BOINC NFS sieving - NFS@Home

frmky · 2009-09-05, 05:53

Taking a cue from a certain group of calculator enthusiasts, I decided to test how well BOINC works for NFS sieving. I couldn't resist the oh-so-fashionable @Home name.

I've been playing with it for a few days now, and it seems to work fine. Of course, real problems don't crop up until it's in the wild, so if you have time and the inclination, I'd appreciate it if you would give it a try. The project is hosted at http://escatter11.fullerton.edu/nfs/ If you have BOINC already installed, you can use this address to attach to the project. If not, you can download BOINC from the link on that page.

Included are Serge's latest optimized gnfs-lasieve binaries (BOINCified, of course) for 32-bit Windows, 32-bit Linux, and 64-bit Linux, but the Linux binaries I suspect require a 2.6 kernel to work. It's currently loaded with work for sieving the Cunningham number 2,2214L. As problems crop up, there will probably be brief periods of downtime, so if you have trouble connecting, try a little bit later.

Thanks!

Batalov · 2009-09-05, 06:09

That's a nice number.
Let's hope that all the hacked T84+ will be sieving as well.
You did provide a Z80 16-bit siever binary, didn't you?

henryzz · 2009-09-05, 07:23

i have heard of the BOINC client using lots of extra cpu
using 1 core out of 4
does it still do that at all?
if it doesnt i might join and do a few workunits

wreck · 2009-09-05, 11:16

It seems like that each work unit takes about 40 minutes and the data is about 1 MB.

Nice job.

frmky · 2009-09-05, 16:33

On a fast 64-bit linux computer, a work unit can take as little as 15-20 minutes. I tried to balance the time so that it's not too short on 64-bit linux but not too slow on an older, 32-bit machine. On my very aging laptop, they take a bit under two hours.

I was a bit worried about the result size, but a little over 1MB seems ok. There have been no upload errors so far. As we go to larger projects, the upload size will drop.

After an initial minor hiccup, everything seems to be running fine (knock on wood). Based on submitted and uploaded-but-not-yet-submitted results, 2,2214L is already about 14% sieved! I'll make the next one a bit harder.

mdettweiler · 2009-09-05, 16:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by henryzz

i have heard of the BOINC client using lots of extra cpu
using 1 core out of 4
does it still do that at all?
if it doesnt i might join and do a few workunits

No, nothing like that. Its overhead is a bit more than some "lighter" client/server setups like LLRnet, PRPnet, and ECMnet, but I recall that back when I used BOINC regularly, it would only rack up about 5-10 minutes of CPU time in Task Manager over the course of a number of days.

At any rate, though, since NFS is already a somewhat overhead-heavy thing as it is, BOINC is a perfect fit for it; BOINC's overhead should be significantly less than the time normally lost as idling between ranges and whatnot.

wblipp · 2009-09-05, 18:08

Bravo!

Successfully tapping the broad BOINC community seems to require some combination of responsiveness and support for points and teams. Those projects that figure out these things often discover they have unleashed a firehose of processing power that threatens to drown their project. If you haven't already, you might look at yoyo@home - yoyo has successfully translated several mathematical distributed computing projects, including ECMNET, to the BOINC community. If you reach the level of success where you are suffering from lack of siever-ready numbers, ElevenSmooth and OddPerfect can provide suitable composites at any size from tiny to record size.

Good Luck|

William

yoyo · 2009-09-05, 18:31

Hello,
it's really nice to have no GNFS in Boinc. This was also on my ToDo list. I will spread the URL of the project a bit and you will get some more beta testers. I think when the URL will be known it will spread fast in the Boinc community and you will get dozens of testers ;)
yoyo

Btw: ECM in Boinc runs here http://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo

yoyo · 2009-09-05, 19:20

Hello,
some hints for the Boinc project:
- the Forum on the Boinc project should be enabled or linked to an existing forum somewhere. Boinc users will have questions which they want to place somewhere.
- the estimated runtime is to small, I think it should be doubled or multiplied by 3.
yoyo

frmky · 2009-09-05, 21:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by yoyo

Hello,
some hints for the Boinc project:
- the Forum on the Boinc project should be enabled or linked to an existing forum somewhere. Boinc users will have questions which they want to place somewhere.
- the estimated runtime is to small, I think it should be doubled or multiplied by 3.
yoyo

Done, and I've adjusted the template file for the next project.

Batalov · 2009-09-06, 00:36

I tried and liked the thing! Greg, this is the sliced bread, right here. I wonder how the Cunningham page 112 will look in two months.

I looked at the output files and noticed that
1) they still use lower- and uppercase letters (if you compile to v106 to use only one case, you will save on the compressed transfer and your staging disk)
2) they are not immediately gzipped (which is probably ok, because the BOINC manager will gzip-or-whatever on the fly, wouldn't it?)
3+) do you validate the received data? (both for the correctness and being consistent with the task: the q0 to be in the task range; prevent sending the same data, spoofing, filling up your disk with junk...)

