Interesting Races and Folders-on-the-Move

ColdFlame · Post by **ColdFlame** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 10:01 pm

haysdb wrote:Stevo had an excellent idea about placing the Folding@Home directories on a server rather than on each individual machine.

I tried this a while back and it was very cool. The only problem was that when it does a checkpoint, it writes a bunch of stuff and it seemed to be kinda slow over the network.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 10:41 pm

ColdFlame wrote:
haysdb wrote:Stevo had an excellent idea about placing the Folding@Home directories on a server rather than on each individual machine.
I tried this a while back and it was very cool. The only problem was that when it does a checkpoint, it writes a bunch of stuff and it seemed to be kinda slow over the network.

I suppose it depends on the network and how responsive it is. I leave the checkpoint interval to 15 minutes, so it's typically only once per frame that anything goes over the network, and since my network is small and "wired", the delay is minimal. No more than 2 seconds per frame, I'd say.

David

CoolGav · Post by **CoolGav** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 1:30 am

haysdb wrote:
mas92264 wrote:Yup. $2.04 today at the local Chevron.
This is OT, but perhaps our friends from the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, etc. could jump in here and offer what they pay for gas. Of course, I strongly suspect that whatever they drive gets a hell of a lot more than 11 MPG, but it still hurts when it costs you $50 to fill your 40 liter tank!

In US gallons (smaller than UK gallons), I only get about 43mpg. With the current exchange rate (which is probably not helping US import prices one bit) your $2.04 is £1.08, which is $2.55 or £1.29 for a UK gallon. I pay about £0.77 a liter, which is £3.50 a UK gallon ($5.53 a US gallon). It costs me about $0.14 per mile in fuel alone. (all conversions are not very acurate). Most of what we pay is government tax.

Oh and ColdFlame - whatever you're doing is now working - I'm not gonna catch you like this!

mormakil · Post by **mormakil** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:33 am

haysdb wrote: This is OT, but perhaps our friends from the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, etc. could jump in here and offer what they pay for gas. Of course, I strongly suspect that whatever they drive gets a hell of a lot more than 11 MPG, but it still hurts when it costs you $50 to fill your 40 liter tank!

Ok, as I know you are eager to know about everything I'll try to please you

I'm not familiar with your strange gas units

, but I'll give you data in metric units and let you the convertion as an exercise (my teachers love to say that too

)
Ok, I still don't know why you use gas to talk about energy, could you explain it to me?. Here in Spain most people are using natural gas to heat their houses (in some old buildings they still use coal

). My company is charging me 0,03317 Euros/Kwh, and as they sell natural gas they have to make a convertion to cubic meters, so they gives you this beatiful number: 1 cubic meter = 10741 Kwh which I believe is an imaginary number as it should depend of the efficiency of the convertion from gas to energy.
About electricity itself, my company charges me monthly for the avalaible power (1,436 euros/kw month). Naturally I pay also for the power comsumption: 0,081587 Euro/KwH.
As it seems it would be cheaper to use only Natural Gas, but I don't know anybody who uses a electricity generator working with Natural Gas. Of course you'll have to pay a nice sum for that machine and I tend to think that cubic meter / kwh ratio is too much optimistic and would be less in reality.

Keep on folding. Daniel

CoolGav · Post by **CoolGav** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:44 am

mormakil, "Gas" is American for Petrol. I wonder if they have many vehicles that don't run on it (eg: how many cars use Diesel in the USA?). Not like us Europeans with our Hydrogen powered Busses etc...

mormakil · Post by **mormakil** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:53 am

CoolGav wrote:mormakil, "Gas" is American for Petrol. I wonder if they have many vehicles that don't run on it (eg: how many cars use Diesel in the USA?). Not like us Europeans with our Hydrogen powered Busses etc...

I knew that Gas was Petrol, but they tend to talk about everything as the equivalent in Gas, not energy (kwh) so I was a bit confused. About Diesel in Europe you're right, about Hydrogen we have a long way to go, but it's the right way.
The day America is not governed by people who have such clear and shamefull interest in Gas companys and refuses to accept Kyoto Protocol, we may see a bit of progress from them and stop wasting that amount of Gas in their cars and poluting everything.

