TPU's F@H Team

[W2hCYK]

new stats update!

Good job so far guys!!!

Fly3r is storming ahead. May I ask, what core are you working on?

 

[Alec§taar]

Good job so far guys!!!

I'm having some fun with it personally, so far!

I have been pulling some "experiments" here, mainly for the "dualcore/smp crowd"!

Just to see what we can do to operate MORE EFFICIENTLY/FASTER, using CPU affinity & process priority "tricks" & using switches for the consolemode/tty/charactermode clientware for this project (combining software characteristics & OS process/cpu affinity control)!

That's done to keep the cpu cycles dedicated to this process as high as possible (w/out undue "lockup", or the appearance of it happening)!

I.E.-> To keep the L2 cache clean via CPU affinity use (keeping SAME code running on a particular CPU, so its L2 cache keeps "sane" & doesn't change up code running on it for this process, via diff. threads taking over with their data).

L1-L2 cache amounts matter to distributed programming projects from what I have seen/heard over time (even from Steevo here in another thread, "FAH" is JUST LIKE SETI@Home in this regard)...

Keep the CPU L1-L2 cache "unpolluted" & theory says it will operate faster & this MAXES out whatever L1-L2 cache you have (regardless of amount).

My experiments above, so far @ least? Tend to "prove that/second that motion" so far... I gained a clean 20% over doing it w/out using CPU affinity &/or process priority settings!

Fly3r is storming ahead. May I ask, what core are you working on?

Heh, gimme time - I'll catch him!



(I haven't brought my 2nd rig into this yet... that's going to be what does it for me, catching the leader!)

APK

P.S.=> I wish someone from the "SERIOUS ENTHUSIASTS" bunch @ the "FAH" forums would do a recompile, for the BEST optimization possible from this program for SPECIFIC CPU families & their instruction sets (e.g.-> AMD 3dNow/SSE1/SSE2/SSE3) &/or (e.g.-> INTEL MMX/SSE1/SSE2/SSE3) because I saw that happen w/ SETI@Home, & it made HUGE differences... 2x as fast many times, or nearly so! apk

 

[Steevo]

Just added 5Ghz in two systems of computing power.



Now to bed.

 

[FLY3R]

Im not sure what cores that im working on, im in San Diego and will not be home till friday. But if any one is going to catch me its going to be Steevo, that guy has so many rigs folding, lol.. Good job dude, for me its not all about the ranks, but i do admint that there nice, but i just like contrbuiting.

When i get home i will start experamenting with more of this Tag and short cut flags writing, we will see.

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Im not sure what cores that im working on, im in San Diego and will not be home till friday. But if any one is going to catch me its going to be Steevo, that guy has so many rigs folding, lol.. Good job dude, for me its not all about the ranks, but i do admint that there nice, but i just like contrbuiting.

When i get home i will start experamenting with more of this Tag and short cut flags writing, we will see.

He's gonna catch you in days!

Edit: Almost finished my first WU
Not sure how the Celeron is going... I try to do at least a couple of hours folding a day at the moment (I'm delaying BF2 until I've finished this unit!).

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Ok, finished my first WU so I'm now on the list. I'm not going to be around this weekend so I won't be doing any folding but I'll get back on it next week sometime.

 

[Alec§taar]

He's gonna catch you in days!

Gygbyte 1990 is right on MY tail & so are you, when viewing this as I do @ least!

That much I've seen (& he's averaging around the same "score-per-unit" (# of units divided into his score) that I have been, around 241-281 per) & also YOU are right up there as well...



* All the fast/powerful machines folks have on this forumboard? This team'll do well, but imo, we need more folks to join is all...

APK

P.S.=> In any event, you two (whom I mention above) are going to "force" me to put my 2nd system online here to work on this... lol, just to stay ahead of you both!

I had our "weekly power-outage" last night/early this Saturday a.m. & lost some units I was probably close to finishing (good ole' "National Grid" - reliable power? NOT! Higher-rates by double?? Absolutely... wtf!), so you 2 are probably going to "blow-by-me" because of this!

(Can you tell I am NOT happy w/ our new power company? This happens EVERY friggin' weekend now for a month straight...)

Ah, anyhow - I'm not sure how my Pentium 4 3.2ghz & 512mb RAM will fare though, as far as affecting my "per unit score" formula above...

(Iit'll probably be detrimental to that averaging I use, but it should "boost" my overall score + counts, because I know it's NOT as powerful of a rig as the one in my signature, @ least not in terms of Floating-Point processing power, but then again - On SETI@Home, it actually did BETTER than the system in my signature, even if SETI@Home's benchmarks said it would not!)... apk

 

[Steevo]

Still waiting on six systems, I need access to then with out disruptions for a hour. All via RDC, so it might be awhile yet.

 

[Alec§taar]

Steevo - are you a network admin?

