputer designed for molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of biomolecular systems. The machine’s specialized hardware dramatically increases the speed of MD calculations, making possible for the first time the simulation of biological molecules at an atomic level of detail for periods on the order of a millisecond—about two orders of magnitude beyond the previous state of the art.

(2010) The distributed-computing project Folding@home has achieved aggregate ensemble simulation timescales similar to those Anton has, specifically achieving the 1.5 millisecond range in January 2010.
(2012) With some innovative coding, a GPU that retails for about $500, and the widely used software package of molecular simulations called Amber, the researchers were able to run a simulation showing the same five long-lived structural states of a specific protein as observed in a simulation conducted by D.E. Shaw Research’s Anton, a purpose-built molecular dynamics (MD) supercomputer.
While the team’s aMD simulation was only 500 nanoseconds long, or .0005 of a millisecond, the group was able to sample all of the structural states seen in the longer timescale simulation run on Anton.

This really is quite baffling. I am baffled.