ED: BTW what does mpg stands for?

geordie · Post by **geordie** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 4:44 am

mormakil wrote:BTW what does mpg stands for?

miles per gallon
Though you continental Europeans will probably be more used to "litres per 100km" as a measure of fuel economy for cars.

CoolGav · Post by **CoolGav** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 8:03 am

If you want to get folding while sorting out other things, there is a Gentoo ebuild for 3.24 (I think)...

install F@H:

Code: Select all

emerge foldingathome

configure

Code: Select all

/etc/init.d/foldingathome -configonly

edit the /etc/init.d/foldingathome file to add -forceSSE etc

Code: Select all

nano -w /etc/init.d/foldingathome

start it running

Code: Select all

/etc/init.d/foldingathome start

add it as a service so when you reboot it runs automagically

Code: Select all

rc-update add foldingathome default

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 8:16 am

Stevo@ARM wrote: So... What do you guys think, I really hate to ask, but can we count on the team for a little PR help in the business department so Roy and I can pay more attention to Folding?

For what it's worth, when it comes time to upgrade our systems at the office, you guys are now on the short list...

Dave

Stevo@ARM · Post by **Stevo@ARM** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 8:54 am

dasman wrote:
Stevo@ARM wrote: So... What do you guys think, I really hate to ask, but can we count on the team for a little PR help in the business department so Roy and I can pay more attention to Folding?
For what it's worth, when it comes time to upgrade our systems at the office, you guys are now on the short list...

Dave

Awesome! thanks Dave.

Being an SPCR guy I know you would prefer the StealthPC models at the office, but just in case the boss won't spring for the extra for the UltraQuiet models, Roy and I have worked hard to cut the noise levels of our standard models down to a reasonable level too.

Stevo
--------------------
Gettin' some Gromac love from Stanford

wgragg · Post by **wgragg** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:01 am

I am trying to convince my boss we need to replace a bunch of 1998 vintage computers and I can certainly put in a word for you; however, being a part of a municipal govt, we are often obligated to go with state contracts and for us it usually mean Dell. I will do what I can though.

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:25 am

Stevo@ARM wrote: Awesome! thanks Dave. Being an SPCR guy I know you would prefer the StealthPC models at the office, but just in case the boss won't spring for the extra for the UltraQuiet models, Roy and I have worked hard to cut the noise levels of our standard models down to a reasonable level too.

Well, I am the boss

and I'm not too happy with our current Dell standard at the moment...

However, I am going to be waiting for the Prescott, AGP bus thing to shake itself out before we make a move

Dave

Stevo@ARM · Post by **Stevo@ARM** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:27 am

wgragg wrote:I am trying to convince my boss we need to replace a bunch of 1998 vintage computers and I can certainly put in a word for you; however, being a part of a municipal govt, we are often obligated to go with state contracts and for us it usually mean Dell. I will do what I can though.

Thanks wgragg!

I know what you mean about a govt situation. Roy works with some of the libraries in our area so if they are open to the idea maybe he can find a way to work with whoever is in charge of that in your area. I'm sure your Folding numbers would get a BIG boost from some quiet 2.8 - 3.2GHz HT folding clients there

Stevo
-------------
Feeling the Team SPCR spirit!

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:37 am

tangled wrote:Congrats to mas92264 for the single digit team rank!

Too bad it was my single digit you took

Hand, SALUTE! to you, tangled, as I look in my rear view mirror.

M

mormakil · Post by **mormakil** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:46 am

geordie wrote:
mormakil wrote:BTW what does mpg stands for?
miles per gallon
Though you continental Europeans will probably be more used to "litres per 100km" as a measure of fuel economy for cars.

