TAS-member thread for October: World Community Grid

[petrusbroder]

The poll was won by WCG.

So, get your comps hooked up and crunch!

Stats later ...

 

[Ken g6]

Interesting - the BoincStats page doesn't show half the members the WCG stats page does. I wonder if BoincStats is only showing Boinc users?

So, where will your stats come from?

 

[petrusbroder]

WCG-stats ...

 

[caferace]

Clearing out the TANPAKU and uFluids WU's, and should have some quick boxes on by days end.

-jim

 

[Rattledagger]

For WCG-users, the important to remember is:
UD-agent-users gets "points".
BOINC-client-users gets Cobblestones, but they'll also get "points", there:

WCG-"point" = 7 * Cobblestone-score.

WCG-"points" is shown on all of the various WCG-pages, while Cobblestones is showing-up in the BOINC-client, and on the various BOINC-stats-sites.


System-requirements of the various WCG-projects shows on the wcg-pages, for memory this is how much Installed Memory computer must have to get any work at all. The actual memory-usage seems to be roughly half of the requirements, HDC example uses atleast 350 MB memory...

 

[caferace]

RD, do dual-cores need to run two instances of the client? I've already run the CPU % tool to 100%, and still have 50% idle.

-jim

 

[Rattledagger]

Originally posted by: caferace
RD, do dual-cores need to run two instances of the client? I've already run the CPU % tool to 100%, and still have 50% idle.

-jim

Multi/core/cpu/HT-users must run one instance of the BOINC-client, and check the preference "Use at most N cpu's" is atleast 2, and after changing preference hit "Update project". The BOINC-client will spawn multiple instances, whatever is lowest of #cpu's and the preference "Use at most N cpu's".


If anyone tries to run the UD-agent on multi/HT-systems, the UD-agent will only start one instance, and it's impossible to run multiple UD-agent-instances. Meaning, atleast one core/cpu will always be idle in a multi/HT-system for anyone using the UD-agent...

 

[caferace]

Ah. Believe it or not, I didn't know that WCG was a BOINC project. My bad.

I'll switch the dual-core machine over after this WU is done. D'oh.

-jim

 

[Ken g6]

Or, I imagine, you could launch a BOINC instance for 1 core while the non-BOINC instance is going, and when that WU is done you could up it to 2 cores.

WCG seems to be BOINC compatible, but not exclusively BOINC. I wonder if anyone's benchmarked to see if either way is faster/gets more points?

 

[Rattledagger]

Originally posted by: Ken_g6
Or, I imagine, you could launch a BOINC instance for 1 core while the non-BOINC instance is going, and when that WU is done you could up it to 2 cores.

WCG seems to be BOINC compatible, but not exclusively BOINC. I wonder if anyone's benchmarked to see if either way is faster/gets more points?

Yes, it should be possible to run UD-agent alongside BOINC.

WCG added BOINC as an option late 2005, to get Linux-support, but due to users asking for it, they also added windows-application.


As for speed, the UD-agent is as default limited to 60% cpu-usage and needs some form of hack to use more, and as already mentioned doesn't work on multi-cpu-systems.

As for "points", I've never run the UD-agent under WCG, but do remember it's "features" then ran by UD 'think', not sure on whatever they're calling themselves now... The cpu-part of benchmark was only 35% of the total score, disk-size, memory-size and internet-speed was also counted... So, if WCG is using the same, with cpu being 35%, it means 3 slow 1 GHz-computers that each crunches 1 wu/day, will get significantly more "points" than 1 fast 3 GHz-computer that crunches 3 wu/day...

For BOINC-client on the other hand, it doesn't matter which computer you've crunched a specific wu on, you'll get the same "points" regardless of 200 MHz or 4 GHz. But, since the 4 GHz can crunch much more wu/day, you'll also get more "points"/day.


So... if you've got a bunch of p2/p3-systems, the UD-agent will likely give higher points/day than the BOINC-client. But, for fast computers, the BOINC-client will likely give more points/day...


