[Shaktai]

The following was posted in the "new" folding@home forums, by none other than Vijay Pande himself.

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2002 11:46 am    Post subject:
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We are working on a new core which does support Altivec (we'll have to use 32 bit floats).

More soon.

Vijay

Vijay has had a couple of meetings directly with Apple folks, as well as Apple's support of his project. This may pay off for us. More importantly, it may also bode well for the Genome project, if they plan on using a combined client.

You can read the thread at http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=102

[ 04-30-2002: Message edited by: Shaktai ]

[ 04-30-2002: Message edited by: Shaktai ]

[Grozni Majmun]

I think this is the correct link. Certainly interesting news!

[Shaktai]

Originally posted by Grozni Majmun:
<STRONG>I think this is the correct link. Certainly interesting news!</STRONG>

You're right. I corrected my link. :o

Now if we could convince the dFold folks to look into it as well......

[gumby5647]

shibbyness.

It will be nice to have a choice of AltiVec enabled DC projects....

[SkiBikeSki]

Although they are using alti-vec, it won't be a such a huge increase. They'll need to use 32 bit floats, which mean the overall speedup will be a little less then 2x. Oh well, that's still a big improovement.

I hope I'm wrong and the real improovement is almost 4x!


[ 04-30-2002: Message edited by: SkiBikeSki ]

[The_Equivocator]

This is really great news. It would be really nice to have projects other than RC5 out there that G4s excel at.

[Shaktai]

Originally posted by SkiBikeSki:
<STRONG>Although they are using alti-vec, it won't be a such a huge increase. They'll need to use 32 bit floats, which mean the overall speedup will be a little less then 2x. Oh well, that's still a big improovement.

I hope I'm wrong and the real improovement is almost 4x!


[ 04-30-2002: Message edited by: SkiBikeSki ]</STRONG>

I think you were probably right with your first guess. A little less then 2x Of course even a 50% boost would be nice. Every little bit helps.

[Osirisis]

Wahey... This is exciting news... I'll take every point I can get

[doggkruse]

Ubero is considering altivec as well for their next project but their code is highly vectorized so it would be closer to a 4x increase!!

[slipjack]

Originally posted by doggkruse:
<STRONG>Ubero is considering altivec as well for their next project but their code is highly vectorized so it would be closer to a 4x increase!!</STRONG>

now THAT would bring me back on Ubero...

[jbcool]

Originally posted by slipjack:
<STRONG>

now THAT would bring me back on Ubero...</STRONG>

Ditto.

[Shaktai]

I think a lot of this is an educational process, so that the producers of DC clients can see a benefit to their projects. If one folding project can demonstrate a benefit from Altivec enhancements and draw enough Mac users, then there is a chance that other similar projects may follow suite. This bodes well for folks who have G4 processors.

Apparently, they have to modify the actual core in order to take advantage of Altivec, but it is nice to see them making the effort. I think Vijay's "meeting" at Apple may have had something to do with this. This plus the new scientific code which promises significant speed increases for all users, may take F@H to the next level.

The word is that Ubero's new folding project will use highly "vectorized" code, and "if" they utilize Altivec enhancements it will be a tremendous benefit to Mac users.

[SkiBikeSki]

Let's hope that F@H is willing to share it's Alti-Vec enhanced core with the other folding projects. I can't see why they wouldn't.

BTW Data doesn't have to be 'vectorized' to use alti-vec but it helps. You can divide your work into 4 sets, and crunch all 4 at once using alti-vec commands. But it all depends on what kind of data your working with.

[Shaktai]

Originally posted by SkiBikeSki:
<STRONG>Let's hope that F@H is willing to share it's Alti-Vec enhanced core with the other folding projects. I can't see why they wouldn't.

BTW Data doesn't have to be 'vectorized' to use alti-vec but it helps. You can divide your work into 4 sets, and crunch all 4 at once using alti-vec commands. But it all depends on what kind of data your working with.</STRONG>

While they might be able to share their experience, I doubt that they could share their actual code. The Scientific code varies significantly from project to project because of the different approaches taken.