Just to keep this off topic

... :
So if it's a measure of fuel economy, you can travel x miles per gallon but how fast? I mean litres per 100Km, measure how many litres you spend when you travel 100 km at 100 km/h as it's not the same to go at 20 km/h or 100 km/h. It's just curiosity, feel free not to answer

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 10:03 am

So if it's a measure of fuel economy, you can travel x miles per gallon but how fast?

If it's the EPA estimated MPG (both Hwy & City) that the manf. gives out, then it's at some govt. mandated testing conditions.

If it's a normal person giving you the number, then it's usually based on that particular persons actual driving habits/conditions.

Dave

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 10:09 am

NullObject wrote:Its great to hear that ARM fixed their sTinker problem. Quite an impressive increase in points so far. It'll be interesting to see what their production levels off to. Either way, it'll be impressive

And a to David for regaining and settling comfortably in the RED ZONE .

Congrats to ArtCubed for being green twice, or was that Artcubed?

Captain, it was good to see you go yellow. I've been looking in the rear view mirror wondering if this a trend towards you overtaking me. I need more Horses, I mean GHz

We look forward to see you going ORANGE DASMAN

Alas, an onslaught of Tinkers has put our rush to orange on the back burner -- way to go everyone else!

Dave

PS I can't wait to pull a "unregistered" and fill a post with "I'm orange" like he did for turning green

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 10:12 am

So if it's a measure of fuel economy, you can travel x miles per gallon but how fast?

Buenos dias, mormakil,

In conversation, Americans usually say mpg "around town" or, "highway/on a long trip."

My 11 mpg is "in town" for short trips back and forth to work, grocery store, etc. It's only about 3 miles (4.8 klicks) to work. My highway mileage is about 17-18 mpg, which is typical for a vehicle like mine.

M

Stevo@ARM · Post by **Stevo@ARM** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 10:57 am

dasman wrote:
Well, I am the boss and I'm not too happy with our current Dell standard at the moment...

However, I am going to be waiting for the Prescott, AGP bus thing to shake itself out before we make a move

Dave

Prescott is going to turn everything on it's head actually. It's hotter and slower than a Northwood clock for clock as you probably already know

But things should level out by summer/fall and we'll all have a better idea of what a new generation system performs and sounds like.

I still haven't had a chance to get one for testing yet - I want to see how it handles Folding

Oh, speaking of that, I just got a P4 3.40 HT Extreme Edition with 2MB of Cache!

I'll get you guys some Folding performance numbers on this monster once we get it up and running

Stevo
-------------------
Mu-hwaa ha ha haaa... Folding on a 3.40EE

Egggcellent....

mormakil · Post by **mormakil** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:56 am

mas92264 wrote: My 11 mpg is "in town" for short trips back and forth to work, grocery store, etc. It's only about 3 miles (4.8 klicks) to work. My highway mileage is about 17-18 mpg, which is typical for a vehicle like mine.

M

Buenas tardes, M

I found a page that converts it to litres/100km and 11 mpg= 21 l/100km

it's hard to believe for me that a vehicle can consumes that much gas (which vehicle do you have btw?). 18 mpg for highway mileage (13 l/100km) seems also really high. I don't know what you pay there for gas, obviously you have really cheap gas. Here we pay more or less 0,8 euros for a litre of normal gas. Here a normal car would be in 10-15 l/100km in city and maybe 6-10 l/100km in highway. Also my car only has a 30 litre deposit, so with your 11mpg I would be doing only 150kms in city. From my experience I could make about 250-300 kms only town driving. With "mixed" driving I can travel 500kms with 30 litres.
America should make an effort to waste less gas, in my opinion, there's no need to polute in that way the planet. No offend intended anyway.

Sorry for my misuse of English, I lack of speaking it and I'm quickly forgetting how to speak it.

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 1:55 pm

Stevo@ARM wrote: Prescott is going to turn everything on it's head actually. It's hotter and slower than a Northwood clock for clock as you probably already know But things should level out by summer/fall and we'll all have a better idea of what a new generation system performs and sounds like.

