From Aqua News Archive: (http://aqua.dwavesys.com/all_news.php#8)
11 Feb 09:
The AQUA@home site and application will be undergoing maintenance work for the next week or so. There will be no new work units submitted during this time. Please wait for our announcements in the near future and keep crunching for other BOINC projects during this time!
Thanks for all the forum help CP and not just this post - I like "Thought For The Day" biggrin
AQUA at home has released new app (v2.0) and fresh wu's.... most importantly, it now has checkpointing !!
AQUA@Home is not issuing WUs at the moment (apart from a few randomly) because they are testing the results of the new application.
As veebee mentioned, the v2 app now has checkpointing. They also take longer to run (combining multiple WUs into one) and are now run natively on 64 bit Windows, Linux and both 32 & 64 bit Macs.
More details may be available in their message board at http://aqua.dwavesys.com/forum_forum.php?id=3 (http://aqua.dwavesys.com/forum_forum.php?id=3).
From Aqua@Home News Archive (http://aqua.dwavesys.com/all_news.php#14)
26 May 09:
The AQUA@home project needs enormous computing resources, so we have been working on using NVidia GPUs to reduce the running time of
our application. We are happy to announce that version 3.00 of AQUA's application, supporting NVidia CUDA cards under Microsoft Windows,
is now available for testing. Linux and Mac versions will follow in the next few weeks. We hope to gradually increase the performance
of this version.
Sounds promising. Especially the Linux version to follow (I have no Windows boxes with CUDA capable graphics cards)
Does anyone know how big the WUs are for this (ie download and upload size)?
From Aqua@Home News Archive:
2 Jun 09:
Linux users with NVidia CUDA cards can now use their GPUs to run AQUA's application
even the cuda WU's go for days.... :thumbdown:
From Aqua News Archive: (http://aqua.dwavesys.com/all_news.php#16)
4 May 09:
Up to now AQUA used to employ a single core to process its data. Starting with version 2.18,
AQUA's appication uses multi-threading to use multiple cores and speed up its computation.
32-bit and 64-bit Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms are supported. AQUA's application
uses OpenMP to create and manage its threads. So now AQUA uses either CUDA or OpenMP (but not
both at the same time) to decrease its execution time.
Hmm, I've been waiting for one of the projects to do that. I wonder how soon and how many will follow?
Quote from: Cruncher Pete on June 05, 2009, 07:38:48 AM
..... So now AQUA uses either CUDA or OpenMP (but not
both at the same time) to decrease its execution time.
so, does this mean the run time has decreased (a lot hopefully) since a week or so ago ? coz I have had both cuda and cpu ones running... I have left one CPU WU running on my windows Quad, coz I don't use it for anything... but after a few days and only a few percent on linux and CUDA.. I scrapped any WU's I had running.
have since had a look at the credits fof Aqua... I am wondering if it might be worthwhile tying the machines up for a while.... average pay rate is about 80 cr/hr/core (not as good as some of the prime credits lately... :coolgleam:)
From the AQUA news feed:
05-June-2009
AQUA's multi-threaded applications and BOINC
Like using CUDA cards, multi-threading is a way for us to shorten the run time of our work units. Multi-threaded applications are new to BOINC, so you will see behaviour such as one application using all the cores in the computer. Please allow such work units to continue running. BOINC makes sure that all projects you are subscribed to will receive a fair share of your computing resources. We need your help in getting this research done. Thank you for your support!
From the AQUA news feed:
Optimized AQUA applications are ready
Tuesday, 7 July 2009 10:00 AM
In order to better utilize CPU and GPU cycles, we've optimized our code considerably. Though all platforms and OS versions are affected, the 64-bit Windows application has specially gained in performance. Hopefully this will reduce the running times needed to process heavy work units.
From the AQUA news feed:
Screensaver for Windows is released
Tuesday, 7 July 2009 10:00 AM
AQUA now has a screensaver for its Windows application! The nice graphics display is complemented by useful information, showing the user the multiple chains involved in Parallel Tempering Monte Carlo, and the amount of progress the application is making.
