FormulaBOINC

[Orange Kid]

Don't know if anyone is paying attention to this any more, but they have changes for 2017---MINI RACES.
There will be 20 of them. Only 24hrs notice of the project will be given, so not much bunkering time.
The list is below. I'll try to update as it goes.
FormulaBOINC [we are in League 2] is a competition for BOINC teams. It is based on the principle of the Formula 1 championship. Starting in 2017, the competition is composed of 2 groups of events:

• Marathons: each project is considered as a "Grand-Prix". The 10 best teams on each project get a fixed number of FB points.
• Sprints: 20 events of 3-days throughout the year, according to the schedule of the Formula 1 championship. Each sprint will involve only one project. The chosen project will only be known 24 hours before the start of the sprint. The top 10 teams on each sprint are given a fixed number of FB points.

The teams selected for the FB are divided into three divisions of 25 teams. The distribution of teams depends on the number of active members (RAC>100) on each project.
Formula Boinc points:

• 1st = 25 FB points
• 2nd = 18 FB points
• 3rd = 15 FB points
• 4th = 12 FB points
• 5th = 10 FB points
• 6th = 8 FB points
• 7th = 6 FB points
• 8th = 4 FB points
• 9th = 2 FB points
• 10th = 1 FB points

The final goal of the Formula Boinc Trophy, more than simply being a new stats site with its winner [at the end of the year], is to promote competition between teams on all projects and not on particularly crediting ones.
Each project having the same weight in this trophy, no project is more or less interesting than another.
This should also help small or new projects at a time when more and more projects are joining the Boinc platform.

Sprints
Season 2017​

• 03/23/2017 13:00 (UTC) (8:00 AM CDT) - 03/26/2017 12:59 (UTC)
  Yoyo@home ................Stats
  
• 04/06/2017 16:00 (UTC) (11:00 AM CDT) - 04/09/2017 15:59 (UTC)
  Einstein@home ...........Stats
  
• 04/13/2017 21:00 (UTC) (4:00 PM CDT) - 04/16/2017 20:59 (UTC)
  NumberFields@home..Stats
  
• 04/27/2017 21:00 (UTC) (4:00 PM CDT) - 04/30/2017 20:59 (UTC)
  World Community Grid..Stats
  
• 05/11/2017 22:00 (UTC) (5:00 PM CDT) - 05/14/2017 21:59 (UTC)
  Moo! Wrapper...............Stats
  
• 05/25/2017 22:00 (UTC) (5:00 PM CDT) - 05/28/2017 21:59 (UTC)
  Rosetta@home.............Stats
  
• 06/09/2017 04:00 (UTC) {06/08/2017 - 11:00 PM CDT} - 06/12/2017 03:59 (UTC)
  Seti@home....................Stats
  
• 06/22/2017 20:00 (UTC) (3:00 PM CDT) - 06/25/2017 19:59 (UTC)
  LHC@home 1.0.............Stats
  
• 06/29/2017 22:00 (UTC) (5:00 PM CDT) - 07/02/2017 21:59 (UTC)
  Collatz Conjecture........Stats
  
• 07/13/2017 23:00 (UTC) (6:00 PM CDT) - 07/16/2017 22:59 (UTC)
  Asteroids@home..........Stats
  
• 07/27/2017 22:00 (UTC) (5:00 PM CDT) - 07/30/2017 21:59 (UTC)
  NFS@home...................Stats
  
• 08/24/2017 22:00 (UTC) (5:00 PM CDT) - 08/27/2017 21:59 (UTC)
  Milkyway@home...........Stats
  
• 08/31/2017 22:00 (UTC) (5:00 PM CDT) - 09/03/2017 21:59 (UTC)
  theSkyNet POGS...........Stats
  
• 09/14/2017 16:00 (UTC) (11:00 AM CDT) - 09/17/2017 15:59 (UTC)
  Yafu................................Stats
  
• 09/28/2017 16:00 (UTC) (11:00 AM CDT) - 10/01/2017 15:59 (UTC)
  Leiden Classical............Stats
  
• 10/05/2017 15:00 (UTC) (10:00 AM CDT) - 10/08/2017 14:59 (UTC)
  GPUGrid.........................Stats
  
• 10/20/2017 05:00 (UTC) (12:00 Midnight CDT) - 10/23/2017 04:59 (UTC)
  TN-Grid...........................Stats
  
• 10/27/2017 05:00 (UTC) (12:00 Midnight CDT) - 10/30/2017 05:59 (UTC)
  PrimeGrid.......................Stats
  
• 11/10/2017 02:00 (UTC) {11/9/2017 8:00 PM CST} - 11/13/2017 01:59 (UTC)
  Universe@Home............Stats
  
• 11/23/2017 20:00 (UTC) (2:00 PM CST) - 11/26/2017 19:59 (UTC)
  Citizen Science Grid......Stats

 

[TennesseeTony]

Cool! Thanks for the info!

 

[crashtech]

I'm in, I think. I'll try to keep an eye on this thread for updates.

 

[TennesseeTony]

BuMpiTy bUmP.

Wednesday is when the first race's project gets announced, then Thursday the race starts.The exact time for both days is 1300 UTC. That's 9am, 8am, 7am, 6am in the continental US. Races are three day sprints.

Don't forget to bunker by downloading at least a days worth of tasks, and then turning off the network communication until AFTER the race starts.

 

[petrusbroder]

Thanks for the heads-up, Tony!

 

[Ken g6]

And the first project is...Yoyo@Home. Anything there that works on Linux? On GPU? Last I recall when I did that project it was only on Windows.

 

[StefanR5R]

CPU-only, but all mainstream operating systems:
http://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/apps.php

Does anybody know which subprojects give the highest yield?

