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Thread: Optimizations for WCG |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 10
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cristipurdel
Senior Cruncher Joined: Dec 13, 2008 Post Count: 158 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Is there any kind of optimization for any of WCG projects?
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Hi cristipurdel,
----------------------------------------The WCG sciences are so optimized, it's beyond believe, but with a compromise. One single science application is released per platform, so the techs/programmers can actually catch some sleep with currently 22 active science apps and at least 12 more in the pipeline ... one for 32 bit Windows, for Linux and for Mac OS-X, intel based computers. There's even a few that will run on Power PC's, and the WCG servers knowing exactly which is best to send. The most amazing thing though is that if you run them on 64 bit machines with 64 bit OS and 64 bit client, they will use the most of the benefits these inherently more efficient OSses offer and then the science applications run faster too... from maybe ~few to 30%. Surely though you were thinking of something else... maybe others can fill in on that... the sun is blasting down, so have the compulsion to take a very long walk in the park I'm living in :D
WCG
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Hypernova
Master Cruncher Audaces Fortuna Juvat ! Vaud - Switzerland Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Post Count: 1908 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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It depends if you are talking software or hardware.
----------------------------------------For hardware if you build machine I would say again and it is my opinion, that one CPU that seems on the sweet spot in terms of cost, affordability, performance and overclockability is the I7 920 with a 1366 socket, and a good cooling. You get 8 cores crunching up to 3.5 GHz (overclocked but with little risk). For software use a 64bit OS. It seems that the optimal performance is to have a mix of WCG projects running at the same time. Another question is how will you use your computer: during idle periods only, full time for WCG, or split with cores for WCG and cores for your work, are you connected to the internet full time or from time to time (like for travelling laptops). All this is possible to fine tune, and the tools of the BOINC application allow you to do that. You can set up number of cores, of processor load, work buffer, frequency of connection to WCG servers etc. etc.  |
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mikaok
Senior Cruncher Finland Joined: Aug 8, 2006 Post Count: 489 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Surely though you were thinking of something else... maybe others can fill in on that... the sun is blasting down, so have the compulsion to take a very long walk in the park I'm living in :D We can't even dream of sunstrokes you're having in the south already 
to infinity and beyond
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cristipurdel
Senior Cruncher Joined: Dec 13, 2008 Post Count: 158 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Well mostly I was thinking of 64 bit native application (not even going to bother with gpu crunching). Still, in the near future, are there going to be 64 bit native applications?
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Well, that's what I touched on in my first reply, chances being small since most of the benefit of the 64 bit platform is already used by the 32 bit apps, the total theoretical gain for floating point computations alone not thought to exceed 15% (what I remember from posts here)
----------------------------------------And notice something very special: The 32 bit client Whetstone benchmark is absolutely identical to the 64 bit client Whetstone benchmark.... wonder why :D... ... It's the integer handling that makes the difference and the WCG HCC science is already taking big advantage of that. NB: At SIMAP, a long running periodic project they've converted their SIMAP app, but not their Hmmmr. Not every science gains they may have found too.
WCG
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Hypernova
Master Cruncher Audaces Fortuna Juvat ! Vaud - Switzerland Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Post Count: 1908 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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The real major jump in performance will come with GPU computing. That is the missing step at the moment.
----------------------------------------I know it is not an easy issue to implement technically speaking but it is the one that will make 32 bit or 64 bit questions irrelevant. And let's face it. In all our machines we use the weakest component the CPU which is a general purpose processor. And we all have a GPU which is a dedicated calculation engine. That is the component that must be targeted for future developments. |
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freek_zero
Cruncher Joined: Mar 15, 2009 Post Count: 5 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Speaking of GPU computing, I haven't been able to find any info on the relative WCG performance of specific models of video/GPU cards. I swear I have looked high and low. Call me a raging geek but WCG performance is a primary criteria for what I choose for a replacement card (and how many I get) and I would love to know which card to choose to make the most of my purchase cost and power bill.
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Hypernova
Master Cruncher Audaces Fortuna Juvat ! Vaud - Switzerland Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Post Count: 1908 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Unfortunately at the moment there is no WCG project that can use the GPU. It has been said that tech was evaluating this issue, but I have no idea if some performance tests have been done by WCG to evaluate the performance gain.
----------------------------------------I suppose that if they do it it will be compatible for both Nvidia and ATI chips. Otherwise we risk an unfair situation with a category of contributors that will get a terriffic boost in points by luck of having a card of the right manufacturer. I cannot imagine that WCG will not tap into all this available crunching power just waiting to be used. So we will have it one day for sure. But when ? That is the question. |
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freek_zero
Cruncher Joined: Mar 15, 2009 Post Count: 5 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Oh! I thought that was already in place since the BOINC client supports it. I would have to say not using GPUs seems like a HUGE shame, as they tend to be way more powerful for the purposes of scientific computation.
When support DOES come out, here's hoping we see some benchmarks on how well each card works. I know ATI vs NVIDIA is far from a draw on other distributed computing projects. |
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