First does it run under OSX? Second if it runs ubder emulation how fast/slowly?

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At the moment it runs under emulation, and pretty slowly (and screensaver doesn't work). However, an Intel Mac version of both BOINC and SETI have been compiled and are currently being tested. Apple jumped the gun and shipped six months faster than expected...

'Apple jumped the gun and shipped six months faster than expected...'


Thanks for that tid bit of info...

Time to go pick up my christmas gift... ;)

Does this mean that there is going to be a specialized version or universal binary?

I think they only jump the gun by 3 months according to "Steve" ;-))

At the moment it runs under emulation, and pretty slowly (and screensaver doesn't work). However, an Intel Mac version of both BOINC and SETI have been compiled and are currently being tested. Apple jumped the gun and shipped six months faster than expected...

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Keith J. Schultz
schultzk@uni-trier.de

I'd like to know where this information came from because there's no mention of an Intel-compatible beta on the Mac section of the download site.

I would happily test a beta of the Intel-Mac client (command line only preferred, I run it as a background process). Where can I get it? Who's responsible? What is the time frame for release?

Thanks.

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Nathan Zamprogno
http://baliset.blogspot.com

Changes since 5.2.14:
Mac only: in anticipation of Intel-based Macs, the Mac BOINC Manager package name now specifies the cpu architecture: boinc_5.2.15_macOSX_powerpc.zip.

Sounds like there will be two different versions, not a universal binary... ;(

You can find this info on the beta page... Look in the version details for 5.2.15...

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php?dev=1

The link to the beta downloads at the BOINC site is very welcome but where would we find documentation laying out the version roadmap? There's still no answer as to if BOINC will be Universal Binary, or a separate installer for each Mac processor type, if the current BOINC will run under Rosetta at all (and even if it did I expect the performance to be crippling). SUrely someone, somewhere has charge over saying "BOINC will be Intel native as of version xx, expect a beta by yy". Can anyone help?

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Nathan Zamprogno
http://baliset.blogspot.com

A comment elsewhere prompts a need for clarification. Obviously BOINCManager is a fully fledged application and thus will either need to be native to Intel or will run under Rosetta. But what about the command line only version?

I've got BOINC set up to run as a background process via the command line version. I've got some nifty scripting set up to engage it in the background at bootup (meaning it will even run behind the login screen). I only use BOINCManager when I need to check on the progress.

So is the CLI version in need of "Intel-ification"? Is "Universal Binary-ness" only a feature needed in full OS-X programs with menus and windows? Will the current CLI version run as a background process and will it use Rosetta or run "natively"?

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Nathan Zamprogno
http://baliset.blogspot.com

This is straight from the horses mouth. Charlie Fenton is *the* developer of the Intel version of BOINC for Macs. I posted some questions on the official BOINC mailing list and he's responded comprehensively. Many, many thanks to Charlie.

My comments and Charlie's responses are below, mixed together. Sorry if the breaks between my questions and his responses are not obvious, this is a direct cut and paste from his email to me.




At 4:09 PM +1100 2/15/06, Nathan Zamprogno wrote:
1. Who is responsible for developing the Intel Specific or Universal binary of BOINC? Is there a version roadmap or timeline for even a beta release?

I am currently testing fully working "universal binary" development builds of BOINC Manager, command-line BOINC client and the boinc_cmd command-line tool. All future releases of BOINC will include "universal binary" builds for the Macintosh. (Universal binaries contain both PowerPC and Intel executables in one file; the Macintosh OS automatically selects the appropriate one for that computer.)

The BOINC team is working hard to get all the BOINC code ready for the next alpha test release; the issues which need to be resolved before this release are not specific to the Mac platform. The next version of BOINC needs to pass alpha test before we can fully release it.

We will soon be recruiting alpha testers for the Macintosh platforms, both PowerPC and Intel.

As Eric Korpela correctly wrote,
SETI@home currently has a MacOS X/Intel binary (see
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/apps.php), but you'd need an intel
aware BOINC client to run it. So far as I know there is no intel
BOINC binary available for download.

