Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by c9

Intel i7 and folding..

c9 — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:43:31 +0800

I found this link from the TR, http://techreport.com/articles.x/15818/12 . Folding benchmark of the CPU.

However, there was no benchmark of the CPU on SMPs. I wish I could compare them.

Any real numbers, anyone?

SMP Watcher v1.0 (BETA)

c9 — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:25:48 +0800

QUOTE(Evogenix)

Well...
I saw quite a number of ppl faced the SMP idle issue... so I coded a simple application that will get the processor usage. If the processor is idling, my application will close the SMP client and restart it.

The coding process is quite rushing. So, I need someone to test it out and gv me some feedback

Evogenix

So guys, give this program a try and report any bugs or anything. Thank you Evo!

Barcelona folding benchmark..

c9 — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:40:24 +0800

Link: http://techreport.com/articles.x/13176/7

QUOTE

To catch the architectural improvements, follow the matchup between Opteron 2218 HE and Opteron 2360 SE at similar clock speeds once again. Per-clock performance is similar between K8 and Barcelona with the Tinker and Amber work units, where AMD already excelled, but Barcelona is much stronger with the two Gromacs WU types-which tend to dominate the WU assignment these days, as I understand it. Those improvements aren't enough to catch the Xeons, though. The Intel processors remain faster clock-for-clock and also run at higher frequencies.

The Barcelona-based Opterons put in a respectable showing overall, however, on the strength of eight cores that handle the Amber and Tinker WU types relatively well.

Just the same old proteins benchmark, no SMP benchmark though. Overall, this Barcelona bechmark test didn't impress me.

Can wait if anyone would try SMP on it.

F@M Donation Project

c9 — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:40:46 +0800

What is F@M Donation Project?

The F@M Donation Project is an effort to create dedicated Folding@Home machines through cash and part donations to Team Folding@Malaysia. Computers are assembled using these donations and hosted by a team member with the expectation the host care for it and have it run nothing but Folding@Home 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We will first kick off with a machine, and from there we will try to build more and more machine.

How you can donate?

As of this moment, all donation will go through me. Yes, this involve trust and what not. Being that, I will list down every single donation made by our members in the second post.

1) For cash donations, PM me for the account details, yes post up the screenshot and I will put you up in the donation list.

2) For hardware donations, I will create a contract for the donor and the host to avoid any future problems.

If by any chance a piece of hardware needed to be purchased, I will buy the hardware and post up the screenshot of the receipt and the hardware itself. We then will decide who will get to host the machine which will be described below.

How to be the host?

For starter, I will host the machine. I draft the terms in order for you to be qualified as a host.

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

1) Member who has shown endless dedication towards the team, please remember past participation and contributions are taken into account too. A member of the forum moderation team (Moderators, Staffs and Admins) has higher chances of getting to be the host.

2) Member must also be able to provide the computer with a safe and secure environment for an extended period of time. You must be knowledgeable in building computers and loading operating systems, and all that is entailed. In the event the rig should fail, the host is expected to make a good effort in trying to repair the rig and report to the team what is going on.

3) Dedicated, "always-on" Internet connection 24/7, 56K and up, and a free port on an existing network. If the internet connection should fail, the host is expected to make good faith efforts to get back online as soon as is possible.

4) The computer must run and "fold" 24/7. Keep in mind that 24-hour operating will increase your electricity bill by up to a few dollars per month. The Team expects the host to make good faith efforts to keep the rig running as much as is possible. Please bear in mind the host must not use the cash donated to pay the bills, bills are paid on the host effort.

5) The computer shall fold for Team #2999 under the user name of "Donation" exclusively unless it has been voted on to make it differently. The team will monitor the rig's output through Stanford's statistics. And it's required that the machine to be added to our FAHremote stats page.

