SETI with Dual Processors

[Jeff]

OK, I decided to start letting SETI@home run on my server last night. I leave it running 24/7, so I figured why not give it something to do.

I have dual 333 MHz Pentium II's in it. The question is, how do I utilize all of the CPU resources. It is only showing about 50% CPU usage, and took about 13 hours to process one unit. I have Windows 2000 Server and it is setup for Multi-Processors. SETI uses both processors but will not use them completely.

If I add SETI to startup it will run 2 instances of the program. However, I think it might just be processing the same info twice.

Does anyone know how to setup SETI to run on dual processors with Windows 2000?

Thanks, Jeff

[Sisyfos]

If you use the Command Line Client you will be able to specify the processor in the start up command, eg. SETI -cpu 0 (1st proc.) or SETI -cpu 1 (2nd proc.).
You just have to store SETI.EXE in 2 folders, so each instance gets its own WU to crunch.
If you want to cache WUs also you can use SetiStash, it'll even do the processor thingy for you.

[This message has been edited by Sisyfos (edited 06 August 2000).]

[paulcs]

Sisyfos is correct. The advantage of dual CPU's is that you can run two clients simultaneously.

As Sisyfos said, create two separate directories (for example, SETI1 and SETI2) and copy the .EXE file into both. Download WU's for both.

Open Task Manager. You'll see both clients running. Right click on each, select 'Set Affinity' and select '0' for one, '1' for the other.

SETI isn't really SMP capable, so the big advantage of dual CPU's is that you can run two clients simultaneously or one client while using the other CPU or other tasks without severely impacting performance. Unfortunately, that's about it. It's still a big advantage. Instead of completing one WU in 13 hours, you'll finish two.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 06 August 2000).]

[Jeff]

Thanks for the responses. I ended up doing exactly what Sisyfos suggested last night. It is doing 2 at a time, but I think it is going to take a hour or so more time to do both. It is 55% done with both after 8 hours of running. I start appling my WU's to the Murc team as soon as SETI will giveup my password. Page is offline.

JP

[Assimilator1]

1 thing people

>>>Instead of completing one WU in 13 hours, you'll finish two.<<<<

No you wont ,when running 2 instances of SETI on a Dual cpu system with L2 caches of less than 1Mb both processors are fighting for the limted 66MHz(in this case) memory bandwidth.I would guess that the WU times you get will be about 50% slower than a single instance WU.How ever your WU/day will still be higher despite that


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I guess I won't recruit for my team here Team Anandtech

[This message has been edited by Assimilator1 (edited 06 August 2000).]

[Jeff]

You are correct sir. It seems that I am on schedule to complete 2 in about 16 hours instead of 13.

I do have another question. Does running a processor at 100% capacity cause any problems, I mean how will this affect the life of the processors?

Thanks, Jeff

[Guru]

Welcome to the team Jeff

Originally posted by Jeff:
I do have another question. Does running a processor at 100% capacity cause any problems, I mean how will this affect the life of the processors?

No it should not cause any problems! And does it mather if the CPU's works for 10 or 10.5 years? I don't think you should worry about the lifespan of your CPU's



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