From the AQUA news feed:
AQUA@home's minimum CPU requirements
Thursday, 23 July 2009 10:00 AM
AQUA's complex work units have meant extremely long running times, especially on slower systems. This has been a problem for volunteers as well as the project managers. We have been working intensely on improving the efficiency of our applications. One major achievement has been very high CPU utilization on multi-core computers. But this solution will not be of any use on single core CPUs. We appreciate all of our volunteers and their help, but sincerely believe that slower machines can be of much more benefit in BOINC projects with shorter running work units. For this reason AQUA will no longer send work units to single core CPUs. Hyper-threading CPUs are supported, though. Should we again release a CUDA version of our application, single core CPUs will be supported if the system has a CUDA card. Vectorization of our code also implies that SSE2 support is a requirement for running AQUA's applications.
From the AQUA@Home boards:
New Small-Scale Release Out!
Posted 25 Jul 2009 1:58:20 UTC
We've finally got the start of this new release out (and yes, it is 7PM on a Friday here). We've released 20,000 8-qubit problems to the CUDA cards and 20,000 16-qubit problems to the CPUs, so hopfully that keeps people's machines occupied over the weekend.
There were some major snags while releasing, especially with the CUDA release, but they seem to be resolved now. We'll check on the results on Monday to see if we can start on the bigger problems.
That's all for now. Peace out!
AQUA has changed its credit scheme again..
From the AQUA@Home boards:
Posted: 27 Jul 2009 17:01:28 UTC
We changed the exponentially growing scheme (multiplying by 2.8 ) to a polynomial scheme which has less chance of resulting in a credit explosion.
This is the new formula for both the GPU and the CPU:
In a work unit called date-N-SM-L, where N = number of qubits, S = number of sweeps (in millions), L = Number of Trotter slices
credits = N^2 / 6 * S * (L/64)
We also take into account the density of the connections among the qubits, which will change between problem types, so two similarly named work units may get different amounts of credit.
Note that the running time increases at a rate slower than N^2, so we are giving out more credit for bigger problems.
-Kamran
From the AQUA news feed:
AQUA@home invites volunteers with high-performance computers to join the effort
Thursday, 30 July 2009 10:00 AM
AQUA's highly optimized applications use sophisticated methods to get as much performance out of the CPU as possible. We have started a series of massive runs and need help from volunteers with high-performance computers. So if you have a computer with a fast multi-core CPU, please consider helping AQUA by crunching for this project.
So I attach iGnatious.... and ooooooopsssss furgot to change settings LMAO... brb
EDIT: Geeeeeeeesssssssss helps if you have it set to accept CPU and not GPU work units, don't it??
'scuse me, shall just go and :hbang:
EDIT #2: ah yes, set it up right and it does pay dividends.... without any pending at least at the moment.
When I got up this morning AQUA MT is out of work and apparently BOINC Admin is complaining about their "rediculously high credits". AQUA GPU CUDA credits are so low that (in my opinion) not work running. It is not clear if they are going to add more MT wu's today. :cry2:
Quote from: Dataman on August 04, 2009, 01:09:07 AM
.....AQUA GPU CUDA credits are so low that (in my opinion) not work running.....
If you want another project to run on your GPU then you could give Collatz Conjecture a whirl if you wish. I don't know how it compares to GPUGrid because I don't have an nVidia card. It would yield about 22K per day on my HD 4890 if I ran it all day, so currently about 20% of what MilkyWay ATI is paying.
I just use it for testing and as a backup when MilkyWay is down. After Slicker, Gipsel/Cluster Physik, Crunch3r and others finish optimising it it should be a nice little earner for both nVidia and ATI owners.
Quote from: kashi on August 04, 2009, 02:21:56 AM
Quote from: Dataman on August 04, 2009, 01:09:07 AM
.....AQUA GPU CUDA credits are so low that (in my opinion) not work running.....