Still waiting on six systems, I need access to then with out disruptions for a hour. All via RDC, so it might be awhile yet.

See subject-line/title, & answer the question please (when you find the time)!

"TIA!"



* You've GOTTA be, w/ access to so many rigs @ your disposal...

APK

 

[Steevo]

Yep.


I am currently reading up on AS/400-OS/400 systems as we have one. There is only 4' of books to read.


I'm hoping to buy a system from another network at a store that is going out of bussiness. I was hired to do a wipe on 10 or so systems and reinstall W2K. I figured a hour for each machine, I think I will use my Debian disk to format the HDD's a couple times each, then a automated install and as the machines are almost exactly alike I will insert the drivers into the windows disk. I was gonna do $30 a pop as I get to bring them home and do them at my leisure, but mebey me and the man could work as deal out as I want another system here at home for storage and FTP.

Stick in a RAID card and two 300GB drives and I could be in business.

 

[Alec§taar]

Yep.

Ok, cool - I figured that!

(You'll be an asset on the units counts imo, lol, I'll NEVER catch you!)

I am currently reading up on AS/400-OS/400 systems as we have one. There is only 4' of books to read.

Man, I come outta that world (1980's predecessors in System 34/36/38 & to mid 1990's (the As/400's OS400)) & be prepared to learn a TON plus spending time doing so... I am a "rookie" imo, on them, but DO respect their "linear/batch" processing power (and their filesystems based on DB/2 engines).

Years ahead, in MANY ways, of the PC/Client-Server environs.

(IBM's one of the places that is SEVERELY overlooked by many today, as far as innovations to OS designs, and yes, hardware design too imo).

I'm hoping to buy a system from another network at a store that is going out of bussiness. I was hired to do a wipe on 10 or so systems and reinstall W2K. I figured a hour for each machine,

This depends on disksize too, & software you use (see more below)...

I think I will use my Debian disk to format the HDD's a couple times each

I've hired out on jobs of that nature too, usually night jobs (after regular hours work I have as a coder) - I like "Acronis Drive Cleanser" for this type of work myself... it works.

(I wiped 750++ systems last year around this time using it, it's good stuff & only "ENCASE" is able to circumvent it afaik, if you "ONLY" do 1-3 passes using Acronis stuff... if you go 4 consecutive wipes though? Even "ENCASE" (look this one up if you're into "forensics") can't get the data back after that!)

APK

 

[Steevo]

I don't know that there is a way to read a disk that has had a few different formats on it, especially if you chop up the disk like mincemeat.


I have never been able to. I used to run Debian on a 333/512 system, I go the HDD"s off e-bay with people data still on them. Formatted and Win98 installed but still. A few validating formats with debian and no more data.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

I have 3 WU's W00T!!! Going to get some more this week...

 

[FLY3R]

I have 3 WU's W00T!!! Going to get some more this week...

Good Job, Keep it up, but we need more people FOLDING!!

They need to make a TPU thread section on the main Threads page!

 

[Alec§taar]

gigbyte 1990 is "on my tail" (look out!!!)

Hehe, see subject-line/title:

Direct "poke" @ gigbyte 1990, lol!



* Now, I'm going to HAVE to "kick in" my 2nd rig just to stay in front of him!

APK

P.S.=> We could use a few more folks, especially from these forums, because most folks here do have WICKED machines imo! apk

 

[gygabite]

Damn, i forgot an "a"!
But i have only one computer folding

 

[Alec§taar]

Damn, i forgot an "a"!
But i have only one computer folding

As do I, thusfar (but, running 2 instances of "FAH" using each core present here & playing with affinity & cpu priority granted per process on them as well - experiments pay off usually!)...



* Steevo blew RIGHT the heck past us all though:

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=50711

Heck - he has a farm of them running, & that I cannot compete with imo!

APK

P.S.=> Still, because of you "coming up fast" on me? Well, @ SOME point this week?? I will have to kick in my other rig into this (Pentium 4 3.2ghz), just to stay ahead of you, OR try to! apk

 

[Alec§taar]

Hey, anyone else notice the NEW version of FAH_CORE running yet?

See subject-line/title:

I have noted that the 2nd instance of my clients running in taskmgr.exe show a NEW build/version of FAH_CORExx.exe!

Fah_core78.exe

vs.

Fah_core65.exe



* Anybody else seeing this?

APK

P.S.=> This new one seems to multitask better, even IF I set my clients (FAH-CORE one, not the mgt. portion in FAHConsole.exe) to HIGH cpu priority on both, & also setting AFFINITY to separate cores!

Using the older model FAH_CORE65.exe (w/ the -forceasm commandline switch in place) caused HORRIBLE lags if I did that, & attempted to run other programs ontop of them both running in said manner!

(Experiments performed & noted in this thread earlier in discussions with Jimmy2004 etc.)