6) In the event the host can no longer host the "Donation" rig or he/she is not able to run the rig for an extended period of time, the team must be notified so that a new host can be found by normal host selection process. And also, in the event you want to take back your parts, you should notify the team 2 weeks before as we need to look for the replacement parts. And cash donations are not refundable.

7) Hosts must provide contact information such as phone number and address in case an emergency contact needs to be made.

8) Hosts must sign the hosting contract before the computer will be shipped to them.

So what are waiting for? Donate for the community and our team! And do at your own will and comfort.

List of parts needed:

1) Socket 478 motherboard
2) DDR1 RAM
3) HDD
4) PSU
5) Casing

List of running machines:

http://fahremote.dcmalaysia.net/sort.php?user=Donation

1) Intel Pentium 3, 256MB SD RAM, 20GB HDD
2) Intel Pentium 4 3.8Ghz, 256MB DDR2, 8GB HDD

Team Malaysia (10531)

c9 — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:02:15 +0800

OMG, I just noticed that we also have a team called Team Malaysia in Stanford stats page. http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.p...e&teamnum=10531

So, whoever folding for this team, why not just join us here. We (Team Folding@Malaysia) also represents Malaysia as whole. This is a special invitation to join us at Team Folding@Malaysia.

Thank you. Fold on, fold hard!

EDIT: Oh, I noticed that Mr. Lokety is the only one who's currently active folding under this team.

/var : write failed, filesystem is full

c9 — Wed, 09 May 2007 18:48:08 +0800

Hi guys,

It seems that /var is always full. I can't seem compile anything else. Sigh.. Below is the detail.

QUOTE

webtv# uname -a
FreeBSD *.*.gov.my 5.4-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE #0: Sun May 8 10:21:06 UTC 2005 root@harlow.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386

QUOTE

webtv# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/da0s1a 248M 246M -18M 108% /
devfs 1.0K 1.0K 0B 100% /dev
/dev/da0s1e 248M 14K 228M 0% /tmp
/dev/da0s1f 32G 19G 9.9G 66% /usr
/dev/da0s1d 248M 248M -20M 109% /var

The most taken disk space are from these:

QUOTE

webtv# du -h /var
225M ./log
16M ./spool
16M ./spool/clientmqueue
2.1M ./db
4.0K ./crash
4.0K ./cron
4.0K ./msgs
4.0K ./named/var/run
4.0K ./spool/output
4.0K ./tmp/etc/gnats
4.5M ./mail

So, I did try to overcome these by trying to symlink it to home directory. Unfortunately I can't rename the log folder into anything else. Below is how I did.

QUOTE

webtv# su
webtv# mkdir -p /home/var.log
webtv# cp -Rp log /home/var.log
webtv# mv log oldlog
mv: rename log to oldlog: Operation not permitted

Was it because file permission error? Or something is actually running in the background? I did stop syslogd and all. Still, it didn't work. I can't run as single user as I'm remotely connected to the server. The server is in Melaka.

So, I'm hoping if there's a workaround to this. Be it how to force rename or how to solve this /var issue. Thanks.

FAHremote Stats

c9 — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 22:01:06 +0800

What is FAHremote?

http://fahremote.dcmalaysia.net/

FAHremote is basically a monitoring stats on a webpage. Where clients submit their details to a webserver (via FTP or XML-RPC). Everything then will be sorted out to show usernames (sub-teams), clients under one username, WUs, PPDs etc. We can monitor our PC remotely of which maybe machine that we can hardly monitor, be it at the office, at friends place or whatsoever. This stats page will benefit most sub-teams here as we can see how are we progressing, how much clients are under our name. It's also an easy way to cross refrence our PPD/machine specs between team members. Still, please take note that it might not be as accurate as FahMon because of long submit intervals and some psummary bug. I set it up to at least ease our daily monitoring process. Let's cut the crap, it's recommended that you guys add your machine to the server. Please ask your fellow teammates to do so too.

Read the HOW-TO and FAQ below.

