Tom (Dec 23 2008)

thanks just like to help as much as possible, omly dual core PC so two tasks it is

Cheers

What I'd like to have explained is how I managed to have THREE WU's running, when I have a dual core CPU.

One of the three has recently completed, and there are now only two WU's running, as I was led to expect.

Anyone out there with an idea how this happened?
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I heard about a similar issues a few years ago reported here on the forums. As far as I know, it seems to be an anomaly that is not reproducible or explainable. Perhaps some strange branch in the BOINC code that is only encountered in rare situations, or some code messed up in memory due to a RAM glitch (which is actually caused by solar flares and why ECC memory was designed to prevent, as these errors happen roughly once a month per GB of RAM) causing a third app to be executed.

Plenty of possibilities, but not many actual facts to work with.
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What I'd like to have explained is how I managed to have THREE WU's running, when I have a dual core CPU.

One of the three has recently completed, and there are now only two WU's running, as I was led to expect.

Anyone out there with an idea how this happened?

What I'd like to have explained is how I managed to have THREE WU's running, when I have a dual core CPU.

One of the three has recently completed, and there are now only two WU's running, as I was led to expect.

Anyone out there with an idea how this happened?

Three tasks is exactly right, one on each of the CPUs, one on the GPU. The GPU task uses a very small amount of CPU time, but so does the OS in managing display, file system, etc., etc.; that's the nature of multitasking operating systems. If you check Task Manager you'll probably find there are 40 or so processes getting some parts of the CPU time.

The fact that BOINC fails to have three tasks running if there's GPU work available should be what you're wondering about.

Joe

I heard about a similar issues a few years ago reported here on the forums. As far as I know, it seems to be an anomaly that is not reproducible or explainable. Perhaps some strange branch in the BOINC code that is only encountered in rare situations, or some code messed up in memory due to a RAM glitch (which is actually caused by solar flares and why ECC memory was designed to prevent, as these errors happen roughly once a month per GB of RAM) causing a third app to be executed.

Plenty of possibilities, but not many actual facts to work with.

Initially, I attached to the main project, for a few WU's, to test things out.

One WU would run on one CPU core, the other on the GPU. "(0.05 CPU's 1 CUDA)" indicating the WU running on the GPU.

Having satisfied myself all was as it should be, I re-attached to the Beta project.

This produced a situation where the rig was crunching three WU's.

Once one of the three had finished, the situation changed, with one WU running on a CPU core, and 1 on the CUDA.

I have not used cuda but after reading a lot of posts about it my interpretation is this:

I believe it will not run two seperate tasks (for same project) on 1 core,
as in Task A = CUDA (using GPU + part CPU X to control GPU) and Task B = MB (using CPU X), only one task (A or B) at the same time.

However on your duo it will run 2 tasks for same project, as you have noted, 1 on each core, or 1 on core 1 + 1 on GPU (using core 2 to control GPU).

A second project is still able to use core 2 to run a task, giving a total of three tasks running.

You will only be able to get the third task running if the first two are from the same project.(EDIT... And 1 is on the GPU)

I do not have a CUDA compatible card so I canot confirm this, so if you are able to confirm/deny this hypothesis please post the result.

It is possible to run 2 different WU's on one core: provided that they start on different cores... You go into Win Task Manager and "set affinity" for both WU's to the same core. I do this when backing up my computer, as (for reasons unknown to me) this speeds up the backup process by about 10-15x. On my quad-core, I run 4 WU's on 3 cores by excluding one core for the same reason.
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OK, I am s-l-o-w-l-y getting a picture here...

Am I right in saying I need a third project (Say Einstein)so I can run that on one core, while the present two projects (applications) run on the second core and the GPU?

Thanks for your patience, guys. I can be a litle dense at times, but once I understand the concept, I shall never forget it!
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Am I right in saying I need a third project (Say Einstein)so I can run that on one core, while the present two projects (applications) run on the second core and the GPU?

Hi Fred

Thanks for your input.

HOWEVER:

WHICH THREADS???????????????????????

I am going nuts, trying to make sense of the (largely bollox) posts all over NC.

I have not been able to find one single post in which it is laid out how the hell one can configure BOINC to utilise all three processors (or 5, 9, etc).

Maybe I am stupid, blind, or worse.

If there is a post showing this, could you please be so kind as to give this slow-witted alien a link to it?

Cheers

lgm
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WHICH THREADS???????????????????????

Hi again Fred

I have been trawling through the threads you indicated.

Much of it is above my head, as information I require seems to be assumed as obvious by the posters. This is very frustrating, as I'm sure you will understand. Having been away from the boards for several months, even the common abbreviation "MB" took a half hour of research to translate. (Multi-beam)

The default directories mentioned for locating the cc_config file do not exist on this PC. Is there something wrong with my BOINC installation? Is there something missing in the information I am reading?

What I am looking at now is:
2 x AP WU's. One is "Waiting to run"
The other is running.
A long list of CUDA WU's. One is running.
The rest are "Ready to start"

I understand why the CUDA apps are waiting to start, since there is only 1 GPU to process them.

What is stopping the second AP app from running?

I am continuing to search threads for a post written in English. *sigh*



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Have you unhidden your hidden folders?

Claggy
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Hi Claggy

Yes.

I have found the directory to place the cc_config.xml file. NOT where the posts I read said, but if you look in the initial messages in BOINC Advanced view, the correct directory is there.

Copying and pasting a sample cc_config.xml file did nothing, so I restarted BOINC, with the result my machine was detached from both projects.

*ggggggggggrrrrrrrr, snarrrrrrrrrrllllllllll*
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I hope you didn't overwrite an existing file, not sure if you had to edit it and put that line in.
(I'm posting from a PSP, and haven't got a PC here with Boinc on to check).
Post in Number Crunching and someone will help.

Claggy

Hi Claggy

Yes.

I have found the directory to place the cc_config.xml file. NOT where the posts I read said, but if you look in the initial messages in BOINC Advanced view, the correct directory is there.

Copying and pasting a sample cc_config.xml file did nothing, so I restarted BOINC, with the result my machine was detached from both projects.

*ggggggggggrrrrrrrr, snarrrrrrrrrrllllllllll*

Hi Guys

I'm at work atm, so will try this after I get home.

I think I was a little tired yesterday, and SOME of the threads are am\\making more sense today.

After what happened with the cut and paste cc_config.xml last night, I must say I'm a little wary of doing it again, but "Nothing ventured, nothing gained".
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