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"Unlocking" software...

H

homercles337

Diamond Member
We have a piece of software that comes with some very expensive modules. A few of these modules come in two forms, we only have one at the moment but both do some heavy computing. The modules we have are supposed to be more accurate and take longer to run. However, it seems that the software may have been intentionally crippled. It only uses 3-10% of CPU cycles and very little memory when doing these computationally expensive tasks. I find this odd and wonder if the software is crippled intentionally from the vendor, or could it really be some other bottleneck? If it is crippled is there a way to find out? TIA.
 
Perhaps there is an option somewhere that has the software running like that. A balance option, if you will - that specifys that while your using your computer (there are other tasks running, perhaps other CPU intensive apps) it will only run at XX percent of load, or some such thing.

Not sure how you would go about finding this out - but it would really help if you list what the app is, what kind of machine its on and what the OS is. For example, I could theroize on the Duel core CPU things you need to do for both cores to be utilized, but that would be conjecture and I'm not going to spend an hour theorizing.
 
You would need to find some other group that has a "non-crippled" version and run the same task.

If you get the same results; then your question is answered.

Also, contact the vendor to find out why you are only using the amount of memory and CPU that you are observing.
 
Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
You would need to find some other group that has a "non-crippled" version and run the same task.

If you get the same results; then your question is answered.

Also, contact the vendor to find out why you are only using the amount of memory and CPU that you are observing.
Click to expand...

We have a demo of the "non-crippled" version on the way and plan on benching when we get it.

Also, the vendor is not very forthcoming with information. Its hard to trust them. Eg., they have a very common analysis that is trademarked, but i cant find any sign of trademarks or patents for this company.

So, basically without the source there is no way to see what an app is doing (moving data, reading disc, talking to the DB, waiting, clearing the stack, etc)?
 
are you under an NDA or not free to post the name of your vendor or SW?

surely someone here may have experience with them 😉

i suspect you will not get any concrete answers without being less cryptic. 😛

 
Yes, there is an NDA. We also beta test alot of their software. Someone may know though, the data come from high throughput (HT) and high content (HC) screening. A google for 'high content screening software' puts their software on the first page (not the first link). Hint: they make imaging instruments too.

On a related note, is there any reason why one would expect an app to use 3-10% of CPU cycles when it should be using 100%? Maybe lack of optimization, bugs, other things?
 
Originally posted by: homercles337
Yes, there is an NDA. We also beta test alot of their software. Someone may know though, the data come from high throughput (HT) and high content (HC) screening. A google for 'high content screening software' puts their software on the first page (not the first link). Hint: they make imaging instruments too.

On a related note, is there any reason why one would expect an app to use 3-10% of CPU cycles when it should be using 100%? Maybe lack of optimization, bugs, other things?
Click to expand...

The only thing that would kill the CPU usage would be wait states.
These will come from user input, deliberate delays (that may have not been removed), Network and/or Data/Disk I/O.

Deliberate delays could be due to testing code (that may have wait states in it) not being commented out.
 
What's physical RAM usage look like, and disk/network activity? I know one app we have is very chatty with a specific server and at times my whole machine will slow to a crawl, with CPU usage appearing very low - <20% on both CPUs, because the server it's working with isn't responding.
 
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