[addedon][/addedon]
HOW-TO for Windows

1. Download FAHremote 2.0.1.1 - here
2. Execute MSI based installer (NOTE: It doesn't matter if you pick typical, custom, or complete)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 is needed for installation. Download here.

3. The configuration program will automatically launch
4. The general tab will be the first on displayed and checked on FTP.

[attachmentid=217716]
NOTE: The interval is suggested to be 60 or 120 minutes to reduce server bandwidth load. Only set it lower if you are running a personal server or have permission to do so.

5. The Client tab is next

[attachmentid=217717]

6. To add a client:
6a. Click on Add Client
6b. Fill in values - Client Info is your machine name, and it's recommended to use your nickname if you're folding under a subteam.
6c. Click on Update (NOTE: if you don't click it, nothing will be saved)

7. Next is the FTP tab.

[attachmentid=217732]
Hostname: fahremote.dcmalaysia.net
Directory: /fahremote.dcmalaysia.net/logs
Username: fahremote
Password: fahremote1

8. Click on "Test Connection", should return "Test successful!".
NOTE: If you get an error that states that "Server does not return message to the message", it's a known bug, don't worry.

9. Click on "Create Config"
10. Click on Exit Program, as your config is saved.
11. Wait for few minutes before your name updated/shown on the page.

LINUX client (HOW-TO included): fahRemote-0.98.18.tar.bz2

[addedon][/addedon]
FAQ

1) Is FAHremote compatible with Vista?

QUOTE(smartcat99s)

It is Vista compatible, however there needs to be a change in the setup routine.

When installing in the MSI, the config program does not run elevated, so just click exit.

Then go to c:\Program Files\FAHremote and run fahremotestart.exe as administrator. That will elevate it so that it has privlidges to write the config file needed to disk. If there is a network error when elevated, ignore it, and watch fahremote.log to see if it works.

2) How about FreeBSD?

QUOTE

Unfortunately, NO, it's currently not supported. They're looking into it at the moment.
UPDATE: It's now supported!

3) Does network drives mapping and proxy work?

QUOTE

Currently, NO. Wait for the next FAHremote client release.

You could try use UNC path for network drives. It might or might not work. If it does work, it will somehow show CPU info wrongly. Just give it a try.

And example of UNC path: //MACHINENAME/path/to/folding

4) Please run your client as a service if possible. Why?

QUOTE

I check your log every now and then. If I encountered any error (be it improper shutdown, cannot upload WU etc.), I can restart your client manually through FAHremote. Unfortunately it only works on client running as service.

Help me, I will try my best to help you too by looking over your client.

UPDATE: I have full permission to BETA test FAHremote on our team.

QUOTE(smartcat99s)

I, as the author, DO give you permission to use FAHremote for your team (team 2999). I just want to know who to send PM's to when I fix some bugs in the client.

CREDITS: Team 11008 (MaxPC), the creator HeadSpin & _r2w_ben and to smartcat99s for detailed tutorial and support!!

GPU Client Discussion

c9 — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 04:10:38 +0800

Since there was no proper discussion thread for GPU client, its scattered all over sub-team's thread. How I wish I have the power to move everything in here. Anyway, here we go, I've created one and I hope that we all can proceed our discussion in this thread. If you guys have anything to ask or share, just do it here. So yeah, read the FAQ!

QUOTE

Which cards are supported?
We now support serveral classes of GPU boards, including X1600, X1800, and X1900 class GPU's from ATI. At the launch, we supported X1900 cards only. X1800 cards do not provide the performance seen in X1900's and so we strongly recommend X1900 class cards (although we now officially support X1800). X1900 and X1800 cards are actually quite different -- they have different processors (R520, R530 vs. the R580 [in the X1900 series]). The R580 makes a huge difference in performance -- its 48 pixel shaders are key, as we use pixel shaders for our computations. Also note that the card should have more than 256MB (i.e. at least 512MB) of RAM, otherwise the GPU client will put a huge load on the client machine (although we do note that the 256MB X1950Pro using PCIe does work reasonably well).

