Subject: Re: boinc seti question
From: Husky
Date: 24/03/2005, 00:19
Newsgroups: alt.sci.seti

On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 23:41:59 GMT, Martin 53N 1W
<ml_news@ddnospamddml1dd.co.uk.dd> wrote:

If a machine is capable of multitasking, why is only one program running while
the others are sitting there ?

BrianW wrote:
[...]

I've just switched to BOINC, but investigation suggests that the same WU is 
sent to multiple people. If so, does the first to complete it get the 
cobblestones, and everybody else lose out?

No, provided you return your correct result within the deadline.

Multiple copies are sent out to compare and confirm the results against 
rounding errors or corruptions. Participants get their credits if they 
return what is compared to be a valid result.

Unlike in s@h 'classic', overclockers no longer get credited for fast 
corrupted rubbish for example. (Hint: Check out your systems with 
Memtest86 and The GIMPS mprime tourture test.)


If so there's no point in me 
running BOINC on my ancient 333mhz Pentium 2!

I hope that milli-Hertz is actually 333 _MHz_ !

If your machine returns its results correctly within the project 
deadline, then you get credit.


Happy crunchin',
Martin