If you want another project to run on your GPU then you could give Collatz Conjecture a whirl if you wish. I don't know how it compares to GPUGrid because I don't have an nVidia card. It would yield about 22K per day on my HD 4890 if I ran it all day, so currently about 20% of what MilkyWay ATI is paying.
I just use it for testing and as a backup when MilkyWay is down. After Slicker, Gipsel/Cluster Physik, Crunch3r and others finish optimising it it should be a nice little earner for both nVidia and ATI owners.
Thanks. I'll stay at GPUGrid as they are nice and stable and I don't have to monitor them.
Don't know why BOINC is bitching about Aqua credits. After all, if you want to run it properly, one task makes it all but impossible to run anything else on a quad and one should therefore be compensated for this. Just sounds like sore/sour grapes to me. At least they are open about the way they calculate the credits and have moved with the times.
Guys, i thought i might try run this as I have some 64bit machines with lots of cores. They dont have any Nvidia graphics and ive tried to set it to just use the CPU but I cant seem to download any work units?
Do you need to have a GPU aswell as a CPU? or can I just run some CPU work unit. In the prefferences ive unticked the Use GPU option and ive unticket the AQUA_CUDA workunit. whenever i have the AQUA_CUDA units ticks I get the message that I dont have a Nvidia GPU.
Is the project out of work? DO I have something set wrong? Or do I just have the wrong hardware? Help please
Thanks
I think it has run out of MT CPU tasks at the moment. All that is needed is a 'decent modern' CPU, preferably with Multi Threading, although it does work quite well on Quads. In the preferences section at Aqua, just make sure that you've set prefs to CPU unless you want/have the appropriate graphics card for GPU wus.
Then, just sit back and wait and then watch *grin*
Quote from: Furlozza on August 04, 2009, 09:45:55 AM
I think it has run out of MT CPU tasks at the moment. All that is needed is a 'decent modern' CPU, preferably with Multi Threading, although it does work quite well on Quads. In the preferences section at Aqua, just make sure that you've set prefs to CPU unless you want/have the appropriate graphics card for GPU wus.
Then, just sit back and wait and then watch *grin*
HAHA thanks :P Was waiting for the GRIN then noticed no work coming down! I thought I might have something set wrong but having no work at the mo explains why! I just hope they get some more work soon!! I have some machines ready and waiting!!!! biggrin
Quote from: beakerulz on August 04, 2009, 09:36:48 AM
.....whenever i have the AQUA_CUDA units ticks I get the message that I dont have a Nvidia GPU.....
If I remember correctly it always gives that message even when there is CPU work available.
As Furlozza explained there is currently no CPU work. This is because someone had a computer that was misconfigured whether by accident or design and it was returning invalid tasks that were getting marked as valid. So after the last batch was finished they are modifying the next batch so that this can no longer happen. This incident of someone getting massive credits for doing no work was what prompted Boinc Admin to complain about the ridiculously high credits. Well it was the last time he complained about it. Earlier there was a problem with the recently introduced fixed credit system combined with the recent optimised multicore CPU application giving massive credits to everyone running Windows 64 on a multicore computer, especially quads and 8 core computers.
AQUA runs fine on my computer, it uses all 8 cores but only at about 75-85% CPU usage, so it runs relatively cool compared to other projects. The only minor thing that I have to adjust is preventing 2 AQUA tasks running at once. I do this by suspending the second task until the first has completed but in future I will try to adjust the cache size so that only one task is downloaded at a time.
Well I hope I havent missed the boat too much, I have a number of 8 core 64bit Windows machines that im trying to get on this project now....
sounds like i should have been running this awhile ago! I hope they are still paying good credit and I can get some work! biggrin
Yes hopefully there will be some more CPU tasks in a while. Your big guns use Windows 64-bit which is the fastest OS for AQUA multicore tasks so should go very well, I know Rocoll and others have been crunching up a storm on AQUA recently. I missed the boat myself on the first bonanza batch of generous credit AQUA CPU tasks but crunched a few days of the last batch.