QUOTE

HOW TO RUN THE WINDOWS FAH/GPU BETA CLIENT

This is a beta release and we expect that there will be several bugs, flaws, problems, etc -- releasing software for GPU's is itself very new in the software industry in general and we expect that there will be problems at the start. To minimize the problems, we have been testing the client and cores extensively in house and they run well there. However, it's our experience that running in the controlled setup in our lab and running "out in the wild" are very different situations. In Alpha testing involving non-Stanford clients, we have seen a lot of EUE's. We are working to track this down, but we need more data to learn about why this is happening, hence the need for an open beta.

As in the use of any beta software, please make sure to back up your hard drive, and do not run this client on any machine which cannot tolerate even the slightest instability or problems.

There are two steps:

1. Download the client file from http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html . For the console client, just run it as normal. For the GUI client, unzip the file to its own folder and then run the winFAH binary. Further instructions can be found on our console and GUI client pages. We do not recommend this beta client for those who have never run FAH before, as in this beta test, several parts of the client will not be working correctly and/or will require a knowledge of how FAH works.

2. Download and install the necessary system software. Due to the complex nature of performing scientific calculations on GPUs, the FAH GPU client needs very specific system software to work. We think that this is a big nuisance, and we are working on a way to avoid this in the future, but for now, there is no way around this (please keep in mind that a Graphics Driver is really a compiler of sorts and thus any GPU code is very sensitive to this issue). Before installing the new system software, don't forget to backup your computer's hard drive (always a good idea in these situations) and then install the following components:

* Catalyst driver version 6.5 [download from ATI or from a Stanford mirror ]. Version 6.10 [see main ATI Folding@Home page or download driver from ATI ] with the newest core appears to be working now (but requires more testing to be sure). Versions 6.6 and 6.7 will work, but at a major performance hit; 6.8 and 6.9 will not work at all. Due to all the complexities of support, we will support only versions 6.5, 6.10, and 6.11. Version 6.12 does not work correctly, but we are expecting that the 7.x series to solve that problem.
* DirectX: 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) or later, [download here] , which yields d3dx9_30.dll (the critical part for FAH)

This system software configuration is critical as a misconfiguration can lead to problems, such as excessive Early Unit Ends (EUE's). EUE's may also occur frequently in the current GPU cores due to our testing of new types of WU's. We need the help of beta testers to help pin down this issue with more data.

The current GPU clients expire on February 1, 2007. Once we go final (i.e. out of a public beta), we will remove the expiration date code from the client. The expiration dates are useful to make sure donors upgrade clients, as older beta SMP or GPU clients often have bugs which need to be upgraded.

QUOTE

List of supported drivers

The following versions of Catalyst are known to work with the GPU client:

* 6.5
* 6.10
* 6.11
* 7.2
* 7.3

The GPU client will work with these drivers with a significant performance hit:

* 6.6
* 6.7

The following drivers do not work at all with the GPU client:

* 6.8
* 6.9
* 6.12
* 7.1

GPU client FAQ: http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-ATI.html

Official GPU discussion sub-forum: http://forum.folding-community.org/forum54...ore-issues.html

Team c9 @ Folding@Malaysia [V2]

c9 — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:52:06 +0800

Our team was esatablished on March 2004. It all started by me (c9) when I was a single folder (with only a Pentium 3 folding 24/7). Our team started to evolve when I became highly addicted on May 2004. Actually, I was not aware of points system and once I figured out that each and every work units (WU) I submitted I'll get credited. Perhaps that was the reason how I began to be addicted (or perhaps, motivated). Since then, I started to buy a few systems just for the sake of Folding@Malaysia (I used to cramp up 8 rigs in my room at one time, which as of now left only 5 machines).