 

[Orange Kid]

Applications Windows Linux Mac Andriod Solaris. CPU only project.
I usually run ECM as I think it is the best points giver. I have never run an actual comparison though.

ECM work seems to be really long WU's so I m going to do Muon.

 

[crashtech]

So if we connect to the project, when do we stop network activity for bunkering?

 

[Ken g6]

I usually run ECM as I think it is the best points giver. I have never run an actual comparison though.

Hm. Looks like last time I ran it I did Muon on Windows, and OGR on Linux. But I remember thinking OGR didn't give good points.

 

[StefanR5R]

So if we connect to the project, when do we stop network activity for bunkering?

AFAIK:
View -> Advanced view -> Options -> Computing preferences -> "Store at least [.n.] days of work": Enter more than a day there.
Tools -> Event Log
Update the project. *)
Repeat the latter in some intervals until either "Not requesting tasks: don't need (job cache full)" or something like "Requesting new tasks for NVIDIA GPU/ Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks" appears in the log window.

The former message should come up on clients which only have the CPU enabled. The latter on clients, which in addition have a GPU enabled. In that case, boincmanager first requests jobs for CPU and GPU (and emits respective log lines, but gets only CPU jobs from yoyo@home). Eventually the CPU job queue is full and only GPU jobs continue to be requested. (Or you disable the GPU(s) to simplify things.)

Since everybody and their dog is interested in Yoyo tasks right now, task creation seems to go slow.

Since Yoyo tasks vary wildly WRT their duration, it seems to me that boincmanager easily over- or under-estimates how many tasks are needed to fill a queue of [.n.] days.

Edit, April 4:
*) Don't update too frequently, otherwise the server might detach your client.

 

[StefanR5R]

Those who are new to Yoyo@home like me: Don't forget to join the TeAm.

 

[crashtech]

AFAIK:
View -> Advanced view -> Options -> Computing preferences -> "Store at least [.n.] days of work": Enter more than a day there.
Tools -> Event Log
Update the project.
Repeat the latter in some intervals until either "Not requesting tasks: don't need (job cache full)" or something like "Requesting new tasks for NVIDIA GPU/ Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks" appears in the log window.

The former message should come up on clients which only have the CPU enabled. The latter on clients, which in addition have a GPU enabled. In that case, boincmanager first requests jobs for CPU and GPU (and emits respective log lines, but gets only CPU jobs from yoyo@home). Eventually the CPU job queue is full and only GPU jobs continue to be requested. (Or you disable the GPU(s) to simplify things.)

Since everybody and their dog is interested in Yoyo tasks right now, task creation seems to go slow.

Since Yoyo tasks vary wildly WRT their duration, it seems to me that boincmanager easily over- or under-estimates how many tasks are needed to fill a queue of [.n.] days.

Thanks for the tip, I've not tried to do that before now. http://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/ must be getting hit pretty hard right now, I'm getting a few network errors. But if I am satisfied that enough tasks are stored, I would simply disable the network adapter until after the start of the contest, I suppose? The "confirm before connecting" in BOINC hasn't seemed to be 100% reliable.

 

[Orange Kid]

To suspend network activity go to "Activity" on top and just chose "suspend network activity" and the client won't connect again until you change it back.

Make sure you are using the advanced view to have this option at top

 

[crashtech]

Haha, I am so dumb sometimes! Thanks!

 

[crashtech]

24 30 32 cores bunkered and crunching, network suspended until 03/23/2017 07:01 (MDT).

 

[Ken g6]

I usually run ECM as I think it is the best points giver.

I figured out why I didn't do ECM last time. The WUs using 1GB RAM were a problem when I only had 4 to use. Now they're not - see my sig.

 

[StefanR5R]

Since Yoyo tasks vary wildly WRT their duration, it seems to me that boincmanager easily over- or under-estimates how many tasks are needed to fill a queue of [.n.] days.

I configured "at least 2 days" and made sure that boincmgr confirmed a full task queue on each of my PCs. But now it looks like boincmgr downloaded much less than needed to stay busy until tomorrow 13:00 UTC. Live and learn.

 

[Orange Kid]

Ya mine are running faster than boinc predicted too. The ECM said 28 hours and it looks like about 8 hours to completion. They weren't quite done so I was able to quick get some more.
Looks like stats will be here

 

[crashtech]

I guess mine may end up sitting idle waiting for the start time, better for the contest but worse for the big picture.

 

[TennesseeTony]

Gawd I have missed racing! Yep, network suspend will 'bunker' the tasks until after the race officially starts. If you didn't get enough tasks, I'd personally go ahead and set BOINC for 5 days and get as many as you can, since 1/3 or so will need to wait for validation anyway. The ECM subproject is what I was previously set to run, based on highest points per task, but that was more than a year ago. We have so many semi-new and active users, this should prove very interesting!

 

[Orange Kid]

I'll go out on a ledge here snd say that all the WU's I have been doing have had a quorum of one.
I have only been doing ecm or muon though.

 

[crashtech]

I've actually re-enabled M@H on one of the machines that will be in the race, since it didn't get enough tasks to last it all night. I'm afraid that might be true of the others as well, but at least there will be some extra work in there to help the TeAm.

 

[TennesseeTony]

Yep, that's a problem with bunkering one project by disabling the network, the other project(s) may not last until it's time to release the queue. Milkyway is the worst offender I've met, giving too few tasks to last.

Einstein on the other hand said, oh, you want 5 days worth, no problem. I have so many Einstein now I can barely find any yoyo tasks mixed in the queue when scrolling down, but they're in there.

 

[Orange Kid]

Switching back to ECM (5hrs) as the muon are taking 12 hrs. Boinc times are really nowhere near actual times on this project