My tests show that the current PowerPC builds of both BOINC and the project applications run perfectly on Intel Macs under Apple's Rosetta emulation, though more slowly. My tests indicate that the PowerPC build of SETI@home takes about 3 times as long to run on an Intel Mac as does the Intel native build of SETI@home. A PowerPC build of SETI@home takes about 7.5 hours per work unit on a 2GHz dual-core Intel iMac, as opposed to about 2.5 hours for a native Intel build.

At 4:09 PM +1100 2/15/06, Nathan Zamprogno wrote:
2. Obviously BOINCManager is a fully fledged double-clickable application, and thus will either need to be native to Intel or will run under Rosetta. But what about the command line only version of BOINC? Does code that executes from a command line fall into the "must be rewritten for Intel" basket? Is "Universal Binary-ness" only a feature needed in full OS-X programs with menus and windows? Will the current CLI version run as a background process and will it use Rosetta or run "natively" on Intel hardware?

Nothing needs to be rewritten, only recompiled. This applies to all executables, both GUI and command-line. But all BOINC executables written for PowerPC Macs run correctly on Intel Macs using Apple's Rosetta emulation.

What about CLI versions meant for Linux on Intel systems (that is, Wintel hardware). Would that work or crash?

I have not tried this, but I am fairly certain they will not run. OS X is a UNIX system, not Linux. They are similar but not interchangeable.

3. Regardless of how BOINC is running, as Intel native or under Rosetta emulation, what about the code received from BOINC projects themselves? When I start up SETI@Home on a new BOINC client I note it downloads "setiathome 4.18" as well as a few workunits. Does this file contain platform specific code or optimisations or is it "universal" (meaning the same project code file is downloaded irrespective of platform it is run on, kind of like Java?) Do BOINC project writers need to change anything at their end so their projects will run on the "new" platform?

The advantage of "universal binaries" is that you only need to have one copy of the application, and it will run on either PowerPC or Intel Macs, so users don't need to choose between two options. Since BOINC participants manually download BOINC from the web site, we will be providing BOINC in "universal binary" form.

However, participants do not manually download project applications; this is done automatically by BOINC. So there would be no advantage to combining the Intel and PowerPC versions in a single "universal binary" file, but doing so would double the size of the download.

So BOINC treats Intel Macs as a new, separate platform. BOINC previously directly supported four platforms: PowerPC Macs (powerpc-apple-darwin), Intel Linux (i686-pc-linux-gnu), Windows (windows-intelx86) and Solaris (sparc-sun-solaris2.7). We have now added a fifth platform for Intel Macs (i686-apple-darwin).

At this time, only SETI@home has a project application available for the i686-apple-darwin platform, but we are working with the other projects which support the Mac powerpc-apple-darwin platform to help them build a native Intel version.

As a temporary measure, projects can provide a copy of their PowerPC application under the new powerpc-apple-darwin platform. But it will run more slowly than a native Intel build, and screensaver graphics don't work when running a PowerPC project application with a native Intel build of BOINC Manager / BOINC screensaver.

The screensaver graphics _do_ work properly on Intel Macs when running a PowerPC project application with PowerPC BOINC, or when running an Intel project application with Intel (universal binary) BOINC.

If the current version of BOINC runs in Rosetta, I'm expecting the performance to be cripplingly slow, although advice from someone who's tried will be welcome.

It's actually better than I had expected.

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Nathan Zamprogno
http://baliset.blogspot.com

Hurrraaaa!

Boinc 5.3.21 Universal Binary released ... works fast and the Screensaver is working again too!

Gerry

... 5.3.22 is out :-)

Gerry

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... 5.3.22 is out :-)

Gerry

Where do you get 5.3.22, Universal Binary? All I see is 5.2.13 at:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

Is the Menubar available as Universal Binary?

Thanks,
David

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... 5.3.22 is out :-)

Gerry

Where do you get 5.3.22, Universal Binary? All I see is 5.2.13 at:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

Is the Menubar available as Universal Binary?

Thanks,
David

OK, I found it at http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php?min_version=5.0&dev=1

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http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php?dev=1

rgds Gerry