Somehow, I felt being a lone ranger sucks as I have to buy lotsa machines to get in the rank (Top 100). So, to accommadate with my desire. I recruit LowYat.NET forumers and my relative to join. I did succesffuly convinced a few of them. Among the early folder of our team was snyy, paan and arj (sorry if I missed your name). Well, they did help me a lot though they were not really consistent and I was back folding myself alone (around Nov 2004). Perhaps they were not highly motivated/addicted as I am.

Anyway thanks to you guys which kept me going. I was not you guys faults, totally. It's for charity and out of our own will, right? Fortunately, arj offered himself to be back us. So yeah, he joined our team (up until now, and has helped us alot with his loan P4 and X1900XTX). With that, it motivated me to look/find/convince more folders to join us. Year 2005 was our successfull year, with almost 50 active CPUs and we were No 1 top producer. As of now, our sub-team is still growing. Though, at some point some of the folders were disappointed with the unsuccessfull t-shirt (or perhaps, as usual they were not consistent enough to keep on going) and left the team.

Anyway, I am pretty glad of what we had achieved in 4 years, currently at 2nd rank with almost 4000 points per day. At this rate, yes, I won't give up on Folding@Home. Or turn into other distributed computing projects. I will fold until they successfully find the cure. Right now, I just hope that a lot more people will join us here regardless of team or whatsoever!! Let's just find the cure, shall we?

Well, the objective of our team is not solely for the ranks and points. The main concerns are to find the cure of cancer and help science. We are not doctors nor some medical experts, this is the least we can do to help Stanford University in their research. Though, we might not see the cure now, tomorrow and the future who knows? It might help our next generation. Still, Team c9 is here to contribute to our beloved Foldong@Malaysia team and of course gain a sweeter place within the team. We shall bring more heat, yeah! Nevertheless, it's still about ranks and points, we are all still folding for humanity, aren't we? Charity is still charity, do it out of your own will. Help the community.

To be the No. 1 Team. (though it'd take forever)

... and of course finding cure for cancer ..

Team c9 is one of a sub-team in Team 2999 (Folding@Malaysia). If you're interested to join us. You just need to change your current username (if you have any) to c9. If you're a new folder, download a client from Stanford's website. Run and configure the client. When it prompt for a username, just type in c9. And 2999 for Team ID. Yeah, it's that easy! So what are you waiting for? Get started already! Folding in a team is more FUN rather than folding alone. As the saying goes, the more the merrier. And you guys all are always welcome to join us. Come and join us!!

UPDATE: With our current technology now. We are able to fold with PS3s, graphic cards, dual-core with SMP supports. Just read up Stanford's FAQ for more informations and how-to. http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html . And don't forget (if you are joining us), please use c9 as your username and 2999 as your team ID. Thanks. Fold on!!

If you have anything to shout, pls PM me or post it here. Thanks.

P/s: If you're still a bit lost, do check the FAQ. It's pretty well compiled Q&A. Thanks.

GPU Folding Client

c9 — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 02:01:45 +0800

GPUs are able to process physics. X1800XT is 3 times faster than a p43.0Ghz. Can you all believe this? Too bad its still in development process.

QUOTE

Graphics Processors Capable of Physics Processing - ATI.
GPUs Will Process Physics, ATI Says

As AGEIA startup approaches actual introduction of its physics processors, graphics firm ATI Technologies says that its chips are already capable of processing physics and it is only a matter of time for the graphics giant to enable the capability on commercially shipped units.

Raja Kodouri, a senior architect at ATI Technologies told X-bit labs that the company's graphics processors, including the RADEON 9700, which is the world's first DirectX 9.0 graphics processing unit (GPU), are capable of processing arrays of vertexes, similar type of operation that AGEIA's physics processing units (PPUs) can perform. The arrays of data should be processed using pixel shader processors within a chip, the architect said.

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24333

Here's a word from F@H FAQ.

