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Shaktai · 02:21 PM

Surprisingly, SETI is not the first Public project on the BOINC platform.
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The Scripps Research Institute
http://predictor.scripps.edu/
Predictor at Home - Went Public on June 7, 2004 with Mac, Linux & Windows clients.
BOINC version 3.05.

Predictor@home is a world-community experiment and effort to use distributed world-wide-web volunteer resources to assemble a supercomputer able to predict protein structure from protein sequence. Our work is aimed at testing and evaluating new algorithms and methods of protein structure prediction in the context of the Sixth Biannual CASP (Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction) experiment. The goal is to utilize these approaches together with the immense computer power that can be harnessed through the internet and volunteers all over the world (you!) to address critical biomedical questions of protein-related diseases. Predictor@home is a pilot project of the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing.

As of this writing, this project has only 92 users and 10 teams, for anyone who wants to get in on the groundfloor of a new DC project. However it was just published on Kirk Pearson's DC page, so expect it to grow fast.

UPDATE 6/12/04: Predictor at Home has been re-defined as a "Public Alpha". Stats will not be reset unless absolutely necessary, but much of the system is being TESTED.
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In other BOINC news, Climate Prediction begins beta testing BOINC in mid July.

Shaktai · 02:24 PM

Those who know me, know that I love to try new things. So I am trying this project too. It isn't often that Mac users have had a chance to get in on the ground floor of very many DC projects. I have established Team MacNN, and am moving two of computers from the BOINC-SETI beta test to Predictor@Home. It looks interesting. Kind of like Folding@Home with a little bit of distributed folding. Definetly working towards CASP competion like dFold but in a different way.

UPDATE 6/13/04: Predictor at Home has been re-defined as a "Public Alpha". Stats will not be reset unless absolutely necessary, but much of the system is being TESTED. There are glitches. BOINC 3.07 is supported, but BOINC 3.05 is currently recommended. Mac versions require OS 10.3.x and do not currently work under 10.2.x

The Raven · Jun 12, 2004, 12:15 PM

How does the mac client compete against PC, Linux.
Is there Altivec support?

Shaktai · Jun 12, 2004, 01:16 PM

Originally posted by The Raven:
How does the mac client compete against PC, Linux.
Is there Altivec support?

Mac and Linux clients are pretty comparable. Currently the Windows client lags a little behind due to debug code. Overall though, Macs, especially G4's and G5's do well. Even my G3 iBook does alright though.

BIONC projects are two pronged. First you have the Core Client which is BOINC, and then you have the actual "science" application such as SETI or Predictor. The Core Client code can be downloaded and recompiled for specific machine/OS combinations and optimization. Some Linus users have seen some impressive gains by compiling their own core client from the source code.

Mac users should be able to do the same. i.e compile for G4 or G5 and a specific OS version. The generic compile from BOINC currently runs only under 10.3.x. They are working to get it to run under 10.2.x. Some users have claimed compiling their own under 10.2.x will work, but I haven't seen any verification of that.

As to "Altivec, SSE, SSE2, 3DNOW, etc" It may vary some by science project.

The G5's have been very strong under BOINC beta testing and for a while almost dominated the top 10. They have fallen behind some, but mostly because of Linux users who "roll their own" core clients. They still outperform most windows boxes.

The Hot box right now is the Athlon 64's and Opterons under Linux.
As for me, I know nothing about compiling my own, so havent' been able to test it on the Mac.

BOINC is multi-processor aware by default. If the science app isn't, BOINC will just run a thead for each processor automatically unless you specify otherwise.

Turias · Jun 14, 2004, 06:18 PM

I followed all of the instructions, but when I try and run BOINC, I get the following:

./boinc_3.05_i686-pc-linux-gnu
2004-06-14 17:15:21 [---] Starting BOINC client version 3.05 for i686-pc-linux-gnu
Enter the URL of the project: http://predictor.scripps.edu/
You should have already registered with the project
and received an account key by email.
Paste the account key here: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [http://predictor.scripps.edu/] Project prefs: using your defaults
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [http://predictor.scripps.edu/] Host ID not assigned yet
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [---] No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [---] get_local_ip_addr(): gethostbyname failed
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [---] get_local_ip_addr(): gethostbyname failed
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [---] Fewer active results than CPUs; requesting more work
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [---] Can't resolve hostname predictor.scripps.edu (a nonrecoverable error occurred)
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [---] Can't resolve hostname predictor.scripps.edu (a nonrecoverable error occurred)
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [http://predictor.scripps.edu/] Couldn't read master page for http://predictor.scripps.edu/: error -113
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [http://predictor.scripps.edu/] Couldn't read master page for http://predictor.scripps.edu/: error -113
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [http://predictor.scripps.edu/] Detaching from project - check for URL error
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [http://predictor.scripps.edu/] Detaching from project - check for URL error
BOINC couldn't get main page for http://predictor.scripps.edu/.
Please check the URL and try again.
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [http://predictor.scripps.edu/] Resetting project
2004-06-14 17:15:52 [http://predictor.scripps.edu/] Detaching from project

Is the project down? Is this a known issue?

sokukodo · Jun 18, 2004, 11:55 AM

I've just created an account, but I need to get home and download the software to my machine (I'm at work right now and cannot use this machine ... it's a government machine and definately off-limits to this kind of activity).
At home, I am using a dual processor 2 gig G5 and am currently running SETI; Question: will I be able to run both SETI and BOINC "Predictor" concurrently? I have 213 gigs of hard drive and 2 gigs of RAM; I'm a member of the Team MacNN, SETI (sokukodo9) and look forward to joining the MacNN team on Predictor.
Thanks.

Shaktai · Jun 19, 2004, 12:06 PM

Originally posted by Turias:
I followed all of the instructions, but when I try and run BOINC, I get the following:..........

Is the project down? Is this a known issue?

It was probably a temporary outage. Best place to check on these things is in the project forums. The project team has been responsive. Remember to use the questions/problems forum, not the general discussion forum.

I see that you are getting work and credits now.

Shaktai · Jun 19, 2004, 12:14 PM

Originally posted by sokukodo:
I've just created an account, but I need to get home and download the software to my machine (I'm at work right now and cannot use this machine ... it's a government machine and definately off-limits to this kind of activity).
At home, I am using a dual processor 2 gig G5 and am currently running SETI; Question: will I be able to run both SETI and BOINC "Predictor" concurrently? I have 213 gigs of hard drive and 2 gigs of RAM; I'm a member of the Team MacNN, SETI (sokukodo9) and look forward to joining the MacNN team on Predictor.
Thanks.

That shouldn't pose a problem on a dual G5. I will be interested in seeing your results, the G5 should do very well on predictor. If you are running two projects together, I would recommend that you set your preferences (on the predictor web site) to use no more then 1 CPU, that way BOINC will leave one CPU to run SETI Classic.

sokukodo · Jun 21, 2004, 09:54 AM

Well, I've hit a brick wall vis-a-vis installation ... I know absolutely nothing about unix, command line stuff; the installation instructions seem to be predicated on the user having a working knowledge of the terminal so at this point I'm treading water.

Shaktai · Jun 22, 2004, 09:36 PM

Originally posted by sokukodo:
Well, I've hit a brick wall vis-a-vis installation ... I know absolutely nothing about unix, command line stuff; the installation instructions seem to be predicated on the user having a working knowledge of the terminal so at this point I'm treading water.

1. Download the client
2. place the client in a folder location of your choice. You may want to give the client a "shorter name".
3. start the terminal
4. type CD and then drag the folder containing the client into the terminal window and hit return (should set the correct path)
5. type chmod +x "client name" (without the quotes)
6. type ./"client name" (without the quotes)

Hope that helps. I am traveling but will be back home on Friday.

mikkyo · Jun 24, 2004, 03:10 PM

Hmmmm

open http://predictor.scripps.edu/

server not found :-(

Never a good sign when a newer project has server issues.

Shaktai · Jun 25, 2004, 12:52 AM

Originally posted by mikkyo:
Hmmmm

open http://predictor.scripps.edu/

server not found :-(

Never a good sign when a newer project has server issues.

Indeed, but then at least the developers are honest by referring to it as a "public alpha" project, and they have been very responsive about fixing problems as they arise, and responding to participants concerns. Predictor@home shows promise.