Title says it all.

I have made a SETI@home WIndows client with Intel C++ compiler(evaluation license) and MSVS .Net 2003. With minor modifications, it went very well and it looks fast (benchmark hasn't finished yet.) Maybe 20-25% faster than the official 4.09.

Intel C++ compiler for Linux is free, but that for WIndows is not free, however you can use it for 30 days with evaluation license for free and I cannot give you binaries because of EULA of evaluation license...sorry.

Now I'm trying to link with FFTw library to make it faster....I may be maniac :)

BTW the version number is 4.11 although it's 4.07 compiled on Linux. (apr-12 nightly build)

If you have VC++7.1 or newer (now it's cheap) I strongly recommend to try this.

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damn!!

I compiled with Intel compiler, but the binary won't work one of my boxes...Japanese Windows!! Somehow boinc core compiled with Intel compiler works fine. SETI@home client doesn't. I don't know what's wrong (library dependency is okay) but that box is my main Windows box, so I may abandon Intel binary! It works on my English Windows box. I am asking about this on Intel's forum...anyway Intel's compiler for Windows is just for evaluation (it's just my excuse!.)

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damn again! My seti@home client seems to work fine! My another machine's install looks bad...I'll do clean install of Windows later. Now benchmark is under way.

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did you take notes for anyone else who might want to try their hand with the ICC eval? since you cant share the binary, making it easier for others to build their own would be a step in the right direction.
AMD users are still out of luck :(

sure. I'll write here or Ned's forum (anyway I'll write about where I write in this thread) within a few days, maybe tomorrow. The performance is too good. It takes less than a half of the official cruncher to crunch the reference workunit and the result is well within validation limits. But my benchmark is rough. On linux, it's about half.

BTW Intel's compiler is available at http://www.intel.com/software/products/global/eval.htm

Linux version is free, and Windows version is free for 30 days evaluation period.

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Okay I post how I installed Intel compiled seti@home client and boinc core client here. But there were several tweaks, so I add them, and I will post them in some messages. Questions are welcome. but I will do clean install of Windows-main machine tomorrow, response may be late...anyway I will reply asap.

First of all, I was inspired by Ned's page http://www.pperry.f2s.com/boinc-compile-seti.htm and forum message http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=385265. And then Metod's page http://mkx.feridot.com/boinc/

But all of them are about Linux and worked for me on Linux. So next I tried Windows because Intel's compiler for Windows was there.

Here we go.

1. install Intel's compiler. (easy)

You need to install Intel's compiler on top of Visual Studio .NET or better (I mean VC++7.1). VC++7.0 may be good, but I'm not sure. I assume you have installed one. Otherwise obtain a copy; it's cheap at a second hand shop or ebay.
Download it and install with install key sent from Intel. You'd better register so you can ask Intel on its forum. They are kind enough to you evaluation users too. If you install for the first time (IIRC), it went smoothly..and you'll be asked where your VC++ or VS is located. Then you should answer like "c:Program FilesMicrosoft Visual Studio .NET 2003" or the likes. If you seem to stuck (I installed/uninstalled many times, so it was often the case with me), look at "c:Program FilesIntelDownloadIntelC++Compiler81" and you'll find setup.exe. Use it and you can resume installation.

If you see c:Program FilesIntelcpp directory, you have it.

Now you can use Intel's compiler in Visual C++/Visual Studio or even in command-line (but just for testing because you usually don't have make or other useful packages are not there.) It's useful when you want to know what command line optins are used.
In IDE, you can conver conventional project files into Intel's project files by right-click and choose the bottom blue-intel marked "convert to intel...." item.

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I found why my binary failed on my second machine; it doesn't support SSE3. After compling w/o SSE3 support, it worked very fine on my second machine also; crunched the reference work unit in 8036 seconds on 2.4GHz (and the result was within validation limits, as a matter of course.) But this benchmark is very rough :) Several background processes were running.

The most complicated part in compiling is FFTW3...VC++ doesn't compile it correctly. Only gcc and Intel compiler do.

In short, download nightly builds of boinc_public and seti_boinc, and source of fftw3 and its project files and 6 seti source files patched for fftw3 and compile/link them.

I'll write how to compile it tomorrow...tired today.

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that would be great!
my 2.8 dual xeon needs optimization help badly. 4+hr WU's... its getting clobbered my single Athlon64 that uses Ned's client

That sounds excellent :)

Let's hope someone with a licensed Compiler can distribute the Binary to public...
(I got only 3 Win32 machines left, but those sure could use a little performance boost)

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I'm watching this with interest too - would be nice to see what the Windows folks out there can do :)

Ned

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*** My Guide to Compiling Optimised BOINC and SETI Clients ***
*** Download Optimised BOINC and SETI Clients for Linux Here ***

BTW thanks Ned for your help :) At first I found your page and was interesed in compiling clients by myself and joined your forum and learned.


