How well could X360 handle F@H?

[Shompola]

yes FLOPS aint a true gauge of the actual amount of work done, one of the stanford guys mentioned with the GPUs they recalculate the same equations multiple times (due to lack of being able to write anywhere in memory) with a CPU u just do the equation once, im not sure what method the ps3 uses.
its a pity that all 3 implementations dont use the same data

Hi,

Ezcuse my ignorance regarding GPUs and its memory. Why can't you on the GPU hold on to your data during the entire process and have to recalculate it? What is the reason behind this? You say you can not write anywhere in the memory and I assume it is hardware related. Can you please explains this a bit for me thank you

And would this be a problem on Xbox 360, especially regarding that the main memory is uniform memory in design? You can write anywhere you want?

 

[chris1515]

Hi,

Ezcuse my ignorance regarding GPUs and its memory. Why can't you on the GPU hold on to your data during the entire process and have to recalculate it? What is the reason behind this? You say you can not write anywhere in the memory and I assume it is hardware related. Can you please explains this a bit for me thank you

And would this be a problem on Xbox 360, especially regarding that the main memory is uniform memory in design? You can write anywhere you want?

No it is a general problem with GPU, you can't do random write on memory.

 

[patsu]

Hi,

Ezcuse my ignorance regarding GPUs and its memory. Why can't you on the GPU hold on to your data during the entire process and have to recalculate it? What is the reason behind this? You say you can not write anywhere in the memory and I assume it is hardware related. Can you please explains this a bit for me thank you

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=954581&postcount=195

And would this be a problem on Xbox 360, especially regarding that the main memory is uniform memory in design? You can write anywhere you want?

That's why people think memexport will help.

 

[bkilian]

After talking to Mike at Stanford F@H, he said that they have contacted MS a few times to setup an X360 client, but that MS has not shown any interest. However, as of Oct 06 someone at MS has contacted Rosetta@Home about setting something up there. But I think there hasn't been any activity since.

Even if MS set it up as a "game" on arcade and charged $5.00 I'd pay it.

bkilian, do you know if MS has any plans for this? All of the DC communities would really like the help. What would hold MS back?

No clue, I'm not in the XBox team (despite having a couple of them in my office ) I'm in the HD DVD team.
There are many reasons why MS might not go there; resourcing, politics, PR implications.

 

[Rainbow Man]

There are many reasons why MS might not go there; resourcing, politics, PR implications.

Yeah; MS getting into DC / "curing cancer" might actually make them look GOOD for a change!
Oh noes! We can't have that!

Hehe.
Peace.

 

[PARANOiA]

Yeah; MS getting into DC / "curing cancer" might actually make them look GOOD for a change!
Oh noes! We can't have that!

Hehe.
Peace.

You do know MS did this before Sony, right? Heard of Windows? But I've never heard "MS cures cancer" before it was on the PS3 :smile:

Seriously, though, I think this would likely come down to two issues. One, it takes resource to do, and someone has to stop doing one job (say, making a game or building more BC) to build in F@H functionality in a patch. Secondly, if MS were doing less flops than Sony, it wouldn't be very good PR.

Now, if they did MORE than Sony, I'm sure we'd see some pretty surprised people out there ("360 officially more powerful than PS3" type fanboy hysteria) but hey I don't understand this myself. Do all of you people who leave your PS3 on 24/7 to fold do this on your PC? Why not? Have you been doing it for years, or is it something new and amazing to you?

FYI I used to fold before I saw my PC get louder due to automatic down-clocking not working.

 

[V3]

Do all of you people who leave your PS3 on 24/7 to fold do this on your PC? Why not? Have you been doing it for years, or is it something new and amazing to you?

FYI I used to fold before I saw my PC get louder due to automatic down-clocking not working.

I only turn off monitors but PS3, PCs, Wii, 360, all on 24/7. Only 360 that has problem so far. So I wouldn't recommend it to anyone to leave their 360 on 24/7. But if you want to try leaving 360 on 24/7, by all mean do.

 

[patsu]

Do all of you people who leave your PS3 on 24/7 to fold do this on your PC? Why not?

My laptops run slower and slower doing work and personal chores. Same for my wife's laptops.

Have you been doing it for years, or is it something new and amazing to you?

FYI I used to fold before I saw my PC get louder due to automatic down-clocking not working.

Well my latest laptop is getting louder too without folding.
I do it on PS3 because I leave it on (idle) anyway... hope to have LocationFree on it some day. So I just want to see if it can last for 1 year unstopped (like a home server). As with the poster before me, I only turn off my monitor.

Folding is something new for me, but not really amazing since I started in distributed/parallel computing decades ago (Sequent, Alliant, Thinking Machine, ...).

 

[PARANOiA]

I only turn off monitors but PS3, PCs, Wii, 360, all on 24/7. Only 360 that has problem so far. So I wouldn't recommend it to anyone to leave their 360 on 24/7. But if you want to try leaving 360 on 24/7, by all mean do.

Al Gore is coming for you, V3!

 

[Rainbow Man]

You do know MS did this before Sony, right? Heard of Windows?

I wasn't aware windows cured cancer? I ought to have leukemia cracked any day now then because my PCs been on 24/7 for 7+ years now one fter the pother all running some form of windows flavor. Heh.

One, it takes resource to do, and someone has to stop doing one job (say, making a game or building more BC) to build in F@H functionality in a patch.

Yeah and as we all know if there's one thing MS lacks it's software fdevelopment muscle..oh waitaminute..

Secondly, if MS were doing less flops than Sony, it wouldn't be very good PR.

Ths has been brought up already and at least theoretically debunked.

Do all of you people who leave your PS3 on 24/7 to fold do this on your PC?

I've folded for years on my PXC. efore that I ran Setii@Home until I got tired of it and started folding instead.

FYI I used to fold before I saw my PC get louder due to automatic down-clocking not working.

I have mine fold limited at roughly 17% CPU useage (there's a slider in the GUI of the client that lets me adjust this) this way the fan doesn't ramp up at all.
Peace.

 

[Dave Baumann]

I wasn't aware windows cured cancer? I ought to have leukemia cracked any day now then because my PCs been on 24/7 for 7+ years now one fter the pother all running some form of windows flavor. Heh.

Well, they're certianly working on cures for various diseases...

 

[PARANOiA]

Yeah and as we all know if there's one thing MS lacks it's software fdevelopment muscle..oh waitaminute..

In all fairness, I work for the biggest company in the world, and that doesn't mean we are overstaffed. The "software development muscle" you refer to doesn't mean MS has developers sitting around doing nothing, waiting for somethiing like the Folding piece to come along.

Hell, if they do, they need to get JSRF and PDO working on BC stat!