Yeah... so I got this Boinc thing, and after setting it up to work roughly how I want it to, I'm still left with a question:

Why is it utilizing so little of my processor capacity? I'm not a computer genius, but from what I can learn from the activity monitor it's using relatively little, especially considering that the G5s are supposedly capable of 20 or 30 some billion calculations per second(compared to what it's getting working with BOINC, less than a tenth of those numbers).

The "stock" SETI application for the Mac is basically just the Linux/Unix version recompiled. If you'll see the thread here you'll see info on an Altivec-optimized version. I don't know what Activity Monitor shows on a Dual, but you _should_ see each instance of SETI taking 80-90% of one CPU; if AM "adds it all up", then each will show 40-45% of the total system.

If you go the optimized app route, you will have to _uninstall_ it when SETI_enhanced is released, so BOINC can automatically download the new app.

The "stock" SETI application for the Mac is basically just the Linux/Unix version recompiled. If you'll see the thread here you'll see info on an Altivec-optimized version. I don't know what Activity Monitor shows on a Dual, but you _should_ see each instance of SETI taking 80-90% of one CPU; if AM "adds it all up", then each will show 40-45% of the total system.

If you go the optimized app route, you will have to _uninstall_ it when SETI_enhanced is released, so BOINC can automatically download the new app.

Um...... sorry to sound dumb, but how does all of this work? And what's this SETI enhanced?

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See this thread for info on the Altivec-optimized SETI application. There are several currently-active threads in the Number Crunching forum about SETI_Enhanced.

Are you looking at seti_4.18_darwin_ppc (or something like that, that name is from memory) in Activity Monitor? That is what should be getting 80+% of your CPU, not BOINC Manager, which is just a "scheduler and GUI" for the science application.

The Wiki is the source of all BOINC knowledge; I'd be happy to answer any specific questions, but for "how does all this work", well, I'd be here all day and all I'd be doing is retyping the Wiki... :-)

If this worked you can see my activity monitor on my G5 2.5 running Boinc SETI.
You can see both CPUs have a work unit and are around 90% you can also see boinc at 0.70% and BOINCManager at 0.10%, as well as a few other things that are always running on my system.



OK so I don't know how to make a link.