SETI vs. RC5

[ddragon]

OK, now that I've gotten your attention, I would like to cool you down a bit I don't want to start a thread about which project is better or why, all I want to ask is this:

1] Has anyone tried to recalculate SETI WU's to RC5 stats units or vice versa to be able to compare finished work across the projects? I understand this will differ for AMD/Intel (/other) CPUs, but that could be averaged as well.

2] What would you think about running an "exchange program" - SETI guys run d.net for a week while we run SETI

Just a thought - it might be interesting both ways.

Now give it to me.

 

[Migroo]

I dont know.

- I have always been curious about RC5. To be honest I dont know what it is and there is nowhere that explains it (I havent found anywhere anyway)
- There would be a lot of setup hassle for an exchange you mention. For those of us with large fleets there could be a lot of time taken up with setting up a program of every machine...

I'm going to be watching this thread though - not a bad idea at all.

 

[ddragon]

Before someone else does, I'll explain myself: RC5 is an encryption algorithm, and the project of the same name, run by distributed.net (http://www.distributed.net), is looking for the correct 64-bit key in a public contest. The project has been running for about 1550 days now and will be finished in 350 days at the latest (or any minute if anyone finds the right key).

I started with SETI February last year, but in August switched to distributed.net for the following reasons (please note that some of them might have been valid only at the time, not today anymore)

1) the d.net client is very simple and transparent, easily configurable, but w/ lots of options
2) it transfers very low amounts of data
3) it easily buffers data both incoming and outgoing
4) it is available for a very wide range of OSes and CPUs
5) it can be easily installed as a service
6) there are so many people in SETI that I felt I would rather contribute to a project that had less support
7) RC5 WILL be finished one day, whereas SETI can run forever without any findings. However, I would like to stress that IF SETI ever finds anything, it will be much more important than any cracked encryption

Well, these are my reasons for participating in RC5 and not in SETI. However, I respect people running SETI and the project itself, it is by far the largest distributed project on this planet and as such it generated the interest of millions into distributed computing. Long live SETI!



<< - There would be a lot of setup hassle for an exchange you mention. For those of us with large fleets there could be a lot of time taken up with setting up a program of every machine... >>



I know, I run d.net on 27 CPUs in 24 machines total As I said, it was just a thought. Anyway, I'll watch this thread closely too(Duh).

If you're interested, you'll find me in both projects listed as 'kurek@post.cz'. Too lazy to put links here, sorry.

 

[Poof]

ddragon - Welcome to the forum!

I'm not sure if you're aware, but last year, TA created what we called "Processor trades". What this meant was that we evaluated a number of the major DC projects (and most specifically, Dnet & SETI) and then determined which processors, when benched in these projects, would provide each Team the most bang for the processing buck. At that point, team members could continue to get credit for their favorite project, but actually get better production by doing the trade...

So for example, John Smith, who might have a G4 500Mhz Mac and also likes SETI, correctly finds that the SETI Mac client sucks. Jane Doe, who has a P4 1.7Ghz, isn't too keen on SETI but loves RC5, but then finds that there is no P4 optimized RC5 core and thus her RC5 stats suck.

Yet... we find that the G4 kicks a$$ with RC5 and the P4 similarly with SETI. So the two get together and swap clients - thus optimizing the output in their perspective projects.

We had quite a few threads here doing this and perhaps now that some of the races seem to be settling down, we could start something like this up again. Also note that there are already cross-project accounts, eg., "SETI Calvary", originally for RC5 folks and other similar mini-team accounts to have people run projects to optimize team output.

[EDIT: Maybe we need to do a thread that lists all these accounts... ]

 

[ddragon]

That asks for a bump