A real quicky

[office boy]

1 workunit = 1 block?
(for RC5)

 

[toph99]

yup

<edit> i stand corrected i was told yesterday that one WU was one block

 

[dennilfloss]

One WU=2^28 keys. I've seen blocks (packets) containing up to 32 WU.

 

[office boy]

Ahh thats how that works

 

[office boy]

But if I flush 150wu's
Then why do my blocks at mica's stats go up 150?


And where does a key fit into all this. How many key's = 1 wu? (is it 268,425.84?)

 

[Piezo]

1 workunit = 1 block?

Yes, 1 workunit = 1 block. DNet changed the name a while ago to WU.

A packet can contain multiple blocks (WU).

<edit> i stand corrected too:Q. It seems blocks are different on the proxy then they are in the dnet faq.

<edit2>
I asked David (Nugget). Here's his response.

Back in the old days of rc5-56, in 1997, all we had were blocks. And
they were all 2**28 in size. However, as time went on and computers
got faster, and our code got better we realized that 2**28 wasn't nearly
as big as it ought to be. In 1997, my fastest box (a P90) could chew
through a 2**28 block in about 90 minutes. Now a fast Athlon can eat one
in about one minute.

In order to maintain network efficiency, we updated the client to support
much larger blocks, when appropriate, so faster machines could operate
more efficiently and without as much overhead. However, we needed to
retain support for the smaller 2**28 sized &quot;blocks&quot; because there still
are slow machines connected to the net. (A Macintosh SE/30 takes about
five days to do a 2**28 block)

So, at the time, we &quot;officially&quot; changed the terminology from block to
work unit, and set a work unit at 2**28 keys. Technically, the term
&quot;block&quot; is deprecated, since it is used to refer both to packets as well
as work units.

Unfortunately, we forgot to tell the stats guys (well, or I forgot to
fix stats) and stats continue to report things in blocks many places.

A work unit is 2**28 keys. This used to be called a block.
A packet is a bundle of work units. This also used to be called a block,
back when all packets were 2**28 keys.

Hope this helps.


Thanks David!