The Future of BOINC

[V_R]

This is well worth a read.

Not sure if i like the proposed new GUI though.....

Rom Walton has recently posted some of the upgrades under development for BOINC here: http://www.romwnet.org/dasblogce/

People who are always wondering about program optimization will be particularly happy about:

BOINC gains CPU capability detection
Starting in the next version of the BOINC client we'll be able to detect CPU capabilities.

It is important to note that the capability detection is actually done by the operating system and BOINC just queries the operating system for the supported instruction sets. I bring this up because not all operating systems fully support all additional instruction sets supported by the processor. We are being conservative here to avoid illegal instruction exceptions or privileged instruction exceptions.

For Windows the following instruction sets or capabilities can be detected:

* fpu
* tsc
* pae
* nx
* sse
* sse2
* sse3
* 3dnow
* mmx

On Linux we read the data out of /proc/cpuinfo.

I still need to write the code for the Mac OS.

The processor information will be passed to both the science applications and the scheduling server.

The problem with optimizing for a particular processor type is that it can alter the results a small amount, which is a no-no for quorum validation, unless all the results are run on the same processor type. So this gives projects some options.

Of course, whether or not a particular optimization is reasonable or not is a different question. But at least the possibility is there.

And look at the simplified GUI.

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=7773

 

[muckshifter]

Yeah, I don't look at the 'points allocated' as it is very depressing to see ... wast of time tweaking if you don't get even a third of the points.



It may help other Bonkit programs though.

 

[TriplexDread]

It is annoyin when you leave system on for hours and hours on end to crunch for 100points and only get awarded 28

Lol

I know its all been explained before, however what a waste of computer power

Maybe this new upgrade will take into account for this and help stop some of the loss and give credit where its due. After all this aint free for us to do it costs us not them. Let us reap the rewards too and not the big drugs companys out there when they make the drugs that work. Alternatively let them all buy 10 super computers each and then they can crunch 24/7. We can save on our leccy bill