How to make optimized SETI@home client for Windows. (this will be multi-post.)


I hope with proper command options, you can compile binaries for Athlons also.

At first you need to have VC++ .NET (maybe)2002 or 2003. Now it's cheap, and availabel even at ebay if you can wait.
And Intel's C++ compiler with evaluation license (or if possible, I wish anyone bought one copy!). It's available at http://www.intel.com/software/products/compilers/cwin/

1. boinc_public nightly build.

boinc_public is available at here. Be sure you should use boinc_public-cvs-2005-xx-xx.zip, not boinc-cvs-2005-xx-xx.zip, because the latter sounds unstable...(I may be wrong, but naturally you want boinc_public-cvs-2005-xx-xx.zip). Personally I like Apr-12 build, just because it's the last 4.27 core client version, which I like best. I hope you can use any version you like.

2. seti_boinc nightly build

It's available at here. The date doesn't seem to need to be the same as boinc_public...but I'm not sure.

Both above have project files for VC++.

3. fftw sources and its project files for VC++.
The homepage is http://www.fftw.org.
It's weird point, because fftw's downloadable version looks like 3.0.1, while project files supports only 3.0, otherwise it quits with errors. So use ftp://ftp.fftw.org/pub/fftw/. You will see fftw-3.0.zip. So download it :) And download FFTW3st.zip as archived project files. Maybe you can use version 3.0.1 also; it is mentioned in here, but at first I didn't notice the description :) Anyway 3.0 works.

4. patched setI_boinc source files for FFTW.
When you compile seti_boinc with fftw, you have to modify the source files of seti_boinc as a matter of course, and a sourcefoge project have already done it. So download 6 files from here. And remember, you still have to modify one of them a little bit!!

edit patched seti.cpp and comment out line 788 (or so..if i'm correct) like this;
----------
#if defined(_WIN32) && defined(_DEBUG)
_aligned_free(analysis_state.data);
#else
// free_a(analysis_state.data); # comment out here
#endif
analysis_state.data = 0;
----------
I was told this by Ned when I had a trouble; w/o this modification, setiathome crashed with segmentation fault on Linux when it finished a crunch and botched all the results it had done!!

PS: It's not necessary on Windows....it's already commented out by "#if defined (_WIN32)" ..lol I had a trouble with this on Linux and was told this solution by Ned. Maybe on Windows it doesn't matter.

Now I don't have enough time to write further. I'll post soon (within today:)) in multiple posts.

BTW here are refereces I used. These are all for Linux, and I tried.

Ned's instructions how to compile SETI@home with gcc. http://www.pperry.f2s.com/boinc-compile-seti.htm It mentions -ffast options is dangerous, but afterward it was found completely safe.

Ned's post in his forum on how to compile with fftw, gcc on Linux. http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=385265

Metod's page on Linux SETI binaries compiled with Intel Compiler!! http://mkx.feridot.com/boinc/. Until I read this, I hadn't known Intel made such excellent compilers!! If you are using Linux, download binaries from here. Reading this, I myself tried several compile options, but the benchmark looked the same. It cannot be better. At first you cannot tell who wrote this page, but you'll find it when you remove "boinc/" from the url and hit enter.

Personally, building on Linux is easier..but Windows client also works fine.

To be continued.

If you have any questions, email me at maverick31337@grad.com

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<blockquote>That sounds excellent :)

Let's hope someone with a licensed Compiler can distribute the Binary to public...
(I got only 3 Win32 machines left, but those sure could use a little performance boost)</blockquote>
The license is only $399. Maybe we could all pitch in and buy a copy for SETI so the normal distribution will have the faster compiler.

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Since I only have windows boxes I am also very interested here.

Please......Anyone???

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Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

Ok I will have a copy of Intel C++ compiler for windows V 8.1 next week. Now I just need someone to volunteer to use it to compile us a super cruncher for windows....

I know I can not us this program so if one person who is heavy into doing SETI@H and the like, send me and email with his/her address and I will give you the program.


old_aviator1968-1@yahoo.com

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Semper Eadem
So long Paul, it has been a hell of a ride.

Park your ego's, fire up the computers, Science YES, Credits No.

<blockquote>Ok I will have a copy of Intel C++ compiler for windows V 8.1 next week. Now I just need someone to volunteer to use it to compile us a super cruncher for windows....

