Just (re)joined S@H, couple of questions

[LoneWolf121188]

I originally joined the project in 02, but havent been seti-ing (whats the verb here? crunching?) for over a year now. Lemme tell ya, things have changed, and I could use a few steps in the right direction:

-What the heck is this credit thing all about? I have 10,751 hours to my name ("classic" CPU time) and 701 units, but no credits.

-Speaking of classic, when was the major revamp that divides "classic" and the new stuff? actually, a better question is whats the difference?

-is it multithreaded or should I open two instances at once? If I open one, I only see about 50% usage, but if I open two, I still see only 50% usage. Whats up here?

-how good of a cpu stress tester is this? If I can crunch for, say, 24 hours, is that a good indication of stability?

I installed the version with the GUI (not the command line one) because I didn't read the thread before I installed it, and also cause I'd rather have one app to do the SETI stuff instead of S@H, plus a bunch of other apps to read my current stats.

Anything else I should know? tweaks, etc?

And yes, I joined the OCF team, of course .

[EDIT] I just ran the benchmark, this is what I got:

8/20/2005 8:47:14 PM||Benchmark results:
8/20/2005 8:47:14 PM|| Number of CPUs: 2
8/20/2005 8:47:14 PM|| 2540 double precision MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
8/20/2005 8:47:14 PM|| 3260 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

Any good? [/EDIT]

 

[SunRedRX7]

-What the heck is this credit thing all about? I have 10,751 hours to my name ("classic" CPU time) and 701 units, but no credits.

I'm guessing your looking at your stats on the BOINC page. Those would be your classic stats, how many hous you crunched, and how many classic units you crunched.

-Speaking of classic, when was the major revamp that divides "classic" and the new stuff? actually, a better question is whats the difference?

Well its kinda been an on going thing since at least last August. BOINC/SETI isnt in full swing yet, as classic is still running. The BOINC version is the future of SETI though, so its the recomended way of running. Currently there are some issues with it. With BOINC/SETI credit is granted after the SETI computers compare your results to other returned results of the same WU to validate they are accurate. The validator at this time is behind, so there is much more of a delay to get credit for your work with SETI. From what I hear, 2 weeks or more sometimes.

This validation system is also how your credit amount is determined. You can read a bit about how your claimed credit is determined here http://boinc-doc.net/boinc-wiki/index.php?title=Claimed_Credit Different projects use a different method to determine granted credit.

Ah yes, the big difference of BOINC vs Classic SETI.

BOINC is open to allowing other projects run on the same computer. Credits for mutliple projects are also combinable to your & team total. http://www.boincstats.com/ a good stat site to check your totals.
There is usually a few day delay before your info(Cross Project ID) syncs up between projects to allow your totals to be combined. You also need to run the other projects on the same computer to allow this syncing to occur. Click the blue BOINC in my sig, theres some links to other projects in that sticky.

-is it multithreaded or should I open two instances at once? If I open one, I only see about 50% usage, but if I open two, I still see only 50% usage. Whats up here?

As long as on your account page at SETI under general preferences you have it set to allow to run on 2 processors, it will automatically run 2 instances.[/QUOTE]

-how good of a cpu stress tester is this? If I can crunch for, say, 24 hours, is that a good indication of stability?

I never really considered SETI to be a good stabilty tester, Work units will not crash when they compute eroneous results.

I installed the version with the GUI (not the command line one) because I didn't read the thread before I installed it, and also cause I'd rather have one app to do the SETI stuff instead of S@H, plus a bunch of other apps to read my current stats.

The BOINC version of SETI is much much better then classic seti was on this part. Running the command line gains you no time(as far as I can tell). Although you can get one advantage by using the BOINC install part and selecting to run as a service, it'll then run even when no one is logged in.
You won't have the option of using the screensaver graphics of BOINC, which unlike classic use very little CPU power since it relies on the GPU to display the graphics.

Anything else I should know? tweaks, etc?.

There is an optimized version for BOINC SETI, http://www.bomolai.com/seti_install.htm



BOINCs a whole new thing, you'll probably have some more questions, so fire away.

 

[Dk Jedi Allianc]

Welcome back to active duty

EDIT: With you joining up again - we are exsactly 2000 members

 

[Tyrinon]

Ditto! back to the team!

 

[Careface]

Welcome back

just a point id like to make about crunching and stability, my pc will crunch units no problem, no errors, nothing. Yet it will fail prime95 in a matter of seconds.. i guess its just the type of instructions given in prime that my venice doesnt like lol

Careface*

 

[LoneWolf121188]

SunRedRX7: That was an awesome little guide there. People like you are the reason I visit this forum 10+/day. To the rest of the guys that posted in here, thanks for the welcomes.

