which projects on which platforms

[whocrazy]

Hello.
I am browsing through the list of running projects and can see projects 2974, 2975, 3044, 3452 etc.
but whenever I try running my windows client, I always get project 8011. How are projects assigned and why do I always get the same project instead of a different one each time?

[gwildperson]

The assignment process is complex and has never been fully explained. It may also change without notice. Many things have been learned about it by observing the information that's available on the server status page as well as the project summary page.

All projects require a specific Fahcore. Some Fahcores only work on gpus or only on smp or only on a uniprocessor, so the assignment process takes your hardware into consideration. New projects are added from time to time and other projects are suspended. If many projects are available for your client, the priority (or "weight") on the server will be considered. These, and many other factors are adjusted based on the needs of science and you don't get to choose.

There are a few client settings that can change which groups of projects you might get, but it's still driven by the scientific settings plus a probability factor.. You cannot choose a specific project.

[7im]

The project assigns the work unit priorities, and will send you the best work unit to help the science of the project move forward. Usually the WU is a good match for your hardware, but not always optimal. A lot of times, getting the WUs done is more important than making perfect assignments.

You might get work units from the exact same project number for weeks at a time, or get a different project every time. The only pattern is that the pattern changes as the work being studied changes.

The project summary and the server status pages are helpful to see what projects are going to what clients and hardware types.

[whocrazy]

Hi.
can you tell me which platforms or cores are able to do projects 2974, 2975, 3044 etc? there doesn't seem to be anything on the project summary page about which hardware or cores are required for each project.
Thanks.

[gwildperson]

Project 2974 and 2975 say that Code = Gro-A4 which is the new version of Gromacs. It might be assigned to either a Uniprocessor client or a SMP client. They are issued from server 143.89.28.72 which has projects for Windows, Linux, and OSX.

Project 3044 says that Code = GROMACS which is the classic FahCore_78 for uniprocessor. It is being issued from server 171.64.65.58 which is also serving WUs for all three platforms.

[Zagen30]

The Code column in the project summary lists which core that project uses. Not sure if that's a typo or not, because each core does use different code, so the name could very well be correct. Here's the rundown to the best of my knowledge:

Core 78, a uniprocessor Win/PPC Mac/Linux core, and the PS3 core, which obviously only the PS3 client uses, are both listed as GROMACS. If you click on the description and it talks about the PS3, then it's obviously a PS3 project. If it doesn't mention what hardware it's on it's probably a PC project, but I don't know if that's necessarily true; you could look up the assigning server for those projects on the serer status page if you really want to know. GRO-A4 (core a4) is a hybrid uniprocessor/multiprocessor Win/Mac/Linux core, i.e. it can run on any supported OS and on any number of cores/threads. GRO-A3 (core a3) is multiprocessor-only Win/Mac/Linux. GRO-A5 (core a5) is also multiprocessor-only Win/Mac/Linux, and it only runs bigadv projects. ProtoMol (core b4) is uniprocessor-only Win/Linux.

All the GPU cores are Windows-only right now. GROGPU2 (core 11) actually has 2 versions, one for Nvidia cards and one for AMD/ATI cards; I don't think it's easy to tell which is which from the psummary, but you could check which type of GPU projects the assigning servers cover. OPENMMGPU (core 15) is Nvidia-only GPUs. OPENMM_OPENCL (core 16) is 5000 series or newer AMD-only.

[Jesse_V]

The Code column in the project summary lists which core that project uses. Not sure if that's a typo or not, because each core does use different code, so the name could very well be correct. Here's the rundown to the best of my knowledge: ...

A couple of links that might be useful to confirm: http://fahwiki.net/index.php/Cores and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home_cores
Both are based on material that could be outdated, so currently knowledge is of course best. But I just wanted to point them out.

[Zagen30]

I was looking at the wiki for all of this, but I know it's at least partially wrong about a4 (the 80xx and 7600/761x projects' announcements say they're for all 3 OSes).

[Joe_H]

Project 3044 says that Code = GROMACS which is the classic FahCore_78 for uniprocessor. It is being issued from server 171.64.65.58 which is also serving WUs for all three platforms.

One note about that server and its projects, core 78 is only available for older PPC Mac's running OS X. They can not be processed on Intel Mac's.

[bruce]

That's one of the reasons FahCore_a4 will eventually replace FahCore_78.

[whocrazy]

Hi. Thanks for clearing this up.
What I'm trying to work out is: if everyone's being directed to do projects 8011, How is it that those other gromax windows projects I listed are still marked as "running"
Is it only the older pcs or people using older clients that are being made to do this work?

[Zagen30]

The distribution weighting of 80xx may be high, but it's not set to be exclusive. There are enough contributing machines that they can give a high priority to certain projects and still have enough of the other work get sent out to stay on schedule. It is true that older clients are restricted to certain projects (I believe the v5 Windows client, which is still in use, can't get projects that use core a4), but that's not the case with 80xx, as it's one of the newest projects. I've gotten a bunch of them on my i7; I think it was just given high priority for now.

[7im]

ServStat shows assignment weightings, and also the Assign %ages. Higher numbers show what is getting sent out more often at the moment...