That's why I'm waiting -- I figure this is going to be a late 3rd qtr/4th qtr upgrade (want to see how this year shakes out but also want it on this years taxes)

Stevo@ARM wrote: I just got a P4 3.40 HT Extreme Edition with 2MB of Cache!

You vendors have all the fun

Dave

TheScarf · Post by **TheScarf** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:14 am

Its hard to type this, but.....only two places to go and you've got me dasman.....God it's been painful watching you slowly and inexorably head in my direction......that being said - FOLD ON!

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 6:32 am

Yeah, it won't be long now, but before dasman catches you Scarf, you will have risen 5 spots, so it'll be five steps forward, one back.

David

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 7:00 am

Mormakil,

Your english is fine. Much better than my Spanish, that's for sure.

"Tardes" = afternoon, evening? Of course, it looks like "tardy" which means late (but would only be used in reference to school children.)

Oh, my vehicle is what would be called a mid-size SUV (sports utility vehicle.) About 3,900 pounds with the aerodynamics of a brick. Kind of like a pickup truck that has been converted to a station wagon (estate car, I think the Brits call them.) It's about the size of a Range Rover or a Toyota Land Cruiser (although mine is about 1/2 the price.)

A "deposit," while accurately describing a gasoline tank, more common usage would be "gas tank" or just "tank."

M

Mutt_n_head · Post by **Mutt_n_head** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 7:51 am

What I want to know is whether or not the ARM guys sell people computers with the client already installed as a service or something. That would run the scores up but be sort of cheesy at the same time.

Although you gotta wonder how AMD OC of 2 CPU gets all of his folding done.

mormakil · Post by **mormakil** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 7:53 am

M,

Yes, tardes=afternoon+ half evening aprox. Let's say it starts at lunch time (here in Spain 2 pm in Latin America 12 pm) and it's over at 8-10 pm more or less (earlier in Latin America maybe). Then we use buenas noches, used as your good night, but also when saying hello politely and it's that late (after 9 pm). "Tarde" = late, You're late = llegas tarde.

Ok, I get the idea of how your vehicle is. Definetily, american car makers don't design vehicle with gas economy on their minds. A friend of mine has just bought a car, an it consumes only 4 l/100 in highway, that's 58mpg and it uses diesel gas. And don't think it's a slowly car, on the contrary it's too fast and powerfull for him in my opinion.

BTW how big your vehicles' tanks are? Because with that mpgs you must be going to the gas station everyday.

wgragg · Post by **wgragg** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 7:54 am

I doubt they would be in business long if they did something like that. From what I gathered in his posts, they only use it for stress testing the box before customer delivery. Now if he could convince his customers to let him leave it on there with the SPCR team number........LOL

Mutt_n_head · Post by **Mutt_n_head** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:13 pm

I dunno, it's just that seeing the team named "ARM systems" seems like our team is just a advertising space for whoever will give us points as a team.

That's fine I suppose but it just seems like it's essentially a hidden banner ad. And then the request for PR and stuff, makes it seem like the team is essentially selling out. Maybe that's the way we should go, just frame it as folding for SPCR is like getting free PR for spare cycles that companies, system manufacturers or whoever can donate.

I think about lots of people on this team who have put in hard work like TRC, Lockheed etc... who now will get blown away by a system vendor. It sort of trivializes things. An analogy would be to have professionals competing against amateurs i.e. a pro football player comes to a local high school and dominates the entire game because they are totally outclassed.

Maybe it would be better if there were two classes of teams, a pro class and amateur class, although I see no way to implement it like that.

In the end it is all for science but there's more to it than that. There's a friendly rivalry here which is why they even "keep score" to begin with. So saying it's just all about the science isn't entirely accurate. All I know is that other teams will see our #1 person as a company which makes us look like we just kind of sold out to get points.

It's not that big a deal in the end anyway I guess, but I'd be concerned that the people towards the top of the list don't just give up and stop pushing production because they are all gonna get dropped a notch because of ARM. It just doesn't seem fair for vendors to be competing with individuals.

Ok, let the flames begin.