- Joined
- May 31, 2004
I been told this a lot and not once has anyone been able to give me poof. ever!
Some quotes from here: <--- link now fixed
Folding@home differs from many other projects in that it is important for WUs to be completed in a timely manner.
Work Units are serial in nature. When a completed WU is sent back, a new work unit is generated from those results. This must happen many times over within each project (group of work units). A generation 1 work unit must be turned in before a generation 2 work unit is created and sent out.
To keep these generations moving along, we have to set expiration deadlines in the event a work unit is not uploaded in a timely manner (lost, deleted, whatever). These unfinished work units "expire" and are reassigned to new machines. You will still receive credit for all WUs completed and uploaded prior to the Timeout (formerly preferred deadline). However, after the Timeout, your contribution is not as useful scientifically because another copy of that work unit had to be sent out to another contributor.
It is most helpful to the project to return work units as quickly as possible.
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So as you can see, a dumped WU becomes less scientifically useful, slows the project because the same WU has to wait to be reissued and subsequent WUs depend on previous results.
The whole object is fast science, so dumping WUs isn't compatible with that goal.
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