Have all the projects given up on Android?

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numbermaniac

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Joined: 28 Jun 14
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Message 93371 - Posted: 29 Oct 2019, 2:28:05 UTC

World Community Grid is struggling to send enough Android tasks for its users. Rosetta and Asteroids@home have no tasks available despite claiming to support Android. SETI apparently hasn't updated their apps to support anything above Android 5, which was released nearly half a decade ago. Collatz used to have an Android application, but at some point it just disappeared.

It seems like all the projects have just given up on Android.
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Dr Who Fan
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Message 93372 - Posted: 29 Oct 2019, 2:53:55 UTC - in response to Message 93371.  

I currently run Einstein, Asteroids, Yoyo, Universe, and Moo Wrapper projects on Android. All have work at the moment.

Waiting for more WCG. Rosetta & the rare Ralph to have work.
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numbermaniac

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Message 93415 - Posted: 30 Oct 2019, 13:27:35 UTC - in response to Message 93372.  
Last modified: 30 Oct 2019, 13:29:22 UTC

Interesting that you mention Asteroids, because I haven't been able to get any tasks from them for a couple of days. Just connected to Universe@home again and they're not sending anything either. I even have the "send tasks from any sub project if no work is available" option on for both.
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Dr Who Fan
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Message 93416 - Posted: 30 Oct 2019, 13:53:57 UTC - in response to Message 93415.  
Last modified: 30 Oct 2019, 13:55:15 UTC

Not sure what is going on with Asteroids - seems project might be out of disk space again...
At Universe project is not sending tasks due to a pending server upgrade / replacement https://universeathome.pl/universe/forum_thread.php?id=475&postid=3841
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Dr Who Fan
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Message 93419 - Posted: 30 Oct 2019, 14:35:52 UTC - in response to Message 93416.  

Just received a task for Asteroids on my Android device.
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numbermaniac

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Message 93481 - Posted: 1 Nov 2019, 1:10:11 UTC
Last modified: 1 Nov 2019, 1:10:21 UTC

Thanks! I might have another look at Asteroids then. I've been getting a steady stream of tasks from Einstein@home for the last couple of days, which is good.

Yoyo's Android program crashes with a computation error almost immediately after starting. And for some reason you can't log in to their forums with your BOINC account, you have to make a separate account just for their forums. According to some users on Reddit's r/BOINC it seems like the program is broken for everyone because it hasn't been updated in years.
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ProDigit

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Message 93789 - Posted: 19 Nov 2019, 4:38:05 UTC

On my Essential phone, with Android 10, all tasks get computation errors.
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Profile Keith Myers
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Message 93790 - Posted: 19 Nov 2019, 6:41:51 UTC

Lack of developers to keep up with latest Android OS'. Might want to throw some money at your favorite project to support the time commitment for the developers to come up with compatible apps.
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Danathar

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Message 93908 - Posted: 26 Nov 2019, 13:13:41 UTC - in response to Message 93481.  

Yea, Asteroids@home has been the most reliable. I used to get units from world community grid for my stack of old Android tablets running boinc but lately they just stopped sending any. Asteroids seems to be sending me units though.
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Dayle Diamond

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Message 94123 - Posted: 9 Dec 2019, 13:41:23 UTC

I prefer biomedical work units, and have switched my phones over to the 'Dreamlab' app.
They're doing cancer and drug discovery work units.
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Danathar

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Message 94125 - Posted: 9 Dec 2019, 14:11:25 UTC
Last modified: 9 Dec 2019, 14:12:33 UTC

I think one of the problems is that in the grand scheme of things the number of units returned by Android tablets are just really small compared to desktop computers with GPUs. So they don't keep up with developing the Android stack because it's not a high priority.

That being said, if you look at the BOINC wish list document of late. The Android section says:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vy36Bvyj4MIqNpfqXHcIQ8xjpxuPpECgqul9BvStvis/edit#heading=h.n3uog83059mq
--
Android GPU
Goal: use GPUs on Android. This could increase the FLOPS per device by a factor of 100 or more.
Research the availability of OpenCL on current phones
Study heat and power issues in using GPUs on phones and tablets
Develop a cookbook for building OpenCL apps for Android/ARM
-

So, hopefully they can get some usage out of Android GPU which would make supporting Android FAR more enticing for projects.

I use three projects on my stack of old Android and Kindle tablets I've collected over the years - WCG, Asteroids@home and Einstein@home

Of the three Einstein is the most reliable, followed by Asteroids and WGC. Seti@home is also pretty reliable.
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Danathar

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Message 94130 - Posted: 9 Dec 2019, 15:40:44 UTC - in response to Message 94123.  

Agree on Dreamlab. I use that on my IOS devices (since BOINC can't use IOS) while I'm charging them and within personal space (can't lock the screen while using dreamlab on IOS)
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ProDigit

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Message 94218 - Posted: 13 Dec 2019, 6:23:56 UTC

I run android 4, 5, 7, and 9 on a variety of cellphones, and I regularly get a variety of work done on all those cellphones.
About a good 6 projects still have job left to do on most of these platforms.
Everything but Android 10, this one isn't supported.
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ProDigit

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Message 94219 - Posted: 13 Dec 2019, 6:41:28 UTC - in response to Message 94125.  

I think one of the problems is that in the grand scheme of things the number of units returned by Android tablets are just really small compared to desktop computers with GPUs. So they don't keep up with developing the Android stack because it's not a high priority.

That being said, if you look at the BOINC wish list document of late. The Android section says:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vy36Bvyj4MIqNpfqXHcIQ8xjpxuPpECgqul9BvStvis/edit#heading=h.n3uog83059mq
--
Android GPU
Goal: use GPUs on Android. This could increase the FLOPS per device by a factor of 100 or more.
Research the availability of OpenCL on current phones
Study heat and power issues in using GPUs on phones and tablets
Develop a cookbook for building OpenCL apps for Android/ARM
-

So, hopefully they can get some usage out of Android GPU which would make supporting Android FAR more enticing for projects.

I use three projects on my stack of old Android and Kindle tablets I've collected over the years - WCG, Asteroids@home and Einstein@home

Of the three Einstein is the most reliable, followed by Asteroids and WGC. Seti@home is also pretty reliable.


That information is totally faulty.
Simply because the newest Snapdragon and Exynos CPUs ARE like 10x faster than 2014 chipsets; and their GPUs usually are ~2-5x faster than the CPU. Doesn't make them 100x faster though. More likely 20x faster at best, using both CPU and GPUs.
ARM phone GPUs usually run 12-24 execution units (cores) at 1-1,5Ghz, vs 4 to 8 CPU cores at 2Ghz.
The problem is that ARM GPUs make a phone very hot. They're designed to thermal throttle, so as soon as the temps rise, frequency (and performance) drops.
There's currently no benefit to run Android/ARM GPUs, as their CPUs usually thermally saturate the chipset.
One could run a GPU, but then the GPU would thermally saturate the chipset, and no CPU jobs could be done.
The only way this would work, is if you would open the cellphone, and mount a heat sink or fan on the chipset, and run the board bare.
No one wants to go through that trouble.
ARM laptops aren't any better. However I did use fans to cool down mine for boinc, and the results are from 1-1,1Ghz thermal throttle on 4 CPU cores, to running GPU + 1600-1700Mhz on 4 CPU cores, for 2x 1watt fans:


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Message boards : Projects : Have all the projects given up on Android?

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