QUOTE

GROMACS ON GPUs

GPUs have the possibility to perform an enormous number of Floating Point OPerations (FLOPs). However, they achieve this high performance by losing generality -- there are only certain types of calculations which would be well-suited to GPUs. The calculations in FAH could possibly take advantage of GPUs and we have been investigating this with our collaborators Prof. Pat Hanrahan (Stanford University, Computer Science Dept) and Prof. Eric Darve (Stanford University, Mechanical Engineering Dept) and their groups. Prof. Hanrahan's group has pioneered methods for programming GPUs with the Brook streaming computer language and Prof. Darve's group has written many applications using Brook. It is unclear which GPUs will be supported and we don't want to specific list any GPUs at the moment. However, it will likely require the very latest GPUs from NVIDIA or ATI. There is also a possibility that only NVIDIA GPUs will work (they use 32 bit floating point, whereas ATI uses 24 bit).

http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-highperformance.html

http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtop...p=113040#113040

Benchmark screenshot: http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php...13&postcount=17

But though Vijay stated this, lets cross our fingers. Let's just hope for the best, at least GPU can fold too.

QUOTE

I'm not sure where the Gromacs performance plot came from. We have not been publishing performance and this data doesn't look right to me. We have gotten X1800 hardware a bit early and have been testing and optimizing on it.

//EDIT: I have read through the thread at folding-community forum. It seems that those benchmark are real. It might be more faster when actual client comes out. This is so syok!!

It's a great news to us (or maybe just me ). This would be great discussion of next folding capabilitties, and about gpu client.

P/s: New rig coming soon, Opty and X1800..

Team c9 @ Folding@Malaysia

c9 — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 10:32:43 +0800

Team c9

Introduction

This team was esatablished on March 2004. It all started when I was a single folder, with only a Pentium 3 folding 24/7 at that time (Yeah, I was a noob back then). But then the team started to evolve when I became addicted like hell on May 2004. Since then, I started to collect/buy a few systems just for the sake of Folding@Malaysia. Right after that, I felt that there was no kick folding alone. So, I started to recruit forumer and my relative to join me (eg. snyy, paan, arj). Well, they did help me a lot but then they're not really consistant and I was back folding myself alone with all my systems (around Nov). I dom't blame them, it's for charity and out of our will to fold. Before I gave with a team. arj wanted and offered me to join my sub-team. So why not rite? Now my sub-team is growing and growing. And I am pretty glad of what have we achieved since then (after 3 years of folding, we are currently at 2nd). . Hopefully a lot more people will join us here regardless of team or whatsoever!! Let's just find the cure, shall we?

Objective

Well, the objective of this team is not solely for the ranks and points. The main concern is to find the cure of cancer. We are not doctors or some medical experts, but at least we could give a helping hand to Stanford University in their research. That's the least we can do right? Probably we can't see the result now, tomorrow who knows? Still, Team c9 is here for Team 2999(Folding@Malaysia) to gain a sweeter place in the ranks (we are currently second!!). And of course, to bring some heat in the team ranks itself. Though afterall it's still about ranks and points, we are all still folding for humanity, aren't we? Charity is still charity, do it out of your will.

Goal

To be the No. 1 Team. (though it'd take forever)

... and of course finding cure for cancer ..

How to join us?

Team c9 is one of a sub-team in Team 2999 (Folding@Malaysia). So if you're interested to join us. You just need to change your current username (if you have any) to c9. If you're a new folder, download a client from Stanford's website. Run and configure the client. When it prompt for a username, just type in c9. And 2999 for Team ID. Yeah, It's that easy! Folding in a team is more syok rather than folding alone. You guys all are always welcome to join us. So boys and gals what are you waiting for? Come and join us!!

If you have anything to shout, pls PM me or post it here. Thanks.

P/s: If you're still a bit lost, do check the FAQ. It's pretty well compiled with Q&A. Thanks.