Seti BOINC only recognizes 2gigs of RAM. Is the Boinc app more processor intensive than memory? I have loads more still sitting there that could have been put to good use. I do like the fact that it downloads a workunit for each processor though. Crunching 4 units in about 2 hours with the Quad G5! Much better than what I used to in Seti Classic with a dual G5.

---

The "stock" SETI application only needs around 128MB of RAM, is very heavy on CPU and L2 cache. I do have some very good news for you though... you can cut the time down to 4 units in _ONE_ hour, by installing the Altivec-optimized version of the SETI application available here at Team MacNN. I'm running their "alpha 5" version with zero problems on my G4. It uses slightly more RAM, but not much; the only projects with heavy RAM demands that I know of are CPDN and Rosetta, neither of which are a "great" match for a Mac (although I personally like Rosetta a lot, I have one <shudder> Windows box it mainly runs on).

Also, if you _don't_ already have a "backup project" for when SETI is down, Einstein's standard application is also Altivec-optimized. Six of the top-20 machines over there are G5 Quads. :-)

If you run SETI-only or SETI and Einstein, then you may want to look at an optimized version of the BOINC client Team MacNN has as well; it will only "compensate" for the reduced credit claims the Altivec applications will give you, and isn't really necessary as you get the "middle" credit anyway, not what you claim. If you run projects that _don't_ have Altivec applications though, you should probably stick to the standard BOINC client.

The "stock" SETI application only needs around 128MB of RAM, is very heavy on CPU and L2 cache. I do have some very good news for you though... you can cut the time down to 4 units in _ONE_ hour, by installing the Altivec-optimized version of the SETI application available here at Team MacNN. I'm running their "alpha 5" version with zero problems on my G4. It uses slightly more RAM, but not much; the only projects with heavy RAM demands that I know of are CPDN and Rosetta, neither of which are a "great" match for a Mac (although I personally like Rosetta a lot, I have one <shudder> Windows box it mainly runs on).

Also, if you _don't_ already have a "backup project" for when SETI is down, Einstein's standard application is also Altivec-optimized. Six of the top-20 machines over there are G5 Quads. :-)

If you run SETI-only or SETI and Einstein, then you may want to look at an optimized version of the BOINC client Team MacNN has as well; it will only "compensate" for the reduced credit claims the Altivec applications will give you, and isn't really necessary as you get the "middle" credit anyway, not what you claim. If you run projects that _don't_ have Altivec applications though, you should probably stick to the standard BOINC client.

WOW! Thanx for the info - will get the altivec version then!

---

Also, if you _don't_ already have a "backup project" for when SETI is down, Einstein's standard application is also Altivec-optimized. Six of the top-20 machines over there are G5 Quads. :-)

Hi Bill,

Is the CPDN Altivec-optimized for Alti-G4? Does it install through terminal?

Thanks,

Bob

---

Robert L. Hanson, Ed.D.

Is the CPDN Altivec-optimized for Alti-G4? Does it install through terminal?

CPDN is barely Mac-functional, actually... it DOES work, but you have to download some additional libraries manually before it will. It's a standard BOINC app otherwise. My fastest current Mac is only a Mini, so I haven't tried to run CPDN on it; it's on my Windows box. If the graphics are as good on a Mac as they are on the PC, I'd call it the second-best graphics after Rosetta (which is Windows-only for graphics so far, they're still debugging).

For any CPDN info, I'd go ahead and create an account over there, read up both on their site and in the Wiki (it has a _lot_ of CPDN info in it) and then give it a try.

Is the CPDN Altivec-optimized for Alti-G4? Does it install through terminal?

CPDN is barely Mac-functional, actually... it DOES work, ...

For any CPDN info, I'd go ahead and create an account over there, read up both on their site and in the Wiki (it has a _lot_ of CPDN info in it) and then give it a try.

Hi Bill,

Thanks for reply. I have d/l CPDN and you are right it is slow. Set to finish two WU Dec 2007! Used 86 hours and not quite 2% done on one. That is why I was interested in the Altivec optimized program; speed up crunching. Need to read some more as you suggest. Not sure how to install d/l Altivec...few directions. Dr. Rob is ID on CPDN...

Thanks for your continuing help....

Bob

---

Robert L. Hanson, Ed.D.

I think we're missing each other, I didn't realize you were already on CPDN and looking to "improve" it, I was just talking about initial install. CPDN does _not_ have any "3rd-party" applications available, Altivec or otherwise. They _do_ require you to download some "extra" library files if you're on Mac, before the standard application will work. (Unless they've fixed that very recently...) Their sulphur WUs have a deadline of a year or so, but on my PC with a 30% share, 1000+ hour total time-to-completion, I'm getting one "trickle" (161 credits) per day. With CPDN, it's the "trickles" and not the completion of the result that matters most, until deadline.

As long as you are returning one CPDN trickle every three (calendar) days or less, you're ok. (I would actually strongly advise every TWO days.) If you look at the dates on the trickles you've returned (you'll have to drill down through the WU on their site to see them) and you see them coming in slower than that, then to avoid problems later, you probably need to increase the resource share a bit. If your Mac is too slow to return a trickle every three days, if it's _close_, you may be able to get by, but at some point the scheduler will switch you to "CPDN only" in an attempt to meet the deadline. If you aren't even close... it's probably better to kill off CPDN early, letting them reissue the WU now, rather than waste a lot of time on it to only have to abort it in a few months.

Some people use CPDN _solely_ as a "backup" project for network outages. They fully expect to let it run only when nothing else is available, just for the "trickle credits", and know they are going to abort it when the deadline approaches. I can't go along with that, they're only hurting the CPDN project just to keep from losing any BOINC credits during downtimes. If someone has "not losing credits" as their goal, then a 10% share of something with "reasonably long" WUs, like Einstein or Rosetta, and a 5-day cache, is a much better approach. CPDN is a great project; but a lousy "backup" project, imho.