It wasn't all fun and games for everyone though. Because the applications and calculation method of granting credit has changed a number of times some people got caught with unoptimised tasks that had run for days and only granted very low credit because the credit formula was different when they reported the task to when they received it. Others had a long running task disappear from the database and received no credit at all for it. For many it would have been balanced out by getting high rates of credit on other tasks, but some with only one computer were severely disadvantaged and understandably upset about it.
A lot of this trouble wasn't directly the fault of the project either because they were forced to hurriedly move to a fixed credit structure due to some using GPU emulation software to score gigantic amounts of credit. At the same time AQUA were introducing their newer optimised CPU applications that were much more efficient on multicore computers running Windows 64-bit, which meant the project changed from being well suited to CUDA to being best suited to multicore CPU and poor for CUDA.
This is the nature of alpha projects I suppose, you have to take the good with the bad. On the positive side these kinds of problems such as losing credit due to malfunctions, server crashes and credit calculation formula changes are one of the reasons that alpha projects sometimes have much higher credit rates than established BOINC projects.
The project now allows only 2 tasks at a time on each computer and you have to report one task before you can get another one so that stops people caching very large amounts of work and leaving none for others. This is not well suited for set and forget usage, but sharing the work amongst more participants is fairer and results in a much faster turnaround time for the project. You need at least version 6.x.xx of BOINC to be able to receive AQUA tasks as earlier versions do not support multithreaded tasks. Also single core CPUs cannot use multithreading so are not eligible to receive AQUA tasks.
The large efficiency improvement in some projects due to optimised multicore and GPU applications is making the reduce towards zero credit policy employed by projects such as WCG, Einstein and others look very ill.
AQUA has work again.
EDIT: They have a bug ... You need version 6.45.0 or 6.60.0 or higher. biggrin Should be 6.4.0 You can't get work until they fix it.
EDIT: They have it fixed now. Seems "testing" has become a lost art. :jester:
hmmm, methinks I might swap all my machines over to windows.... I have 1 machine (a q6600 at stock - WinXP 32 bit) which got over 330 cr/ hr on aqua, while my 64 bit linux machines only get around 50 - 55 cr'hr.
I REALLY wish I coul dget a working install disc of th RC Win 7 x64... I have burned half a dozen and NONE work.... WTF?
Quote from: veebee on August 05, 2009, 07:41:29 AM
hmmm, methinks I might swap all my machines over to windows.... I have 1 machine (a q6600 at stock - WinXP 32 bit) which got over 330 cr/ hr on aqua, while my 64 bit linux machines only get around 50 - 55 cr'hr.
I REALLY wish I coul dget a working install disc of th RC Win 7 x64... I have burned half a dozen and NONE work.... WTF?
PM me your address and I'll send you a working one.. :thumbsup:
Ive put some of the servers I have access to on this project and the results are amazing! the blades are dual socket 4 core, so yeah 8 cores to run on this. I have them all running Windows 2008 x64 and they are flying! Less than 24 hours and they have already clocked up 500k! man this is a good one for credit!
The one R900 that is a quad core quad socket, (16 CPU's) runs 8 cores against each of the 2 work units it downloads so it completes 2 workunits in about 7-8 hours. will do 6+ workunits a day. amazing stuff, i only just got onto this project but i think i should have awhile ago! Can only imagine with graphics card what it might do? If I had a good GPU card in this server would it make a big difference? Im thinking if it will to put one in but dont understand how one GPU card relates to 16 cores?
My servers are showing in the computers section of the Aqua@home if you want to see what they are.
Thanks everyone for your help and comments on what to do / setup options etc... i thought i needed an Nvidia card too or something, but the CPU stuff seems to work just fine!
Thanks
Actually the credit rate dropped over 50% when the most recent batch of 128 qubit tasks was released. It is still excellent but not as sensational as previously. Glad they released some more tasks so you could have some credit fun at AQUA, so you didn't miss the boat after all, just the really fast boat. :) That last really fast boat only ran for 2-3 days though and you can't cache more than 2 tasks, so everyone is now in the same boat.