Dk Jedi Allianc: I'm gonna put in my sig that I am the 2000th member of the team. Do I get a prize?

Careface: My proc also errors out in prime after a few secs (well, core 1, anyway, core 0 is fine), barely passes superpi (again, core 1 errors out), but its stable enough for gaming and general windows usage.

anyway, SunRedRX7, you're right, I do have a few more questions:

About that optimization thing, can I use the YAOSCW-P-r8.1.zip file, as my proc has SSE3 support? They guy that wrote that obviously didn't know too much about AMDs .

If you choose to run more than one project, does it divide the time in half (10 min here, 10 min there), or run both at the same time, or what?

 

[Enkidu]

About that optimization thing, can I use the YAOSCW-P-r8.1.zip file, as my proc has SSE3 support? They guy that wrote that obviously didn't know too much about AMDs

For the record - I wrote that

It is a guide that consolidates what was a disparate set of instructions - and since it is based on the intel compiler options, it stands to reason it is intel focused

That said - read the table at the bottom of that page, it will tell you what AMD procs are supported for each client. To my knowledge there is no SSE3 client optimized for AMD (My never having seen it does not mean it does not exist).

In the interim I'd recommend using the best SSE2 client you can (That would be the -W-r8 client).

If you run into trouble let us know - between all of us I'm sure we can get you cranking

Welcome to the forums

Enk

 

[LoneWolf121188]

For the record - I wrote that

It is a guide that consolidates what was a disparate set of instructions - and since it is based on the intel compiler options, it stands to reason it is intel focused

That said - read the table at the bottom of that page, it will tell you what AMD procs are supported for each client. To my knowledge there is no SSE3 client optimized for AMD (My never having seen it does not mean it does not exist).

In the interim I'd recommend using the best SSE2 client you can (That would be the -W-r8 client).

If you run into trouble let us know - between all of us I'm sure we can get you cranking

Welcome to the forums

Enk

Oh, sorry about that. It just seemed like all the AMD stuff was an "add on", like the line of thought was: "SSE2: Intel Pentium 4 and compatible Intel processors.......Oh, right, and plus Athlon64". Anyway... :embarrased we really should have an embarrased smily

What exactly do you mean by "there is no SSE3 client optimized for AMD"? DO you mean that AMDs don't support SSE3? The E4 and E6 revision procs do (Venice, SD, Toledo, Manchester). I installed it anyway, we'll se what happens. How do I know if its working?

I also joined the LHC project and the Einstien project, joining the OCF teams for both. :thup

I think something is wrong with the multithreaded support...I've got it set to run on both procs in the prefrences, but when I open the task manager, I see 50% usage on both procs, which is typical behavior of a single threaded app.

[EDIT] BTW, Enkidu, check your PMs [/EDIT]

 

[SunRedRX7]

anyway, SunRedRX7, you're right, I do have a few more questions:

About that optimization thing, can I use the YAOSCW-P-r8.1.zip file, as my proc has SSE3 support? They guy that wrote that obviously didn't know too much about AMDs .

If you choose to run more than one project, does it divide the time in half (10 min here, 10 min there), or run both at the same time, or what?

THanks for the compliments.

Enkidu I believe answered your question regarding the SSE3 and SETI. I'm still stuck in the days of Barton processors so I'm not that familiar with that.

If you choose to run more then one projects it works like this.

Like the SETI account page you have for BOINC, there is also an account page for the project you join.

Under the account settings for the project is a preference link for the project. Resource share controls what % of your resources goes to each project. By default i think its 100.

Example of how this would work

Project A resource share: 200
Project B resource share: 100
Project A would get ~66%, Project B ~33%

Another note, under general preferences make sure you have "Leave applications in memory while preempted?" set to yes, as when the project switches in the middle of the unit it sometimes can lose a few minutes or more based on when the WU does its disk write.

Also your General preferences will propogate from one project to another, so no need to update this on each project.

Oh yea, and how it goes about dividing up the resouces, it basicly will switch around projects every 60 minutes or so in such a way where it'll try to match your percentages set for each project. It may not seem like the "scheduler" is meeting these settings at first, but it does even out in the long run.

Now if you want to join a project heres some info to keep in mind for the 5 I run.

Climate Prediction, Work units VERY long as in measured in weeks. Credits are handed out at various check points of the work unit. This project is tough on CPUs as well, if your processor isn't stable, good chance it'll crash a work unit.

Predictor@home, short work units, reliable project.

Einstein@home, longer then SETI workunits about 2-3 times. Very reliable project, a prime example of how well BOINC works.