I know I can not us this program so if one person who is heavy into doing SETI@H and the like, send me and email with his/her address and I will give you the program.


old_aviator1968-1@yahoo.com</blockquote>

That's very generous of you G Pascal. The thread starter (TMR) would be the obvious choice IMHO, and then we can all help/assist him in compiling an optimized client :)

Ned

---

*** My Guide to Compiling Optimised BOINC and SETI Clients ***
*** Download Optimised BOINC and SETI Clients for Linux Here ***

<blockquote><blockquote>Ok I will have a copy of Intel C++ compiler for windows V 8.1 next week. Now I just need someone to volunteer to use it to compile us a super cruncher for windows....

I know I can not us this program so if one person who is heavy into doing SETI@H and the like, send me and email with his/her address and I will give you the program.


old_aviator1968-1@yahoo.com</blockquote>

That's very generous of you G Pascal. The thread starter (TMR) would be the obvious choice IMHO, and then we can all help/assist him in compiling an optimized client :)

Ned
</blockquote>


Unfortunately he is in Japan and I did not want to get tangled up in trying to send a package international as I am disabled and have limited mobility....

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Semper Eadem
So long Paul, it has been a hell of a ride.

Park your ego's, fire up the computers, Science YES, Credits No.

Compiling HOWTO (Windows)

Step1: Compiling boinc core client. Easist part to compile the SETI@home client.

This is necessary because
1. SETI@home client needs library files in this package.
2. You should use the core compiled with the same compiler with the one which is used to compile SETI@home, in order to claim proper credits. The better optimization, the higher credits it claims, because the benchmark values are higher. Since your SETI@home client will finish crunching in shorter time, this is very important to make both ends meet.

But you don't have to compile boinc manager now, because it doesn't depend on the core client, and at the same time, it's troublesome to install wxgtk widget also :)

0. Identify your processor.
It may sound silly, but you need to know what instruction extensions your processor supports, especially when you are using P4. I didn't know one of my P4's doesn't support SSE3. I don't want anyone to make the same mistake I made. The handiest utility is available at <a>http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=483&DwnldID=7838&strOSs=All&OSFullName=All%20Operating%20Systems&lang=eng[/url].

1. unzip/untar the source package in your favorite directory.
For now I unzip/untar in D:boincbuildintelorig. You'll have "boinc_public" directory, then rename it to "boinc". This is important when you compile SETI client because it will refer to library files in boinc directory.

2. open boinc/win_build/boinc.sln with VC++. At first you need to change "Debug" mode to "Release" mode (what should I call it?) on the middle top of the window.

3. you'll see 8 projects in "solution exploer". Convert all of them to Intel's format one by one by right click the project, choose "conver to use Intel C++ project system" You'll see the blue "Intel" mark on the project. Do it on all the projects.

4. Right-cliek each project and choose "properties". Now you modify/add options compiler/linker use. Espacially in "C/C++"->"Optimization", You should choose "Optimization" to "maximum sped plus high level optimization (/O3)" Or if you use SSE3 enabled P4, choose "maximize speed across entire program (/fast)". This /fast option includes 3 options; /O3 /Qipo /QaxP..the last one enables SSE3, so unless you want to use SSE3, you must not choose this.
Next choose necessary options; I changed "Favor Size or Speed" to "Favor Fast Code", "Optimiza for Processor" to "Pentium 4", "Use Intel Processor Extensions" to "Pentium 4 and compatible../QaxN" and "Require Intel Processor Extension" to "IntelPentium 4 and.../QxN". Maybe "Omit Frame Pointers" may affect, but I didn't touch it.
Next, important optimization; choose "Command Line" in configuration properties" and add "/Qipo" in "Additional Options" This will enable optimization during link...optimize across all the object files during linking.

Do this step in all projects.

5. Disable to build boincmgr. (Not necessary, otherwise you'll just get an extra errors you can ignore)
Since you don't have to compile boincmgr, you should disable it. Right-click "boincmgr" project, choose "Properties", then choos "Preprocessor", and remove "wxUSE_GUI=1

6. Add necessary libraries to link with.
You need to change only one project; boinc.
Right-click the project, "Properties", and choose "Linker->Input". See "Additional Dependencies." Add "libmmt.lib" and "libircmt.lib" before anything.
And add "/Qipo" to a command line "additional options". It may be unnecessary..though.


