So I assume the "Host" statistic on the RAH homepage is for a "computer"...a physical box. But what about having a statistic for the # of cores (and maybe CPUs) too? That would be interesting to see. Especially since now it's pretty hard to buy a computer that only has 1 core.

My proposed "Core" statistic maybe could offer a few variable sub-stats:

1)# of Cores total on the RAH project
2)# of CPUs utilizing 2 cores
3)# of CPUs utilizing 4 cores
4)# of CPUs that only have 1 core.

I just think it would be interesting to have this info.

-Eric

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soooooo....does anyone else agree this would be a nice statistic?

I'm looking for a response from the forum, in general, as well as someone from RAH to tell me yes or no and if yes, how long it would be till we see it.

:)

Please vote if you would like to see this stat.

-Eric

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Almost sounds like your asking for opinions.

That said, there's boatloads of stats available from Boincstats etc. I also think that something in the "Boinc" back end would have to be changed to support this. It would need to be smart enough to decide if a "p4 2.8" is H/T capable, or basically a full definition of available cpu architectures. would cpuid string provide enough info??

In the end, stats are interesting, some are more important than others to some people, and the importance changes sometimes daily. So, Would it be nice???? Well, any new stats would be nice. Is it/should it be a high priority for the Boinc team??? probably not. I know that Dr. A and Rom are giving much of the coding to volunteers for certain features (like the forums).

anyway. It'd be nice....yes.

2c inserted

right...it's a "nice to have".

But I also think my enhancement request is more descriptive than just "# of hosts". What is a host? A physical box? And how many CPUs are on that box? And how many cores are on each CPU? Just because there are 5000 hosts doesn't mean there is only 5000 instances of RAH running. :)

Given that it will probably be impossible to buy a personal computer (priced over $400) after June 2008 that only has 1 "core", I think the enhancement request deserves a little attention. :)

Knowing this statistic might also help the RAH and/or Boinc teams in designing more effcient algorithms or better efficiency overall of the project.

I know it's not a high priority, but would be quite nice to see the stats on this core topic.

-Eric

p.s. I find it interesting that Apple now advertises that all Mac Pros are equipped with 8 cores...but the cheapest default Pro has had its pricetag increased by more than $300. And, you can configure your Pro to only have 4 cores. Kinda misleading if you ask me. :)

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And just to muddy-up your "definition" a little bit, what is an "active" host, versus a "non-active host".

This is F@H's take:

How are the number of active machines calculated?

One central problem in distributed computing is the calculation of how many computers are actively part of the project. Many projects merely cite the "total number of devices", i.e. the number of computers to ever be a part of the calculation. This can of course grossly overestimate the current power of the distributed computing network.

Instead, we calculate the number of "active" clients, i.e. machines that have returned work recently. Active PS3's are defined as those which have returned WUs within 2 days. This is a much shorter timeout than what we set for normal CPU clients, as the PS3 clients Work Unit deadline is much shorter (typically 2 days). However, as we communicate with the distributed clients fairly infrequently (no more frequently than every 8 hours), it is hard to precisely know how many machines are running and these numbers are best used as an order of magnitude estimate of the power of our network.

But I also think my enhancement request is more descriptive than just "# of hosts". What is a host? A physical box? And how many CPUs are on that box? And how many cores are on each CPU? Just because there are 5000 hosts doesn't mean there is only 5000 instances of RAH running. :)

So I'd like to get back on topic and add some other comments that I do not think I or others mentioned before regarding the RAH homepage:


1)I don't see a Stat for # of "active" users...which is typically defined on other Boinc projects as someone who has returned a work unit/credit within the last 30 days. This would be a nice stat to see...just because we have almost 189,000 registered users does not mean they are all contributing currently.

2)As in #1, a stat for "active" hosts would be nice.

3)I still think the # of cores would be valuable info. Call it CPUs if you want (because that's what the Boinc computer profiles call it...for example, going to the "Your Computers" page, clicking on a computer, and looking at the "Number of CPUs" line item. No, I don't think a "# of Cores/CPUs" needs to be real-time on the RAH homepage but maybe every 24 hours updating the homepage would be nice. Aren't any of us (besides me) curious at how many of the 500,000+ hosts have multiple CPUs/cores (besides wondering how many are currently active)? I would hope more than 50% given a number of obvious reasons that I don't have time to list right now. :) But certainly as new computers are purchased, more people will buy dual, quad, and sextuplet core chips (I just grabbed a bunch of Dell Intel Quad core pcs with 3gig ram, 500gig hard drive, dvd burner, and 128MB vid card for $649 free shipping!).



Thanks for listening!

-Eric

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