However, now? This is NOT the case!

Imo, they added timeslicing calls into it (VB "DoEvents" or Borland Delphi "Application.ProcessMessages" type function calls into various subroutines/functions/procs) & for sure, 1 more thread (up to 4 now)...

This is ALL good too, imo! Especially for DualCore/SMP rig users! apk

 

[Steevo]

There are quite a few cores actually, but if you will look in your progress log you will actually see the work unit being done.

Again, the core is just the run enviroment for the protien WU to run in.

Depending on what client-system-configuration, the server assigns whatever is up next.

 

[Alec§taar]

There are quite a few cores actually, but if you will look in your progress log you will actually see the work unit being done.

I'll have to check that (I use "silent" mode via -verbosity 1 commandline switch)...

Again, the core is just the run enviroment for the protien WU to run in.

IMO? That is "THE" part to concentrate on (if you play with CPU priority/affinity stuff, as I have been "experimenting" with here on/off)...

(As it is the actual "WorkHorse" program processing units here, & iirc, you answered that for me earlier on here - thanks!)

Depending on what client-system-configuration, the server assigns whatever is up next.

IIRC, I have my 2nd instance "frozen" to only accept the original core (fah_core65.exe), & the 1st instance accepts whatever the servers throw my way... to see if they have been "working on/improving upon/changing" things...

APK

P.S.=> Right now though, it really is looking like I will make the 2nd instance accept new cores, because the addition of a thread & imo, some multitasking/timeslicing function calls has helped this NEW "FahCore_78.exe" run smoother, @ least as far as taskswitching & running other programs on this DualCore box...

BUT, using timeslice/multitasking calls DOES slow an app up, keep this in mind!

FahCore_78.exe has made it FAR better running say, this webbrowser replying to you, and leaving BOTH instances of it up & running (where with FahCore_65.exe? It was a "nightmare" to launch other programs, using HIGH cpu priority per instance, AND affinity to separate CPU cores as well in combination w/ it)... apk

 

[Alec§taar]

Up to #4 (the "Doomsday Machine" cometh...)



* See subject-line/title: Plus? DO "Read 'em & weep..." @ the URL below:

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=50711

APK

P.S.=> I'm coming for you, folks @ the top #3 spots, slowly, but surely (lol)!

(I am going to have to "kick-in" my 2nd rig @ this point, just to drive my counts output higher)

QUESTION:

I wonder how the use of my other rig (p4 3.2ghz H/T Intel) will affect my scores though... do ANY of you process on that type of CPU?

Counts alone being high are NOT what I am out to process here mostly, or I would have started sooner!

I am "about" the "SCORE" part of it... apk

 

[Steevo]

I added another 7.4Ghz of power tonight.



Alec, as much as we would like, sometimes it's not the computers so much as the assignments handed out on what work you get. And some of it is due to what the PC is doing, and if it is already running another client.



I cannot stress enough that you will get more points by running it as a service with the installer, and running it 24/7 at low priority, as many clients as there are cores, or on HT units. Yes there are a few tweaks, but none so many as running it as a service, and changing performance on XP Pro machines to background tasks.

 

[Alec§taar]

Appreciate the thought, but I know what I am doing man...

Alec, as much as we would like, sometimes it's not the computers so much as the assignments handed out on what work you get.

I know this... they vary in size/complexity.

And some of it is due to what the PC is doing, and if it is already running another client.

I know this as well... bigtime know it.

I cannot stress enough that you will get more points by running it as a service with the installer, and running it 24/7 at low priority, as many clients as there are cores, or on HT units.

All of the above is done, except for running it as a service (I have NO priority or affinity control this way & this always benefitted me on SETI, so I will try it here as well).

Yes there are a few tweaks, but none so many as running it as a service, and changing performance on XP Pro machines to background tasks.

Services you have LITTLE control over as far as priority & affinity, compared to normal Ring3/RPL3 processes.

And, as far as OS tuning & such? Heh, been doing that for more than a decade & 1/2 almost now, literally, as far as system tuning for NT-based OS... I get your point here, it works.

APK

 

[Alec§taar]

Important For Those Using This As A Service

One note to all doing this project, IF you run it as a service:

Check to see if you can LOWER its privelege logon entity mainly because it probably logs on as SYSTEM, & it can probably get by with LOCAL SERVICE or NETWORK SERVICE instead (MUCH MORE SECURE)...

APK

 

[CjStaal]

One note to all doing this project, IF you run it as a service:

Check to see if you can LOWER its privelege logon entity mainly because it probably logs on as SYSTEM, & it can probably get by with LOCAL SERVICE or NETWORK SERVICE instead (MUCH MORE SECURE)...

APK

That's a good idea since I'm pretty shure people can find some vulnerabilities to connect with it since it's using the internet. Also, local hacks for it can also f**k you over pretty well xD