Can Old PCs Help New PCs on Same Team?

chalsall,

Uh-oh, is that true? If so, then I'd better hurry and get my old machines going!!

Part of the motivation for doing this, is the joy of finding a new purpose for my old computers that I don't use on a daily basis anymore. Plus, it gives me an excuse to tinker with them...

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Uh-oh, is that true? If so, then I'd better hurry and get my old machines going!!

Yup, it's true. Not to say that older machines still can't do TF work; simply that they perform at about 50% throughput above 64.

I don't know exactly what processors are effected, but I believe it is all Pentiums. Perhaps someone else can speak to this more fully.

Please see http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=12113 for additional details.

[TimSorbet]

Originally Posted by chalsall

I don't know exactly what processors are effected, but I believe it is all Pentiums. Perhaps someone else can speak to this more fully.

I don't know off-hand a list of which processors are affected, but this can calculate it for any CPU:
http://mersenne-aries.sili.net/throughput.php
If you see that everything except low-bit TF is very inefficient for your CPU, your CPU is one of the affected ones.

chalsall,

I read the thread you linked to, thanks. Looks like I'd better hurry. I also sorely need to take a crash course in the meaning of the various sets of initials! ;-)

Rodrigo

Mini-Geek,

Is there a page that will help me to interpret the tables generated for the various CPUs?

Thank you!

Rodrigo

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I read the thread you linked to, thanks. Looks like I'd better hurry. I also sorely need to take a crash course in the meaning of the various sets of initials! ;-)

Yup, you definitely need to hurry. In the last 24 hours, for example, just over 100,000 exponents were taken from 63 to at least 64. This means all exponents (except very low ones) will be at at least 64 in approximately 54 days.

A site that you can use to follow the factoring progress is The GIMPS Visualization Tool.

[NBtarheel_33]

Look in the ranges 932-933M, 934-935M, 936-937M, 938-939M. They all need taken to 64. I'm working on 930-931M now (about 20% done). Taking a single number of this size to 2^64 takes only minutes.

If you need help setting up the work files for your PCs on one of these ranges, let me know and I'll be happy to help.

Originally Posted by chalsall

Yup, you definitely need to hurry. In the last 24 hours, for example, just over 100,000 exponents were taken from 63 to at least 64. This means all exponents (except very low ones) will be at at least 64 in approximately 54 days.

A site that you can use to follow the factoring progress is The GIMPS Visualization Tool.

chalsall,

Thanks for the link! I could use some help understanding the "Zoom" line across the bottom. What do the 800, 810,...,890 figures indicate, and how do they relate to the column reading 800,000,000, etc.?

Rodrigo

Originally Posted by NBtarheel_33

Look in the ranges 932-933M, 934-935M, 936-937M, 938-939M. They all need taken to 64. I'm working on 930-931M now (about 20% done). Taking a single number of this size to 2^64 takes only minutes.

If you need help setting up the work files for your PCs on one of these ranges, let me know and I'll be happy to help.

NBtarheel,

Thanks very much for the offer, I might just take you up on it if I can' figure it out.

How would I go about assigning my older PCs to do work that helps my newer PCs, as Uncwilly suggested is possible earlier in this thread? I understand that they'd be performing simpler tasks, but the idea would be (if possible) to perform tasks that directly assist my faster machines.

Rodrigo

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks for the link! I could use some help understanding the "Zoom" line across the bottom. What do the 800, 810,...,890 figures indicate, and how do they relate to the column reading 800,000,000, etc.?

The Zoom line is used to drill down (by a factor of 10) on the data (or to scroll up or down the range at the same zoom level). For the "Tabular Data" view, the number links is the same as clicking on the row itself.

So, for your example above, clicking on "810" would show you the range 810 million (M) to 820M, and the zoom line would then change to be "810, 811, ... 819". Clicking on 810 again would then show the range 810M to 811M, and the links then change to be "810, 810.1, ... 810.9". Following these then take you to the deepest zoom available, showing a 100,000 range.

Also, if you haven't noticed yet, at any zoom level / range, you have three different views available from the links under the "Trial Factoring" menu on the left -- "3D Bar Graph", "Tabular Data" and "Min / Avg / Max Graph".

To all who've been helping me (and anybody else who'd like to add their two cents),

Thank you for the info you've provided so far. I'm a writer and not a mathematician, so these concepts don't come easily to me, but I *think* I'm slowly making progress.

I found the following page: http://www.mersenne.org/thresholds/

Based on the information I'm about to give you, and the way I'm interpreting it, please let me know if I'm reading that page correctly. Below is a list of the five computers that I can contribute to the GIMPS project. I'm going to give the CPU type, its speed, and the PC's RAM and operating system.

Pentium 75MHz, 128MB RAM tower, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (yup!)
Pentium 233MHz, 80MB RAM notebook, Windows 98 Second Edition
Pentium II MMX 400MHz, 384MB RAM tower, Windows 98 Standard Edition
Pentium Dual-Core CPU T4200 @ 2.00GHz, 4GB RAM laptop, Vista 64-bit
Pentium Dual CPU E2200 @2.20GHz, 4GB RAM tower, Vista 64-bit

So, to judge from the Assignment Thresholds page, I'm guessing that I can have the two Pentiums do Trial Factoring, the Pentium II some P-1 Factoring, and the two Vista machines pretty much anything, except maybe a "preferred exponent." This leads to several questions:

1. Did I get that right?
2. Can (or may) the three lower-end PCs perform any "higher" operations than what I said above?
3. How can you tell (ahead of time) what the "reliability" and "confidence level" are for your CPU?
4. What is a "preferred" exponent (what makes them preferable?), and how is that different from a non-preferred exponent?
5. How would I assign (or ask for) work so that my slower machines will directly assist my faster machines in their pursuit of the cash award?
6. I seem to recall reading somewhere on this forum that the latest version of the Prime95 software is not the optimal one for older machines. Is that true, and if so, then which version(s) should I get for the older PCs, and where would I get it/them?

Thanks very much again. I'm inching my way closer to understanding how the project works so that I can participate.

Gratefully,

Rodrigo