I noticed your 3 GHz dual socket blades perform very well on AQUA. They complete a 128 qubit task in about 4 hours. My W3520 took 5.3 hours for the one 128 qubit task I have completed and received 6,270 credits, so about 148 Cr/Hr/Core.
Now that it is more generally known I can further explain that the reported Run time on the task results AQUA webpages is not related to BOINC Manager Elapsed time or CPU time in any way. It is the difference between the time you received the task and the time you reported it. If you held a task for a week before you processed and reported it then the "Run time" reported would be a week not the 4 hours you took to process it or your CPU time which would be approximately 24 hours at 75% average CPU utilisation on 8 cores. So the website reported "Run time" is not run time at all, you could call it AQUA server cycle time I suppose.
AQUA requires BOINC version 6.2.xx or higher.
I don't know the actual figures but from what I read the GPU application is not as efficient on AQUA as the multicore CPU application. Many with nVidia graphics cards run GPUGrid as their preferred GPU project, however some seem to have problems with GPU drivers. nVidia cards can run on more projects than ATI cards.
For excellent GPU credit though MilkyWay on a compatible ATI card is currently unmatched because the MilkyWay ATI application was developed to take advantage of the double precision performance of recent ATI cards. My ATI HD 4890 currently receives about 100K per day on MilkyWay. My highly overclocked HD 3850 received about 27K per day. It has been announced that the credit rate will be reduced but luckily for me the MilkyWay developers haven't got around to doing it yet.
Collatz Conjecture also looks promising for GPU cards both nVidia and ATI. The credit rate there on a HD 4890 is currently about 20% of MilkyWay ATI, but will probably receive a boost when Cluster Physik/Gipsel and Slicker release their new optimised application. Slicker has an unreliable internet connection so the server is usually down for part of every day.
From BOINCAdmin at AQUA
"Hi all,
Considering the slow pace at which CUDA work units are being removed from the queue, we have decided to stop submitting CUDA work.
To elaborate more: We intended to use the CUDA version to solve 8-, 32-, and 48-qubit problems while the MT version was doing the rest. However, we are already at the 160-qubit level with the MT work units while the 32-qubit CUDA work units are still not finished.
The reason is a mixture of not having enough volunteers with CUDA cards and slower execution of the CUDA code compared to the MT application.
We ask our volunteers to please stay attached to the CUDA queue because we may submit jobs there if the need arises.
Thanks!"
*****
A forum post from Neo, project admin:
QuoteSome have noticed that the queue is empty now, and hopefully it won't be for too much longer, but as mentioned in a post in another thread, the next version of the app isn't compatible with the previous version. We don't want to risk crashing on everyone's computers, and although BOINC isn't very likely to download a new version of the app while crunching an old unit, it's happened before.
We also need a bit more time to do the new preprocessing phase for the units. Instead of doing it as part of each workunit as before, we're computing them ahead of time to make sure that the same values get used for each of the 50-100 copies of each problem instance that are sent out. It takes a bit of time to do these since we haven't yet BOINC-ified it enough to do a public release as a separate app. The simulation results we get from this new calculation look rock solid even for problems that were really though to simulate.
The workunits may end up being a bit longer per qubit with the new app, but we won't be simulating large problems (at least with the first batch), so they shouldn't be nearly as long as the current 200-8M's.
I'm thinking that early next week would be a good time to start the first run of the new app. Hopefully we'll get enough preprocessing done over the weekend. Thanks for your patience and all of the great help you've given us already! :)
So no new Aqua work for a few days. Two of my machines have run out already so are back on WCG for now.
My WCG will be getting a little boost too. Just went gold for HCMD2 once pending is in and now working on Flu gold. :)
Quote from: WikiWill on August 30, 2009, 12:38:30 PM
A forum post from Neo, project admin:
QuoteSome have noticed that the queue is empty now, and hopefully it won't be for too much longer, but as mentioned in a post in another thread, the next version of the app isn't compatible with the previous version. We don't want to risk crashing on everyone's computers, and although BOINC isn't very likely to download a new version of the app while crunching an old unit, it's happened before.
