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SETI@Home for PS3 Linux (alpha testing)
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Gaurav Khanna Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 12 Credit: 190,402 RAC: 0 |
A few weeks ago I built the BOINC based SETI@Home distributed computing client for the PlayStation3 running PowerPC Linux (YDL). I have been testing it myself for a few days now and it appears to be working properly and its performance isn't too bad for an "alpha" release. On the Cell, the FFT computation, which is the computationally intensive part of the SETI app, is done on the SPEs while the rest is done on the PPE. Moreover, it runs two copies of the SETI app simultaneously i.e. pretends that the Cell is a dual core system. I found this combination to be an "optimal" choice for now, because in this manner the app utilizes the fact that the PPE can run two threads simultaneously. Of course, in this implementation, each copy of the app only uses 3 SPEs for the FFT computation. From what I can tell the performance of this Cell app, on average, is not bad. It is competes well with high-end Pentiums, Xeons, etc. but not as well with the very recent offerings from Intel, i.e. C2Ds, new Xeons, etc. Moreover, its performance varies tremendously on the type of work unit it gets. Thats why I need a lot more performance data to understand problem spots, for further improving it. If you do decide to run it on your PS3 running Linux, please do join the SETI@PS3 team, so I can keep track of how its doing. Thanks. You can download the PS3/Cell SETI@Home app from here: http://gravity.phy.umassd.edu/~gkhanna/sah-cell.tar.gz Instructions on how to run it (using an anonymous platform) are here: 1) Unzip and untar the downloaded file using "tar zxvf sah-cell.tar.gz". This will create a directory called "SaH". 2) Go to the SETI project website: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ and create an account, if you don't have one already. You'll need your "account key", which is a long string of alphanumeric characters that you usually receive in an email. 3) Now, change your working directory to SaH, by doing a "cd SaH" and then type the following: "./boinc_client -no_gui_rpc -attach_project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu df0d93e384a2700f70e0bc45a1b2c96c". Here the last string of alphanumeric characters is supposed to be YOUR account key. Please replace those with that. All this must be entered in a single line. 4) You should be all set. BOINC will contact the SETI servers and start getting work. You can check the progress in your SETI account online. 5) If you need to quit and restart, simply typing "./boinc_client -no_gui_rpc" should be enough. Feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions or have any trouble. Thanks. Good luck. |
B-Roy Send message Joined: 4 May 03 Posts: 220 Credit: 260,955 RAC: 1 |
to be quite honest, I am very interested in everything that has to do with the PS3 and BOINC. However, having had a look at your PS3's performance I am a bit underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong please, I truly value your effort and all work you put into this, but your crunching times and RAC are worse than what I see on my (very) old cpu. It would thus be interesting whether and how you use the SPEs. |
Gecko Send message Joined: 17 Nov 99 Posts: 454 Credit: 6,946,910 RAC: 47 |
Congratulations on an outstanding achievement!!! Getting S@H to work w/ the SPEs is a major step forward. Now, the effort can be placed on optimizing the code for the most efficient use of the architecture. I suspect there is quite a bit of potential yet to be realized. Congrats again! |
Gaurav Khanna Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 12 Credit: 190,402 RAC: 0 |
This is only an alpha release. Yes, there is certainly scope for a lot of improvement. But, I need more performance data for that. The PS3 does very well for some workunits and poorly for others. I need to understand this better. Thats why I am counting on some PS3 users joining in the testing here. Also, I'm no expert on this RAC business, but my PS3 system hasn't been running long enough to have a steady RAC. For now, its more fair to compare the explicit times of the same workunits with other systems. Here are some samples: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=128805351 http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=131155732 http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=131616379 Looking at some of these, the performance of the app isn't that bad. Also, note that the PS3 has two SETI apps running, so for these workunits only half of the available CPU resources were used. I have compared the performance of this app to one that runs entirely on the PPE. The PPE-only app performs very poorly (possibly comparable to an old 1.0 GHz CPU). |
bounty.hunter Send message Joined: 22 Mar 04 Posts: 442 Credit: 459,063 RAC: 0 |
This is only an alpha release. Congratulations on the good effort! However, take a look at the credit your app is claiming. It is higher than the other pc's on the same wu. For example http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=131616379 should have been claiming 29.36 credits like the other 2 pc's.....instead your ps3 has claimed 33.41 That is something you might want to address in future releases. I know, I've pointed this out before, however a little checking now, will save you a lot of grief from other crunchers on the forum later....;-) |
