K Completion

[b2uc]

Basically a newbie question where I tried doing searches thru the forum to answer my question but either got tired, lazy or both...or simply the question wasn't answered the way I wanted in the past.

Anyway...once a prime is found for a given K...I gather that other N's aren't given out that are of higher value than the one that found the prime....the lower values are still given out in order to maybe find a smaller prime.

My question is...when my client is sending in blocks...does it check to see if a prime has been found for said K and then check to see if my N value is lower than the N value that found prime? And if so will it discontinue my K and download a new K/N?

With one of my machines being a 333...this could save a weeks worth of useless computation.

If the answer has already been written in the forums...please accept my apologies for not finding it on my own.

Also..there is a new team in town. Ultimate Chaos is climbing fast and picking off the slackers. :sniper:

[b2uc]

Also another question that I won't clutter up with a new thread.

Since each N has over 230 or so blocks...well atleast the ones I've started have over 230 blocks per N...is there a perproxy in the works that can store these blocks and dole them out to my computers on the network one block at a time? I know this is thought of as a long term project...but seeing how 5 were found rather quickly...and another few could be found in another spurt...you start having members stacked up on a declining number of K values. Who knows how many people will join in. Who knows the level of computational power will increase for this project. I know I could throw 100GHz at it that now does a few other projects.

I'd just like to see a perproxy that will divide up the workload on my LAN so I can get proth test completions quickly instead of having several seperate ones going at the same time.

O...btw...great stats setup. Really wish other projects would bow down to the wishes of stats junkies like me.

[OberonBob]

The client does not stop a test, no matter what happens. And I believe that the server will stop handing all tests for a given K if one is found prime, since we just want to prove all the K's are prime, and we don't really care if it's the smallest prime or not.

The nature of the tests do not allow you to dole out each block to different computers. I believe that each iteration is dependant on the one before it.

Finally, all computers are worth running the test on, but on the slower computers, I recomend running as secret or supersecret. If your computer can't finish a test within a month, then I wouldn't use it for the main testing.

[Keroberts1]

many of the slower computers could also be used to assist with the sieving effort since you could simply reserve a smaller range for a computer that is slower.

[smh]

I'd just like to see a perproxy that will divide up the workload on my LAN so I can get proth test completions quickly instead of having several seperate ones going at the same time.


You mean you want to test one candidate on multiple computers?

Thats not possible. The program performs a test that consists of N-1 (or close to that) steps. And the result of each step is the starting value of the next step. So we can't start a test half way because we don't know the starting value of the previous step.

[b2uc]

Yep...sounded like a newbie question when I asked about the perproxy distributing blocks. Didn't take time to understand the concept that blocks are more like 'save game' spots than they are blocks that other DC projects use. Forgive my ignorance.

I do have another question though. Say you have a computer running a certain N value...and your computer gets hung up for some odd reason (Two USB devices fighting over the same resources and hanging win2k up because of a bad driver) and you reboot your computer to only find out two days later that the SoB client downloaded a new N instead of completing the old one.

Now I'm pretty sure this certain computer will finish the new N before the 5 day timeout of the other one. The N file of the old one is still in the SoB program folder beside the currently running one....with the compeletion of the newest N...will the client fall back to the previous N which is at like 26% compeletion or download a new one? If it downloads a new one I should just release the old one right?

[jjjjL]

right now, you'd need a serious registry error to loose your test. but if that happened and you still had the cache, you could open the config and check the "Exit w/o receiving new test" box. When SB finishes that test and quits, go in the registry and add the old values back in and run as normal.

if this ever happens to you, i'll give you the specific reg keys. they are documented on other threads i'm sure.

-Louie