https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/prefs.php?subset=project

"Target CPU Time"

The runtime is fixed. Default is 8 hours (usually ends a little before in my experience). However, if the task is working on a model that hasn't finished by the time it reaches 8 hours of CPU time (or whatever is set on the preferences), it has 4 more CPU hours to finish that model. If it doesn't, the "watchdog" software kicks in and kills the task. Which I guess explains your 7 hours (8 in prefs, I assume) up to 12 hours (the 4-hour cut-off) range across your tasks..


See my post https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/forum_thread.php?id=13644&postid=92449 and the following post from a Rosetta moderator.

The link you sent didn't work but I've seen you on the Rosetta forums so I easily found your tasks. Most of your tasks seem to respect the 8 hour target.
As to why some end earlier, I don't really know but I do remember 1 or 2 that ended below 7 hours. Maybe the Rosetta software thinks it wouldn't finish the next model in the time left till the target runtime so it just stops there?

The way I understand Rosetta is that if not for a CPU runtime target or the watchdog, the Rosetta software would go on generating structures and decoys for whatever protein input "forever".

Interesting. And cool that every project can run completely differently within the Boinc structure.

I think the best way to test Rosetta, and I'll try it tomorrow, is to set it doing some tasks in Ubuntu, wait until they get validated, then see how many points I get compared to the same amount of run time in Windows. I'll test Universe first though as that should be easiest, then LHC (if I can work out how to install Virtualbox in Ubuntu!), then Milkyway and Einstein on GPU (if I can get a Linux driver for the GPU), then I'll leave it overnight on Rosetta and check the validated results the next day.

For example, most of my Universe@home tasks on Ubuntu 20.04 on my AMD Ryzen 5 1400 3.2 GHz take just over 1 hour to finish. On WIndows,and from memory, closer to 3 hours.

If they go three times faster, does that mean the CPUs are working 3 times harder? And generating 3 times as much heat by using 3 times the electricity? I'll use a watt meter on the wall socket when I do this to find out. If they aren't hotter, it's even stranger that they can do more work without using more power (or is Windows inserting extra pointless instructions in there?). If they are hotter, I'm going to have to buy bigger fans.

Ubuntu is fine. The only difference between Ubuntu flavours is RAM usage and maybe a little bit of CPU because of whatever desktop environments they use (the interface)

Xubuntu should use less RAM and maybe a little bit less of CPU too. Other than that, no difference.

You can just run it off the USB if you'd like to try it first (once you reboot, everything you install or save is reset though).

So where are programs installed? Into a RAM drive? I'd assumed the USB stick was behaving like the hard disk.

Anyway that will do. I can quickly install Boinc and attach to a single project and directly compare it to the other server still running Windows 10.

You'd get much faster runtimes if you switched to Linux ;)

I find it hard to believe the OS has anything to do with processing time. Sure, maybe Windows uses 2% of the CPU and Linux 1%, but that only changes Boinc from 98% to 99%, not worth doing. Surely the Universe task is written as well as the Universe coders write it, and makes use of whatever instruction set my CPU has. The OS it's under cannot change how fast it is.

Yes. We got a developer who try to make GPU app for the project, unfortunately he resign because he got struggles to port application algorithm to GPU. This is not a surprise as our application base was written since 2002 when nobody expect GPU's with compute possibilities...

This is very common problem with science app that not all algorithms can be ported to GPU.

But...

We still think about it, slowly change and clear code and maybe... But this not happens in this year definitely :(

That is a shame. But I will be adding 48 cores shortly on two xeon servers I'm building from scrap parts. If the pentathlon hasn't eaten all your tasks or melted your ethernet I'll do some more.