We also need a bit more time to do the new preprocessing phase for the units. Instead of doing it as part of each workunit as before, we're computing them ahead of time to make sure that the same values get used for each of the 50-100 copies of each problem instance that are sent out. It takes a bit of time to do these since we haven't yet BOINC-ified it enough to do a public release as a separate app. The simulation results we get from this new calculation look rock solid even for problems that were really though to simulate.
The workunits may end up being a bit longer per qubit with the new app, but we won't be simulating large problems (at least with the first batch), so they shouldn't be nearly as long as the current 200-8M's.
I'm thinking that early next week would be a good time to start the first run of the new app. Hopefully we'll get enough preprocessing done over the weekend. Thanks for your patience and all of the great help you've given us already! :)
So no new Aqua work for a few days. Two of my machines have run out already so are back on WCG for now.
Thanks mate, made it real easy with you posting whats going on to figure out the status of the project! its is easier to look on the forum to see what you have posted then it is to try find on their website etc.. thanks for the heads up was wondering why my machines have run out of work... ok ill give them something else to do for a while!
:penguin:
Thought I'd pop in to see if there was any update on AQUA work.
Nothing yet?
There is a possibility of some 8 and 16 qubit units being released by Wednesday. Admin staff are working on both server problems and finalising the new app. I might put 1 or 2 cores on when work is released, but keep the rest on the WCG AA.
Yesterday from AQUA.
"My apologies once again for the lack of work, and while I'm running the AQUA test suite, I'd like to explain the ton of changes over the last few weeks that to lead to this craziness.
•Our Monte Carlo expert came up with a way of getting good simulation results on problems with small gaps, but it requires that a big preprocessing step for each problem to be simulated before we send out the 50-100 copies of each problem. We split the app into the two phases using a command line parameter, and had to change a few other parameters.
•The adjusted simulation gathers much more data than before as part of getting better results, making an unoptimized part of the app take about 90% of the time instead of 20% before, so I rewrote it to work completely differently and it should now be about 40%-50% of the time.
•We now have a new annealing schedule (how the weights of the "quantum part" and "classical part" change over time) that is precomputed to match what our next batch of hardware will be doing. Another few changes to command line parameters for this.
•The command line and program initialization were a mess at this point (and probably buggy), so I cut out huge chunks and restructured them a ton. It's looking almost not-embarrassing-to-publish now, but this introduced a couple of bugs that are now fixed.
•The first tests on the next batch of hardware will have input values with 2 bits of precision (BOP), whereas our previous simulations had 4 BOP. However, the 2 BOP problems have relatively huge (like 10x larger) energy gaps, and the values we're using to get the energy gaps are garbage for large gaps, so we got only garbage results. This can be partly solved by scaling down the energy by a factor f, then multiplying the gap sizes by f, but not all problems work for the same f. We'll probably just use a value that works for almost all problems (5 seemed good).
•In scaling down the energies simulated, we may need to scale down the simulation temperature, and the optimized data gathering code had a bug for when using a non-default temperature, which is now fixed.
•The exact gap results we were comparing against for the 2 BOP problems were found with the wrong annealing schedule, which threw us for a while.
I think that the major issues are probably resolved now, but the test suite just finished, so we'll know that a bit better once I've analysed the results in a few minutes."
There are a few positive posts from Boinc Admin in the AQUA forums suggesting new work will come out pretty soon.
"In preparation for the deployment of the next version of the AQUA app (version 4), work units are now deleted."
http://aqua.dwavesys.com/forum_thread.php?id=327&nowrap=true#4665
"I don't want to jinx it, but the unknown source of error we've been hunting for the past few weeks has finally been tracked down. It thankfully has nothing to do with our code, just one of the parameters we had never thought of changing.
...
I'm optimistic for the first time in weeks that we'll be able to get this thing out the door soon. :)"
http://aqua.dwavesys.com/forum_thread.php?id=332&nowrap=true#4659
Fingers crossed!
