GPUGrid Works, a Demotion & some more figures.

Finally GPUGrid seems to work on Windows. My venerable 8600 takes 45 hrs to do a WU worth 1980ish credits. The rather newer 9600 takes 20 hours. The way it works is the GPU acts as a coproccessor to one of the CPU cores. This makes it an ideal upgrade route for the slower PCs but it wouldn't make much sense for say the ubercruncher where a single core doing optimised SETI can easily outcrunch the 8600 and is almost on a par with the 9600.

I got stomped yesterday by Buster who replaced me as team credit-leader. Cool!

For all you figure fiends here are more numbers for Milkyway & CPDN, each based on just 4 work units, running on the ubercruncher.

Project ______ 6WUTime ________ 6WUCredit _______ Credit/Day
Rosetta _______ 11.1hrs ___________ 286 _____________ 2474
WCG _________ 20.4hrs __________ 399 _____________ 1877
Einstein ______ 43.8hrs __________ 1425 _____________ 3123
Cosmology ____ 3.22hrs ____ ______ 300 _____________ 8944
Seti__________ 12.2hrs ___ _______ 374 _____________ 2951
Seti[optimised] _ 5.9hrs ___________ 431 _____________ 7013
Yoyo _________ 42.3hrs __________ 1692 ____________ 3840
CPDN .................. 879hrs ....................... 26749 ........................ 2920
Milkyway .......... 13.6hrs ....................... 784 ............................ 5534

BTW Cosmology has since altered its credit structure since the above and is now much less rewarding!

Quad Back Up

I got my stricken quad working again. Only now it's crunching optimised seti so I look forward to at least another 4800 per day from it!!! That is until I figure how to run PS3Grid on it. As well as a top end PSU for it I took the chance to get a decent graphics card for it so that with a little linux black arts I can utilise the GPU as well as the CPU!!!!

In praise of mobile internet.

For the first time ever I am able to address you from my country retreat in deepest Argyll, a delightful place but with no phone line and where previously hanging out the front room window got you a single wavery bar of Vodafone reception if you were lucky, and could thole the midgies long enough to complete a call.

Today however, I have 5 rock-solid bars, even from the sofa, & more importantly my USB Mobile Broadband dongle has got me on-line! Okay, so it's just at dial-up, not broadband, speed, and no doubt this will cost me much more than if I got the full contracted speed, only available in our major cities, but who cares? I can post and check my stats & even do non-boinc surfing should I so choose!

Several times over the course of my just completed holiday thru the Utter Hebrides have I been able to get thus online, most strangely on the Isle of Scalpay, a medieval Wee-Free ruled backwater of an island where alcohol is outlawed [yikes!!!] and which lacks all modern amenities, [except sheep] but you can get online from the room of your B&B where every spare surface is covered in admonishments against sin [although come to think of it sheep weren't specifically mentioned].

Anyway it's great that armed with a lap-top & dongle one can get online even in the depths of the Gaeltachd. The 21st century is here & here to stay!