[AF>HFR>RR] ThierryH Send message Joined: 28 Oct 01 Posts: 35 Credit: 10,867,120 RAC: 0 |
I'm currently Beta testing PS3GRID (http://www.ps3grid.net/PS3GRID) but there's just a few work for the moment. So I'll install your software on my PS3 this evening, but I will stay in AF team. I'll give you my computer ID for your work. I also can help you to modify sources to use SPUs. We have to increase current speed by 50x to be sure we're using all the Cell power ;) |
Josef W. Segur Send message Joined: 30 Oct 99 Posts: 4504 Credit: 1,414,761 RAC: 0 |
This is only an alpha release. It's clear the app is based on the 5.17 cvs source, so it has the 13.7% higher #define LOAD_STORE_ADJUSTMENT 3.81 in seti.h . Simply lowering that to 3.35 as used by 5.15 would bring the credit claims in line. But with the quorum at 2 the lower credit claim is granted anyhow and the likelihood of both members of the quorum using the PS3 app is extremely small. Joe |
Crunch3r Send message Joined: 15 Apr 99 Posts: 1546 Credit: 3,438,823 RAC: 0 |
Hi Gaurav, have you tried using the code form the 2.2b chicken app ? I recommend using that if you wanna get a boost in speed. Which fftw release did you use ? BTW... am i remembering correctly that you are somehow related to Einstein@Home and tried to get the code working on the PS3 too ? Join BOINC United now! |
[AF>HFR>RR] ThierryH Send message Joined: 28 Oct 01 Posts: 35 Credit: 10,867,120 RAC: 0 |
Hi Gaurav, Hi Crunch3r, Is chicken code only for Intel compiler or we can use it on others ? |
B-Roy Send message Joined: 4 May 03 Posts: 220 Credit: 260,955 RAC: 1 |
I'm currently Beta testing PS3GRID (http://www.ps3grid.net/PS3GRID) but there's just a few work for the moment. So I'll install your software on my PS3 this evening, but I will stay in AF team. I'll give you my computer ID for your work. it seems that there are some good development concerning the PS3 and BOINC. It all looks very promising. I am quite excited about all the research done in that area and confident that some programming magiciens (like some of you) will get the thing flying. In any case, I'll have to wait for a price decrease of the PS3 or my first salary in a few months to get my hands on one of these crunchers. Including the development around the AMD/Intel quadcores makes for an interesting time to come. P.S: I like BOINC exactly because of the involved community and all the effort to answer questions, bring up new aspects, etc. Sometimes I wish I had studied informatics, but on the other hand who know what business and international relations might be good for. |
[AF>HFR>RR] ThierryH Send message Joined: 28 Oct 01 Posts: 35 Credit: 10,867,120 RAC: 0 |
Package installed and launched. All WUs directly under error. I stopped for the moment to not download WUs for nothing. My PS3 computer page: PS3 |
Crunch3r Send message Joined: 15 Apr 99 Posts: 1546 Credit: 3,438,823 RAC: 0 |
It's for all platforms... mostly. I used it for Alpha EV6 on linux with gcc, Itanium on linux ICC and atm i'm building the FreeBSD port of it (ICC). If you wan't to discuss it please use the "Porting 2.2B "chicken app" to alt. platforms" thread cuz that's what it was there for... well until Henri Highjacked it ;) Join BOINC United now! |
Gaurav Khanna Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 12 Credit: 190,402 RAC: 0 |
Package installed and launched. You need to have libspe installed on your system. Download the rpms at: http://www.bsc.es/plantillaH.php?cat_id=253 |
[AF>HFR>RR] ThierryH Send message Joined: 28 Oct 01 Posts: 35 Credit: 10,867,120 RAC: 0 |
Package installed and launched. OK, but which version and how I can install it ? Thanks. |
[BOINCstats] Willy Send message Joined: 4 Mar 01 Posts: 202 Credit: 152,243 RAC: 0 |
It would be nice if you can get the client to report a CPU vendor/type so that we can compare performance is the host CPU breakdown stats. If you were yo use the same info as the PS3GRID project we can compare it in BOINC combined as well: <p_vendor>PS3PF</p_vendor> <p_model>Cell Broadband Engine</p_model> (Have no PS3 to test on myself) Join team BOINCstats |
Gaurav Khanna Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 12 Credit: 190,402 RAC: 0 |
Package installed and launched. Please download those rpms and install them using this command, as root: "rpm -i rpmfilename.rpm" |
Gaurav Khanna Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 12 Credit: 190,402 RAC: 0 |
It would be nice if you can get the client to report a CPU vendor/type so that we can compare performance is the host CPU breakdown stats. Where exactly do I set these <p_vendor> and <p_model> tags? Thanks. |
Astro Send message Joined: 16 Apr 02 Posts: 8026 Credit: 600,015 RAC: 0 |
Here's some news from "boinc projects" mail list, that some of you might find of interest David Anderson to Boinc I just checked the master download page, and don't see it there yet. And at the Boinc main page, I see the following: News |
jeffusa Send message Joined: 21 Aug 02 Posts: 224 Credit: 1,809,275 RAC: 0 |
Awesome!!!!! PS3 and Seti!!! I really need a PS3 now!!!!!!!! |
[AF>HFR>RR] ThierryH Send message Joined: 28 Oct 01 Posts: 35 Credit: 10,867,120 RAC: 0 |
Thanks. |
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