From AQUA today
"We have been running very small test runs to make sure things are working. So far the results are promissing.
If we don't find any major problems, we will start full-scale runs today."
there are around 20,000 WU's available as I type this.... only short ones (2 qubit ? 2M) take about 2 mins on the i7's.
Grab 'em while they're hot !!!!
Good to see them back in action.
On my computer these short WUs are about as hot as a paddle pop, still anything is better than Ibercivis. Hope the longer ones are have a bit more curry in them. :)
Haha yes, the shorter tasks traditionally have a lower credit rate at AQUA than the longer tasks. 32 and 48 qubits tasks should start getting better, they are due to be issued in 2-3 days time.
If anyone is wavering on their decision to install a 64 bit OS - I'm running these 2M tasks on two identical boxes running XP x86 and Win 7 x64, and the latter completes them almost twice as fast. :wink
They're back.
32 qubits tasks now available. Give 'em a try, they should be better than the earlier ones. :)
I've ripped into my first one, looks like they will take about 2 hours on 8 cores @ default clock.
Quote from: kashi on October 14, 2009, 06:14:18 AM:)
I've ripped into my first one, looks like they will take about 2 hours on 8 cores @ default clock.
About the same time for a quad on stock.
Kashi, perhaps you could answer this one for me - why is it saying i'm crunching 2 at the same time when clearly there's only ever been one going at any one time? It wont send me any more until i've returned the finished one and it wont do that automatically until i hit "update"?
Host Project Date Message
harry-desktop AQUA@home 14/10/2009 2:09:07 PM Message from server: (reached limit of 2 tasks in progress)
harry-desktop AQUA@home 14/10/2009 2:09:07 PM Message from server: No work is available for D-Wave's Adiabatic QUantum Algorithms - Multi-Threaded
harry-desktop AQUA@home 14/10/2009 2:09:07 PM Message from server: No work sent
Also, what would i need to include in my "app_info.xml" in order to "return tasks immediately" thus saving me constantly monitoring it to be able to hit "update" to get more (there's only ever 1 spare in cache at any one time, sometimes none 'ti i hit the update).
Thanks in advance
A quick answer. Have to go out and drive someone to the doc.
It's just the way BOINC phrases things, in progress doesn't mean 2 tasks are running concurrently, but that 2 tasks are in your cache. Depending on how you have your cache and connection configured, it should download another task before the last of the 2 you were originally assigned is finished processing. It is quite normal that it won't give you another one until you have completed and reported one. The limit of 2 is designed that way to stop people hoarding large numbers of tasks and not returning them promptly or at all. It also has the additional benefit of allowing more people to participate, rather than all the tasks being downloaded by a much smaller number of contributors.
Not app_info but cc_config is what you are seeking.
Create a file in the BOINC data directory named cc_config.xml and copy the following lines into it:
<cc_config>
<options>
<report_results_immediately>1</report_results_immediately>
</options>
</cc_config>
After you create the cc_config.xml, click Advanced -> Read config file in BOINC Manager. Thereafter, cc_config.xml will be read whenever BOINC Manager starts.
Edit: Back now. Reworded and expanded a bit to make it clearer. If you don't wish to use report_results_immediately because it is unsuitable for other projects (perhaps GPU projects) then you can just use Windows Task Scheduler or an update script in Linux to update AQUA regularly at an interval of your choosing. If you have your cache and connection settings suitably configured you shouldn't need to do any of this however to keep 2 AQUA tasks in your cache most of the time. I understand that may not be an option though if you need particular cache/connection settings to support other projects.
Thanks - much appreciated
Final Q - how come it "appears" that all 4 cores are not crunching 4 WU's but only 1 WU at a time - as opposed to MW where 4 WU's are crunched, 1 by each core?
How many WU's are you showing for your 8 cores?
Up until June AQUA employed a single core to process its data. Starting with version 2.18, AQUA's application used multi-threading to use multiple cores and speed up its computation. AQUA's application uses OpenMP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenMP) to create and manage its threads and to decrease its execution time. This is why single core computers are no longer able to download and run AQUA tasks.