As for the actual application-speed, I don't know of any significant speed-difference between them, so as long as you've applied the "hack" to use 100%, you'll likely do as much useful scientific work regardless of UD or BOINC... But of course, this is only true for single-cpu...

 

[caferace]

Originally posted by: Rattledagger
As for the actual application-speed, I don't know of any significant speed-difference between them, so as long as you've applied the "hack" to use 100%, you'll likely do as much useful scientific work regardless of UD or BOINC... But of course, this is only true for single-cpu...

It doesn't appear to need a "hack" any longer, as they now have a tool designed to make this quite easy. Install, one click and you're done. The thing I *do* like about their client is the ease of making settings on a per client basis. That being said, it's pretty clear the client is rather dated. It's "high-end desktop computer" used for comparisons is a 1.5Ghz P4.

thanks for all the info, RD.

-jim

 

[Rattledagger]

Originally posted by: caferace
The thing I *do* like about their client is the ease of making settings on a per client basis.

And on BOINC, if you've ran-out of venues, just make a global_prefs_override.xml
Now, for the moment you needs to manually edit this file, but then the "Simplified GUI" reaches beta-testing "soon", atleast the most important settings can be edited in the BOINC Manager.

 

[CupCak3]

arg, i've been running this for over a day on one of my x2 cores @ 2.7 and i've only gotten 15 points

is there something here i don't know?

 

[caferace]

A glance at the TeAm stats shows that this is the best day in a month, so TAS is certainly making a difference.

No doubt their stats interface takes some getting used to though. I don't like it. It's "less than intuitive". Maybe you have results pending?

-jim

 

[Rattledagger]

Originally posted by: CupCak3
arg, i've been running this for over a day on one of my x2 cores @ 2.7 and i've only gotten 15 points

is there something here i don't know?

WCG uses a quorum of 3, meaning there must be 3 results for a wu before it's tried validated and any credit is given. So, most likely your results is "pending", waiting on atleast one more result for each wu before can be validated.

It's not as easy as with other BOINC-projects, but there still is an overview of your resent results, so you can see if it's "pending" or if you've possibly is having a problem and is getting "invalid"...


If anyone is using the UD-agent, there's no waiting before crediting...

 

[CupCak3]

Originally posted by: Rattledagger

Originally posted by: CupCak3
arg, i've been running this for over a day on one of my x2 cores @ 2.7 and i've only gotten 15 points

is there something here i don't know?

WCG uses a quorum of 3, meaning there must be 3 results for a wu before it's tried validated and any credit is given. So, most likely your results is "pending", waiting on atleast one more result for each wu before can be validated.

It's not as easy as with other BOINC-projects, but there still is an overview of your resent results, so you can see if it's "pending" or if you've possibly is having a problem and is getting "invalid"...


If anyone is using the UD-agent, there's no waiting before crediting...

yeah i just saw that last night but I was too busy w/ the new GPU client to post

I was quitte surprised to see 1 WU w/ credit granted and then another 8 of them pending... lol

 

[Ken g6]

Stats are up! Enjoy! (I hope I got them right. )

 

[caferace]

Great sTAtS, Ken! Thanks!!

-jim

 

[GLeeM]

Nice! Thanks for the stats, Ken_g6

 

[Philippart]

you forgot to include me in the stats

 

[Ken g6]

Sorry, your stats went "all two 'L'" on uFluids.

 

[Philippart]

Originally posted by: Ken_g6
Sorry, your stats went "all two 'L'" on uFluids.

wait what does that mean?

 

[Ken g6]

It means your name in the uFluids stats was "Tom Phillippart". Two L's, see?

I have a sense of humor like Thyme, if you remember him. Very punny.

I also had trouble locating Silverthorne (since he wasn't in Peter's uFluids stats at all, and I still don't know if he's a TAS member), and Strates (since he is missing his final "S".) But since I had noticed them pass me, I knew to look for them, and I eventually found them.

 

[Philippart]

My name on every project is Tom Philippart with only one L.
It was a typo in the ufluids stats haha.

 

[Silverthorne]

I'm not really on the team but I sometimes help out.