The Scottish Boinc Team

http://boincstats.com/en/stats/challenge/team/chat/557

Name The (N)eed (F)or (S)peed Challenge
Status Upcoming
Project NFS@Home
Issued by SETI.USA
Start time 2014-06-21 00:00 UTC
End time 2014-06-26 00:00 UTC
Late entrants allowed? Yes
Number of teams participating » 7
Number of users participating 0

Just an FYI for those not familiar with this project. There are 4 different applications. 2 use up to .5 GB memory, 2 use up to 1 GB memory. The apps that use up to 1 GB memory pay 2-3 times as much as the .5 GB apps. That's what I've seen so far. I've set my preferences to only run the lasievef and lasieve5f apps.

lasieved - app for RSALS subproject, uses less than 0.5 GB memory: no
lasievee - work nearly always available, uses up to 0.5 GB memory: no
lasievef - used for huge factorizations, uses up to 1 GB memory: yes
lasieve5f - used for huge factorizations, uses up to 1 GB memory: yes

For the ones that use 1GB you also need to consider what else is running. My personal laptop has 4GB of memory installed but I can't run the 1 GB units on it unless I set no more than 2 cores on boinc as more than 2 running and the app crashes due to too little memory available system wide.
Worth bearing in mind if your systems have limited memory.

Definitely make sure you have the memory. Can also use app_config.xml to control the number of 1 GB tasks. Here's an example of the app_config.xml for some of the others.

app lasievef is a 1GB task, lasievee and lasieved are .5GB tasks. Haven't seen the app name for the other 1GB task. lasievee pays better than lasieved for the .5GB tasks.

<app_config>
<app>
<name>lasievef</name>
<max_concurrent>1</max_concurrent>
</app>
<app>
<name>lasievee</name>
<max_concurrent>1</max_concurrent>
</app>
<app>
<name>lasieved</name>
<max_concurrent>1</max_concurrent>
</app>
</app_config>

Thanks for the tips guys, and well done Scole for calculating the credit difference!
Looks like another config file required.
I should really be getting the hang of them by now

seems I have a few more to add too as some of my systems have 16 gb mem and some have 8,4 or 2 or 1 And my Xeons need more, knew there was something I was supposed to do. Time to dig in the memory drawer , there is definitely some more ddr2 2gB sticks kicking around the Pirate Cave.

Fudge! I have a couple systems that won't run the 1GB tasks. Is there anyway to configure the BOINC client so it won't download certain apps? On the systems that can run 1GB apps, that's all I want to run. On systems that can't, can I prevent it from downloading them? Setting max_concurrent to 0, like below, doesn't work.

<app_config>
<app>
<name>lasievef</name>
<max_concurrent>0</max_concurrent>
</app>
</app_config>

Easiest way is to go to your NFS account. There you have the option of setting 4 different profiles for your computers. Default, Home, School, Work. Change your default settings to only do work on the 1 GB units. Change the settings on on of the other profiles to only accept work for the 1/2 GB units. Then scroll down to computers on this account. All your computers are automatically set to use default preferences. Select the computer you want to change to another profile, select details and change location to the alternative profile.

Well this is turning into a huge PITA. The memory issues are really pi$$ing me off. Have set 3 configs to accommodate the various systems. Default allows all, Home allows only 14 and 15, Work allows only 16. Simple in theory, except the preferences keep getting deleted from my account ?
I also have 1 system with 16gb memory, runs as many 16 or 14 tasks as I want, but has a 50% or so failure rate on 15 with memory access violations ? Oh and my workserver with 8 xeon cores only has 4 GB memory so some more ordered. It actually has 5GB, but regardless of which configuration I install the modules it will only use 4 GB, but reports no memory errors. Simply turns the module or modules off and ignores there existence.
So all in all, no bunkering, just trying to get it to work. Due away soon as well, so if I can't get it sorted will have to run everything on the lowest common denominator or 14 and 15 tasks and hamstring myself credit wise or it will be nothing more than errors as my caches fill up with 16 tasks.
Not a fluffy bunny
Don't remember this amount of hassle the last competition. I think the units are using more memory or pushing the systems harder than they used to

I have several 3 core AMD Phenon II systems with identical memory (8GB), CPU and Win7 64 configs. 2 run 16e just fine while the other chokes on most 16e tasks but runs 15e just fine. Go figure.

Yes, there is definitely more to it than simply memory requirements.
Still struggling away at it. can't understand why my preferences on the nfs website keep being deleted

An hour to go. These challenges are usually quite a scrap. Hope a few join in :)

Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes

Now lads! Let them have it!

scole250 wrote:Now lads! Let them have it!

And so we did!

As a result we after 30 minutes we are 3rd (of just 6, but still ..)

scole is 4th of 38 users and I am 5th! :wav:

Just as well this is winding down as I am currently 16 cores down due to uncooperative systems. Think my kid will be fetching the big hammer this evening Although at the rate we are going we are probably less than a week away from moving from 3rd in the country to 1st ........

TSBT finished 5th from 11

Individually we were
scole of TSBT 19th
alez [ TSBT's Pirate ] 36th
Megacruncher of TSBT 44th
Paul of TSBT 58th
Skywalker TSBT 59th

not a bad effort for only 5 of us at all.

everyone, a good effort against some pretty tough opposition!