Does boinc utilize multi core cpus well?

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dave

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Message 27681 - Posted: 1 Oct 2009, 1:20:38 UTC

I'm looking at buying a quad core right now. Will boinc use all four cores at the same time, or would the four cores be waste?

Also, same question but concerning a dual core.
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Nicolas

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Message 27683 - Posted: 1 Oct 2009, 1:45:19 UTC - in response to Message 27681.  

I'm looking at buying a quad core right now. Will boinc use all four cores at the same time, or would the four cores be waste?

Also, same question but concerning a dual core.

BOINC has *always* supported multiple cores, as far as I know.

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dave

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Message 27688 - Posted: 1 Oct 2009, 2:04:31 UTC

cool

hey, howd you do your boinc work in progress in your signature?
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Nicolas

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Message 27894 - Posted: 12 Oct 2009, 0:16:37 UTC - in response to Message 27688.  

hey, howd you do your boinc work in progress in your signature?

I wrote it myself :)

If you have a webserver with PHP on the same computer as BOINC, I can give you the script.

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ZPM
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Message 27895 - Posted: 12 Oct 2009, 0:22:54 UTC - in response to Message 27894.  

only one project at this time supports Multi-thread apps, and thats aqua@home...

the more cores/the better for them.
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Nicolas

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Message 27896 - Posted: 12 Oct 2009, 0:33:10 UTC - in response to Message 27895.  

only one project at this time supports Multi-thread apps, and thats aqua@home...

the more cores/the better for them.

Who said anything about multi-threaded apps in this thread?

BOINC has always supported multiple cores, by running one workunit on each. The more cores the better for any project: you do more of their tasks per day.
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navderek

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Message 28187 - Posted: 21 Oct 2009, 4:20:38 UTC - in response to Message 27896.  

Hi there,

I'm running Windows Vista...yes, yes I know....anyways I'm signed up with AQUA@Home and there seems to be a problem with it detecting my dual core CPU. I keep getting messages saying that AQUA@Home does not support single core CPUs, but my CPU is in fact a dual core. It's an Intel Core2 Duo E6550 (2.33GHz)

Has anyone else has this bug and does anyone know how to fix it...other than deleting Windows Vista? lol

I'll be installing Win7 soon enough, but in the meantime I'd like to know why AQUA@Home does not recognize my dual core CPU.


Thanks!

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Richard Haselgrove
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Message 28191 - Posted: 21 Oct 2009, 8:29:01 UTC - in response to Message 28187.  

I'll be installing Win7 soon enough, but in the meantime I'd like to know why AQUA@Home does not recognize my dual core CPU.

Work from the bottom up.

First, does Windows recognise the dual cores? Open Task Manager, Performance tab. How many CPU usage graphs do you see? If fewer than two, you need to sort that out first - could be a BIOS setting.

Second, if Windows is OK, does BOINC recognise the dual cores? Find the messages listed by BOINC at startup (or restart BOINC and get a new set). How many CPUs, any sign of a "Preferences limit....."? If in doubt, post the messages here and ask for help in interpretation.
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navderek

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Message 28258 - Posted: 23 Oct 2009, 4:02:22 UTC - in response to Message 28191.  
Last modified: 23 Oct 2009, 4:09:25 UTC

Hmmm the problem was in the preferences...but it's deceiving on how it's worded.
This was the preference:

"On multiprocessor systems, use at most xxx% of the processors"

I had it set to 90% thinking it would use 90% of both processors combined. Will be a good idea to change the wording there...I mean is it even possible to use 90% of 2 cores? Obviously not because BOINC clearly wasn't doing that and considered 90% to = 1 core.

I changed it to 100% and the preference limit disapeared. Thanks for the tip by looking at the messages :-)


10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Starting BOINC client version 6.6.38 for windows_x86_64
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Libraries: libcurl/7.19.4 OpenSSL/0.9.8k zlib/1.2.3
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Data directory: C:\ProgramData\BOINC
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Running under account PC1
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11]
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM OS: Microsoft Windows Vista: Ultimate x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.00.6001.00)
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Memory: 8.00 GB physical, 7.95 GB virtual
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Disk: 34.46 GB total, 5.08 GB free
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Local time is UTC -4 hours
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM No CUDA-capable NVIDIA GPUs found
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM No coprocessors
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Not using a proxy
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM AQUA@home URL: http://aqua.dwavesys.com/; Computer ID: 29848; location: (none); project prefs: default
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Reading preferences override file
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Preferences limit memory usage when active to 4095.09MB
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 7371.17MB
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Preferences limit disk usage to 0.20GB
10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Preferences limit # CPUs to 1

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Nicolas

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Message 28259 - Posted: 23 Oct 2009, 4:08:23 UTC - in response to Message 28258.  


10/22/2009 11:59:48 PM Preferences limit # CPUs to 1


Well there you go. Change your preferences to allow 2 CPUs and it will work.
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navderek

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Message 28260 - Posted: 23 Oct 2009, 4:10:54 UTC - in response to Message 28259.  

I know, but read my comments. the setting is a percentage, which obviously is kinda useless if only 100% enables both cores... Why not have a dropdown asking how many cores to enable (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc...)
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Profile Jord
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Message 28267 - Posted: 23 Oct 2009, 13:00:56 UTC - in response to Message 28260.  

Why not have a dropdown asking how many cores to enable (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc...)

To accommodate (future) really multiple CPU systems, those with anywhere between 16 and 256 CPUs. You really think scrolling through a list of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10-256 is useful? And what if someone has even more CPUs, not unthinkable? Setting the percentage is a way quicker method.

The value is integer, meaning that 99% on a dual core system means 1 CPU. Just remember that.
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Richard Haselgrove
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Message 28270 - Posted: 23 Oct 2009, 14:30:39 UTC - in response to Message 28267.  
Last modified: 23 Oct 2009, 14:46:44 UTC

The value is integer, meaning that 99% on a dual core system means 1 CPU. Just remember that.

I wonder if it would help if BM could be trained to display that integer value for the current setting:



[Edit - spelling!]
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Richard Haselgrove
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Message 28271 - Posted: 23 Oct 2009, 14:34:10 UTC - in response to Message 28270.  

BTW, why does the word "between" appear twice on the first line of that screenshot? It was a straight grab from v6.10.16, newly installed today.
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Profile Jord
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Message 28275 - Posted: 23 Oct 2009, 15:43:50 UTC - in response to Message 28271.  

I don't know... Why does CTRL+SHIFT+S activate both Simple view and the Statistics? ;-)
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Richard Haselgrove
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Message 28277 - Posted: 23 Oct 2009, 16:33:34 UTC

I was moved to try out one or two of the other common European languages.

It's still there in Franglais:

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Profile Gundolf Jahn

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Message 28280 - Posted: 23 Oct 2009, 21:21:02 UTC - in response to Message 28278.  

Got into fixing translations (pootle or something) but until I see the changes appear in a release will not do more (just the a few low hanging fruit I've done). ;>)

dito

Gruß,
Gundolf
Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)
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Message boards : Questions and problems : Does boinc utilize multi core cpus well?

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