In default configuration the current AQUA application will use all available cores up to a maximum of 8. So my Nehalem is running 1 AQUA task at a time and it is using all 8 cores. Actually my computer only has 4 physical cores but it can process 8 threads due to hyperthreading, so it is generally considered to have 8 "cores".
So you could say AQUA is using all 4 physical cores (or 8 virtual cores/threads) in parallel as though it were one single core. AQUA doesn't use all the cores completely, on my computer which also processes MilkyWay or Collatz tasks on the graphics card this results in a total CPU load of 89-95%.
:thanks1:
We have picked up in this project and are currently the TOP TEAM by RAC: http://aqua.dwavesys.com/top_teams.php
Great work everyone! There is plenty of work in the queue. Those of us running AQUA on 64 bit Linux will see some improvements today after Neo found a problem with that app build: http://aqua.dwavesys.com/forum_thread.php?id=345&nowrap=true#4834
:rocks
AQUA@Home has issued some big new work units today. If you are crunching this and nothing else on slower dual-core systems, you might find that the estimated time to complete exceeds the WU deadline. You might not get any work. For example on one of my boxes, the initial estimate for a '09nov09-96-4M-128' task was 27000 hours!
There is more info in this thread: http://aqua.dwavesys.com/forum_thread.php?id=355 (http://aqua.dwavesys.com/forum_thread.php?id=355)
However if you're having trouble getting a new WU and you see a BOINC error message related to insufficient time, wait for existing WUs to complete, then reset the project (or detach and re-attach). That should solve the problem.
The new WUs should pay very well but will take a long time (days) and don't like sharing CPU with other projects.
BOINC@AUSTRALIA is currently 2nd by RAC and 5th by total credit, but moving up on 4th spot: http://aqua.dwavesys.com/top_teams.php (http://aqua.dwavesys.com/top_teams.php)
Yep, I just got one for 3692 hours on a quad. :shock It's starting to look like CPND. biggrin
xtermiGnator received two 98 series and they had a time of 127 hrs......... and the currently being processed unit has been going for just about 9 hrs and is 58+% completed.
Am glad I am NOT doing this one on iGnatious *wiping sweat from brow*, let alone TheGnat *shudder*.
Now, to do some reading about how to increase GHz without crashing system............... oh, and just fur a laugh......
Here's xtermiGnator's CPU Cooler (http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?category_id=1623&product_id=2880)
Quote from: Dataman on November 11, 2009, 09:57:31 AM
Yep, I just got one for 3692 hours on a quad. :shock It's starting to look like CPND. biggrin
After 19 hours, this work unit is showing 127 hours to completion. Either my machine is running like a scalded dog or their estimates are hosed! biggrin :jester: biggrin
First big unit returned claimed and granted credit 10,560.33 :shock
Not tooooo bad for one day's work
Great work vajras, just for that I gave you a vote for AQUA user of the day :worship
If anyone is in the mood, feel free to recommend me too (if you are logged in there):
http://aqua.dwavesys.com/view_profile.php?userid=1031 (http://aqua.dwavesys.com/view_profile.php?userid=1031)
And while you're at it, I haven't had one for Rosetta yet...
http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/view_profile.php?userid=279297 (http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/view_profile.php?userid=279297)
TIA :wink
Blatant pimping there Mr Wikiwill - many thanks biggrin - just returned the favour
BTW - my next unit - 09nov09-96-4M-128-1-uh_25_33_0 - is @22% after about4.5 hrs effective (17:19:00)
returned WU 1284129 (http://aqua.dwavesys.com/result.php?resultid=1284129) - running WU 1285165 (http://aqua.dwavesys.com/result.php?resultid=1285165)
Yep, AQUA certainly is a good one on a decent multicore cpu.
I have it running on both i7's and one Q6600.... the i7's get around 2 done a day. Unfortuneately the quad is only running at stock speed (mobo restricted), but it HAS made a difference since being added to the foray.
The credits still aren't as hot as they were a while back, but they are still good!