Curious about different progress

[stebbo]

Hi All,

just recently I started off a number of new machines over the course of about 24 hours, all iMacs, all running mprime v28.7. I used the same configuration for all machines and they all received double-check assignments, all in the order of around 42,500,000

What's really interesting is that in 3 days, some of them report about 1% progress and some report up to 50% progress with a range of values in between. There does not seem to be any pattern. The models comprise three different processor types and are slightly different models, but this doesn't appear to have any bearing as some with the same processor are wildly different. They are all based on the same software image and are currently sitting idle while the students are on holiday.

Without really knowing anything about how the software actually does what it does, this strikes me as a bit odd.

Cheers,
Chris.

[paulunderwood]

It could be that some did P-1 pre-factoring attempts and succeeded

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by stebbo

Without really knowing anything about how the software actually does what it does, this strikes me as a bit odd.

So, you are dumber than bricks, and you are currently asking us to explain to you how the software you installed works.

Sigh....

[Dubslow]

Originally Posted by chalsall

So, you are dumber than bricks, and you are currently asking us to explain to you how the software you installed works.

Sigh....

Come on then, no need to be so aggressive and insulting.

OP: We'll need a bit more details as to what work is actually happening. Could you perhaps copy and paste some output lines?

[Batalov]

Originally Posted by chalsall

So, you are ...

Sigh....

One doesn't need to know the relativity theory or quantum mechanics to operate a cell phone, a GPS or a microwave.

The question the poster asked was akin to "I got a dozen of the free microwaves that you were giving away last Sunday. I am paying for electricity to cook the food and feed the less fortunates. I have a question: while I am cooking why do some of the identical microwaves show 1% progress and some 50% and others some values in between? Aren't they all identical?" The poster didn't ask how the microwave works.

Mr. Garrison would say here "And remember kids, there are no stupid questions, only stupid people bystanders!"

[GP2]

There should be files called results.txt and worktodo.txt ... what do they contain?

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Batalov

One doesn't need to know the relativity theory or quantum mechanics to operate a cell phone, a GPS or a microwave.

Doesn't hurt.

[stebbo]

To Paul: thanks for the response, it gives me an avenue to explore.

To chalsall: if only having a very basic overview of how mprime works, but willing to donate some spare cpu cycles to the cause anyway makes me "dumber than bricks", then I suppose I'm guilty as charged.

To dubslow and GP2: As I've scripted the whole process to run in the background, I've directed all the program output to /dev/null. Some of the machines don't yet have a results.txt file, but the worktodo.txt all show pretty much the same thing, a single Doublecheck= line.

One of the results.txt (from one of the low % machines) shows a single line
[Wed Sep 21 09:00:49 2016]
Iteration 340622 / 42612949

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by stebbo

To chalsall: if only having a very basic overview of how mprime works, but willing to donate some spare cpu cycles to the cause anyway makes me "dumber than bricks", then I suppose I'm guilty as charged.

Chris periodically does this sort of thing as a kind of public service - it's his special way of reminding the forum admins of how right they were to strip him of his supermod status a few years back.

Personally, I've known some quite charming and witty bricks in my day ... CH is probably just jealous of the humble bricks, because unlike them, he is severely challenged when it comes to making a constructive contribution to society. So he flames strangers on the interwebs to make himself feel better.

[Prime95]

Originally Posted by stebbo

One of the results.txt (from one of the low % machines) shows a single line
[Wed Sep 21 09:00:49 2016]
Iteration 340622 / 42612949

Maybe a problem creating save files? If so, the test would restart every reboot.

Are there any funny looking file names in the folder?

[Madpoo]

Originally Posted by stebbo

Hi All,

just recently I started off a number of new machines over the course of about 24 hours, all iMacs, all running mprime v28.7. I used the same configuration for all machines and they all received double-check assignments, all in the order of around 42,500,000

What's really interesting is that in 3 days, some of them report about 1% progress and some report up to 50% progress with a range of values in between. There does not seem to be any pattern. The models comprise three different processor types and are slightly different models, but this doesn't appear to have any bearing as some with the same processor are wildly different. They are all based on the same software image and are currently sitting idle while the students are on holiday.

Without really knowing anything about how the software actually does what it does, this strikes me as a bit odd.

I just looked on the server to see if there was anything unusual reported about the systems with slow progress. Nothing really stands out. They're a mix of i5 CPUs at varying speeds. The 1.6 GHz systems won't run as fast, but they should be going faster than 1% in 3 days.

The "rolling average" on all of the slow ones seems to be in the 900-1000 range, but then again there are others in your group with lower rolling averages (740 in one case) that still has 45% done (and that's on a 2GHz cpu).

I think I'd lean towards George's theory that perhaps it's having trouble writing to disk? Even still, in theory it could continue anyway and as long as it finishes before that machine reboots, it would be okay, it just couldn't pick up where it left off if it got interrupted without a save file.

I don't know anything about how the Mac version works... does it run as a service? Or only when someone's logged in and executes it? Perhaps it's not actually running all the time?