7. Now build solution.
You will see Intel's compiler gives many warnings, and linking takes time, giving many optimizing notifications....This is a feature :)
You'll get errors, especially in boinc_ss, but you don't have to mind it. All you need are boinc.lib,RSAEuro.lib(? I'm not sure)boinc.exe, and boinc_exe.pdb(? maybe only for debuggin purpose) in boincwin_buildbuild|release.

To install core client, stop the boinc service, Put boinc.exe and boinc_exe.pdb in your boinc directory (you may want to make a backup copy of original boinc.exe by renaming it to boinc.exe.orig or something) and restart!!

And a reference about Intel compiler-specific libraries is: http://support.intel.com/support/performancetools/c/windows/sb/cs-007738.htm#1c

To be continued.

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I am very interested in this too. I had purchased a copy of VC++ .NET 2003 about 2 weeks ago and was hoping to learn how to do this. Since I have not been able to find a job for the last 9 months I have all the time in the world to try making my 2.8Ghz P4 w/HT faster.

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Compiling HOWTO 2 (fftw part)

extract both fftw-3.0.zip and FFTW3st.zip in the same directory. Personally I made a directory fftw, but you can name as you like. Then you need to work in that directory.

Then, follow instructions in Readme.txt.

1. Section 2 of Readme.txt, edit config.h as follows
change #undef to #define on these two lines:
#define BENCHFFT_SINGLE
#define FFTW_SINGLE
and if applicable, change this also (maybe yes)
#define HAVE_SSE 1
Never define HAVE_SSE2 1 even if your processor supports sse2. fftw won't compile in single precision with sse2 option.

This "SINGLE" is important to boost speed, because it forces SETI@home's FFT to process in single floating precision.

2. Open FFTW3st.dsw with VC++. As this is a VC++6 workfile, VC++ will ask you whether it should convert all the project files to VC++7.1 format. So answer "Yes to all." Then change the development environment from "Debug" to "Release"

There are 20 projects!! Do the same modifications as you did in boinc to 19 project files except for FFTW3st.

3. Here you have a weird problem. Build this solution. You will get these errors:
---------
libbench2.lib(rank0_ipo.obj) : error LNK2005: _applicable_vec.2. already defined in libbench2.lib(rank0_ipo.obj)
.\Release/Tests.exe : fatal error LNK1169: one or more multiply defined symbols found
---------
Then look at fft-3.0/dft/rank0.c and fft-3.0/rdft/rank0.c. They have identical functions, "applicable_vec", but they are static. Why do they make an error?
I suspected /Qipo should be the problem and I compiled without /Qipo option, and got no errors at all!! This option notifies the linker of every function, so even static functions are seen by the linker. You must rename the name of applicable_vec to something like applicable_vec_ in one of the file (I modified fft-3.0/dft/rank0.c) and then you can compile them w/o errors.

/Qipo is very important. So I'm asking how to solve this smartly on Intel's support forum. BTW this didn't happen when I compiled this on Linux...??

To be continued..........getting tired of Windows development environment....I prefer unix-like system...someone please take over after I finish this HOWTO...I began this just in an idle whim. I just wanted to utilize my second machine more...my wife uses only Windows!! My father's will is "Windows is for games. If you want to develop something, do it on unix-like systems." ;)

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Compiling HOWTO 3 (final SETI@home client)

1. Extract seti_boinc-cvs-2005-xx-xx.tar.gz in the same directory as boinc (the core client source package)

2. copy fftw/Release/FFTW3st.lib to seti_boinc/client/win_build, and copy fftw/fftw-3.0/api/fftw3.h to seti_boinc/client.

3. copy downloaded 6 patched files (analyzeFuncs.* s_util.* and seti.*) to seti_boinc/client

4. Edit pulsefind.cpp. around line 90, change
typedef long _int32;
to
#define _int32 long

5. Open seti_boinc/client/win_build/seti_boinc.sln with VC++ and convert all project files to Intel format as before. Change Debug to Release and modify optimization options as before.

6. fftw patched source package doesn't support graphics. So disable it; remove "BOINC_APP_GRAPHICS" in preprocessor Definitions C/C++ -> Preprocessor in seti_boinc project.

7. Add following libraries in seti_boinc project; fftw3st.lib svml_dispmt.lib libmmt.lib and libircmt.lib
At the same time in "Delay Loaded DLLS" remove ";${NOINHERIT}"

8. build and done! Linking takes looooong to optimize. The executable is in seti_boinc/client/win_build

Have fun!!!!!!

I will return to Linux to keep my father's will ;) This is just my whim. I wish someone would develop...no?

Compiling SETI with Intel compiler on Linux was much easier than on Windows.

tired.

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