Arigato Gozaimasu!

2009-09-05, 05:53	#1
frmky Jul 2003 So Cal 2,621 Posts	BOINC NFS sieving - NFS@Home Taking a cue from a certain group of calculator enthusiasts, I decided to test how well BOINC works for NFS sieving. I couldn't resist the oh-so-fashionable @Home name. I've been playing with it for a few days now, and it seems to work fine. Of course, real problems don't crop up until it's in the wild, so if you have time and the inclination, I'd appreciate it if you would give it a try. The project is hosted at http://escatter11.fullerton.edu/nfs/ If you have BOINC already installed, you can use this address to attach to the project. If not, you can download BOINC from the link on that page. Included are Serge's latest optimized gnfs-lasieve binaries (BOINCified, of course) for 32-bit Windows, 32-bit Linux, and 64-bit Linux, but the Linux binaries I suspect require a 2.6 kernel to work. It's currently loaded with work for sieving the Cunningham number 2,2214L. As problems crop up, there will probably be brief periods of downtime, so if you have trouble connecting, try a little bit later. Thanks!

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2009-09-05, 06:09	#2
Batalov "Serge" Mar 2008 Phi(4,2^7658614+1)/2 10,093 Posts	That's a nice number. Let's hope that all the hacked T84+ will be sieving as well. You did provide a Z80 16-bit siever binary, didn't you?

2009-09-05, 07:23	#3
henryzz Just call me Henry "David" Sep 2007 Liverpool (GMT/BST) 2²×17×89 Posts	i have heard of the BOINC client using lots of extra cpu using 1 core out of 4 does it still do that at all? if it doesnt i might join and do a few workunits

2009-09-05, 11:16	#4
wreck "Bo Chen" Oct 2005 Wuhan,China 2³×23 Posts	It seems like that each work unit takes about 40 minutes and the data is about 1 MB. Nice job.

2009-09-05, 16:33	#5
frmky Jul 2003 So Cal A3D₁₆ Posts	On a fast 64-bit linux computer, a work unit can take as little as 15-20 minutes. I tried to balance the time so that it's not too short on 64-bit linux but not too slow on an older, 32-bit machine. On my very aging laptop, they take a bit under two hours. I was a bit worried about the result size, but a little over 1MB seems ok. There have been no upload errors so far. As we go to larger projects, the upload size will drop. After an initial minor hiccup, everything seems to be running fine (knock on wood). Based on submitted and uploaded-but-not-yet-submitted results, 2,2214L is already about 14% sieved! I'll make the next one a bit harder.

2009-09-05, 18:08	#7
wblipp "William" May 2003 Near Grandkid 2×1,187 Posts	Bravo! Successfully tapping the broad BOINC community seems to require some combination of responsiveness and support for points and teams. Those projects that figure out these things often discover they have unleashed a firehose of processing power that threatens to drown their project. If you haven't already, you might look at yoyo@home - yoyo has successfully translated several mathematical distributed computing projects, including ECMNET, to the BOINC community. If you reach the level of success where you are suffering from lack of siever-ready numbers, ElevenSmooth and OddPerfect can provide suitable composites at any size from tiny to record size. Good Luck\| William

2009-09-05, 18:31	#8
yoyo Oct 2006 Berlin, Germany 659 Posts	Hello, it's really nice to have no GNFS in Boinc. This was also on my ToDo list. I will spread the URL of the project a bit and you will get some more beta testers. I think when the URL will be known it will spread fast in the Boinc community and you will get dozens of testers ;) yoyo Btw: ECM in Boinc runs here http://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo

2009-09-05, 19:20	#9
yoyo Oct 2006 Berlin, Germany 659 Posts	Hello, some hints for the Boinc project: - the Forum on the Boinc project should be enabled or linked to an existing forum somewhere. Boinc users will have questions which they want to place somewhere. - the estimated runtime is to small, I think it should be doubled or multiplied by 3. yoyo

2009-09-06, 00:36	#11
Batalov "Serge" Mar 2008 Phi(4,2^7658614+1)/2 10,093 Posts	I tried and liked the thing! Greg, this is the sliced bread, right here. I wonder how the Cunningham page 112 will look in two months. I looked at the output files and noticed that 1) they still use lower- and uppercase letters (if you compile to v106 to use only one case, you will save on the compressed transfer and your staging disk) 2) they are not immediately gzipped (which is probably ok, because the BOINC manager will gzip-or-whatever on the fly, wouldn't it?) 3+) do you validate the received data? (both for the correctness and being consistent with the task: the q0 to be in the task range; prevent sending the same data, spoofing, filling up your disk with junk...) Arigato Gozaimasu!