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Thread: New project?

  1. #1
    dismembered Scoofy12's Avatar
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    New project?

    Blatantly ripped from /. "Reuters reports that IBM and top scientific research organizations are joining forces in a humanitarian effort to tap the unused power of millions of computers and help solve complex social problems. Following the example of SETI@home, the project, dubbed The World Community Grid, will seek to tap the vast underutilized power of computers belonging to individuals and businesses worldwide and channel it into selected medical and environmental research programs. The first project to benefit will be Human Proteome Folding, an effort to identify the genetic structure of proteins that can cause diseases. The client is currently available for Windows XP, 2000, ME, and 98."

  2. #2
    Keeper of the Fridge PY 222's Avatar
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    Yeap, saw this at /. as well and I must say, with backing of a big company such as IBM, this project will be good exposure to the world of DC.

    Good job IBM.

  3. #3
    Stats Developer magnav0x's Avatar
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    Just downloaded the client and check it out. The client says "Powered by United Devices". I wonder if this is replacing grid.org?
    Warning this Post is Rated "M" for Mature

    -Contains Harsh Language
    -L337 HaX0r W3RD2!
    -Partial Nudity

    I haven't lost my mind; it's backed up on tape drive somewhere.

  4. #4
    Hmmmm.... I wonder why they don't have a linux client. It's not like Big Blue doesn't support linux.

  5. #5
    grid.org users automatically do Human Proteome Folding in addition to cancer unless you specify not to. Similar to the way they did Anthrax and Smallpox projects.

    Additional thread in UD forum

    UD has never had Linux client. Maybe this will finally push them into it

  6. #6
    Administrator PCZ's Avatar
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    Pop over to the grid.org forum and search for SMP and linux.

    Dont hold your breath waiting for either to be supported.

  7. #7
    Stats Developer magnav0x's Avatar
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    Anyone ever thought about attempting to run it with Wine? I may hop on one of my linux boxex later tonight and see what results I have.
    Warning this Post is Rated "M" for Mature

    -Contains Harsh Language
    -L337 HaX0r W3RD2!
    -Partial Nudity

    I haven't lost my mind; it's backed up on tape drive somewhere.

  8. #8
    Unholy Undead Death's Avatar
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    Originally posted by PCZ
    Pop over to the grid.org forum and search for SMP and linux.

    Dont hold your breath waiting for either to be supported.
    you can suffocate if you hold your breath waiting for this.
    ud suxxxxxxxxorz.
    wbr, Me. Dead J. Dona \


  9. #9
    Administrator Dyyryath's Avatar
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    LOL

    Now Death, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel.
    "So utterly at variance is destiny with all the little plans of men." - H.G. Wells

  10. #10
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    Originally posted by magnav0x
    Just downloaded the client and check it out. The client says "Powered by United Devices". I wonder if this is replacing grid.org?
    In the Project FAQ the answer to this is:
    World Community Grid and grid.org are currently both running the Human Proteome Folding project. Once this project is concluded, World Community Grid will run projects on its own.

    In the coming months [...]
    From here: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/pr...eome_faqs.html

    Here are our team Free-DC stats... http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/te...Id=G45XNJBR9N1

    Looks like rcoulter is our biggest producer...I wonder how smoothly this runs? From reading their forum a bit it sounds like the stats are updated once a day at 1:30am EST, and an average WU takes around a day or less to calc?

    http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/te...Id=G45XNJBR9N1

  11. #11
    Administrator PCZ's Avatar
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    Because of the way the scoring works in this project modern PC's dont get enough credit for the work they do.

    The machine rating is made up from CPU speed, Amount of RAM, Network Speed and
    HD Space allocated to the project.

    Old machines may be down quite a bit on the CPU speed but when the other 3 metrics are combined they have a machine rating almost as good as a modern PC.

    Since points are awarded on time spent crunching x machine rating, the old boxes score a disproportinate amount compared to the modern PC's which crunch many more WU's in the same time period.

    The project admins may have envisioned distributing WU's which needed lots of HD space or required high speed network access but they have never released any.
    The WU's being crunched now are reliant on fast processing only and the composite metric only serves to penalise the fast PC's which are the most use to the project.

    Also the ability to run more than one client per PC was removed because people ran multiple clients per CPU and because of the way points are awarded based on time not work done, got lots of points.
    This screwed the folks who where running genuine SMP machines.

    The Official line is that running multiple clients on a computer can corrupt the results.

    One would assume that since the grid has been running for years that they have had plenty of time to fix the above problem and write a nix client.


    If you have old UNI processor boxes with a windows OS then this might be a good project to retire them to.

    IBM may write a new client and the grid may become a viable DC platform but dont hold your breath waiting for it

  12. #12
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    @PCZ - thanks for the summary. It'll be interesting to see what directions this project takes in the future.

  13. #13
    Old Timer jasong's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Death
    you can suffocate if you hold your breath waiting for this.
    ud suxxxxxxxxorz.
    I agree, United Devices projects are for people who are uninformed about projects like Find-a-Drug. I'm not involved in FaD right now, but they make grid.org look like retards.

    Note: I'm talking about the way the project and the client is run, I'm not calling their crunchers retards. Uninformed, maybe, but not retards.

    ps the rumor is that FaD is literally 160 times more efficient than the client they branched off of a few years back. You ever wonder why United Devices never gives concrete numbers? That's probably the reason. FaD is simply better. Better support, better client, just better.[note: In all fairness, their web presence makes them look amateurish]

    Give it a look. Note: One of their faults is the stupid homepage you have to click through to get to the meat. Oh, well...Nobody's perfect.

  14. #14
    Unholy Undead Death's Avatar
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    yeah!

    totally agreed with previous poster.

    and to add some more - they (grid.org) crunch the same WU 5 times. such a sucked redundancy. and they don't update client nearly 2 years. =((

    checked their forums recently - I post some suggestions few years ago, the same situation. they don't even bother to do something...

    and WCG is complete twin of UD. :bs:

    I dont care about both of them!
    wbr, Me. Dead J. Dona \


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