LHC@home, my favorite, registration may or may not be open depending on their needs. Work outages occur here due to it being based on the needs of what the science guys need done to help build the LHC. REALLY COOL SCREENSAVER if you have BOINC installed to allow the screensaver.

Any more questions ask away.

EDIT
Just saw you post this "I think something is wrong with the multithreaded support...I've got it set to run on both procs in the prefrences, but when I open the task manager, I see 50% usage on both procs, which is typical behavior of a single threaded app."

Open up the BOINC manager, and check under the "work" tab. To the far right is a "status" column, you should see 2 projects with the status "Running". "Prempted" work units are units that were interuppted by BOINC manager to start up another unit. They'll continue normally again when there turn comes up to run again.

 

[Hamm3r]

I think something is wrong with the multithreaded support...I've got it set to run on both procs in the prefrences, but when I open the task manager, I see 50% usage on both procs, which is typical behavior of a single threaded app.

The program isnt multithreaded by itself, Boinc manager automatically runs 2 instances of it so it uses all your processors.
And Welcome back !

 

[Enkidu]

What exactly do you mean by "there is no SSE3 client optimized for AMD"? DO you mean that AMDs don't support SSE3?

What I mean by that is that no one has produced (compiled) a client with optimization for AMD processors supporting SSE3 (again - there may be one, but I (nor anyone I know so far) has ever seen it hehe).

The way an optimized client is made is that a brave soul downloads the source code for the SETI executable - then uses (in this case) the Intel compiler with various optimization flags supporting certain sets of instructions (MMX, SSE2, SSE3, etc). While there is a "Generic" SSE2 client in the form of -W-r8 that will work with AMD and P4, there is no such generic SSE3 client (only one that is made for the P4, in the form of -P-r8).

Hope that made sense - cause reading that over now that it's typed... it may just make matters more confusing

If you find an SSE3 AMD optimized client, by all means drop me a note and I'll add it to the guide.

Enk

 

[LoneWolf121188]

Just saw you post this "I think something is wrong with the multithreaded support...I've got it set to run on both procs in the prefrences, but when I open the task manager, I see 50% usage on both procs, which is typical behavior of a single threaded app."

Open up the BOINC manager, and check under the "work" tab. To the far right is a "status" column, you should see 2 projects with the status "Running". "Prempted" work units are units that were interuppted by BOINC manager to start up another unit. They'll continue normally again when there turn comes up to run again.

Nope, only see one, but I do have "On multiprocessors, use at most 2 processors" in my settings. :confused .

Enkidu: no, I got that. Guess I'll just have to use the SSE2 one then. Do I have to "uninstall" the SSE3 one or not?

 

[Hamm3r]

Try updating the project, on project tab click on whatever projects you got and hit update.

 

[LoneWolf121188]

I clicked update on the S@H project and got:

8/21/2005 11:02:34 AM|SETI@home|No work from project
8/21/2005 11:02:35 AM|SETI@home|Deferring communication with project for 10 minutes and 4 seconds

 

[eaglescouter]

That is normal, whenever the client changes it times out for 10 minutes

 

[LoneWolf121188]

So...what about the multithreaded problem?

 

[LoneWolf121188]

So...what about the multithreaded problem?

 

[SunRedRX7]

So...what about the multithreaded problem?

ok, I went and looked in your SETI-BOINC profile and checked your list of computers.

The GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz lists only 1 CPU. Your GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz is correctly listing 2 CPUs.

So somewhere BOINC isn't picking up the 2nd virtual CPU for some reason. I'm pretty sure you checked and know that hyperthreading is turned on. So maybe a reinstall of BOINC? or rerun the benchmarks, or reset the project?

 

[LoneWolf121188]

...wait...WTF? Check my sig: No intel in this rig! And I never owned a 2.8GHz P4, only a 2.4 that I didn't OC...

Oh wait, I know why: thats not me . This is me. Wow, crazy coincidence, huh?

 

[SunRedRX7]

...wait...WTF? Check my sig: No intel in this rig! And I never owned a 2.8GHz P4, only a 2.4 that I didn't OC...

Oh wait, I know why: thats not me . This is me. Wow, crazy coincidence, huh?

Well that is quite the coincidence.

Well from checking your computers stats I did pick up one thing. Click the results number, and you'll notice a lot of errors. "<core_client_version>4.45</core_client_version>
<message>Incorrect function. (0x1) - exit code 1 (0x1)
</message>"

What that means exactly I do not know.

Try resetting the project(or detach and reattach), somethings definitly gone bad as it looks like its downloading work, erroring out, and then requesting more.