Folding Forum

Crzy Joe wrote:I know GPU Cores have faster deadlines....why do they do that, same with PS3's.

The whole reason for the new clients (GPU, PS3, SMP) is to get work done more quickly. The classic client has deadlines appropriate for a 500 Mhz Pentium and although there may still be a few of them folding, they're almost all retired by now. Tighter deadlines should not be a problem to anyone who has newer equipment and folds a reasonable number of hours per day.

bruce wrote:

Crzy Joe wrote:I know GPU Cores have faster deadlines....why do they do that, same with PS3's.

The whole reason for the new clients (GPU, PS3, SMP) is to get work done more quickly. The classic client has deadlines appropriate for a 500 Mhz Pentium and although there may still be a few of them folding, they're almost all retired by now. Tighter deadlines should not be a problem to anyone who has newer equipment and folds a reasonable number of hours per day.

Yeah, I understand that the GPU, PS3 gets work done more quickly. But by the same token, I don't think that all PS3 owners are dedicated Folders, nor have many even bothered opening the Folding at Home application.

Dedicated PS3 Folders aside.... I am referring to the people that are casual gamers, that bought a PS3 for the sake of playing games, and was introduced to Folding. These people may turn on their PS3 to play games once in a while, and possibly have their machine folding for a hour or two while it is idle. But what are the frequencies that they actually have their PS3's on, and how much folding actually gets done during the idle times.

Thus if it is only on once in a while and they download a work unit. What if that work unit only gets worked on 15-30 minutes a day. If it has a Tighter deadline, wouldn't it be rendered useless when it does complete that work unit 2-3 weeks later?

This is why I am wondering why such tight deadlines. To Dedicated PS3 folders that leave their systems on 24/7, the deadline is not an issue. To the casual user, I think many WU's that get downloaded probably don't get submitted on time. If the deadlines were increased longer would it not help in the overall contribution? Hahaha I dunno... I think my logic may be backwards.

Crzy Joe wrote:...
Thus if it is only on once in a while and they download a work unit. What if that work unit only gets worked on 15-30 minutes a day. If it has a Tighter deadline, wouldn't it be rendered useless when it does complete that work unit 2-3 weeks later?

This is why I am wondering why such tight deadlines. To Dedicated PS3 folders that leave their systems on 24/7, the deadline is not an issue. To the casual user, I think many WU's that get downloaded probably don't get submitted on time. If the deadlines were increased longer would it not help in the overall contribution? Hahaha I dunno... I think my logic may be backwards.

Work units are never turned in after their deadline. The WU gets deleted as soon as it expires.
Once a work unit goes past the short deadline of three days, the work unit is reassigned to someone else, hopefully one of the PS3 users running full time.

With long deadlines, that expired work unit would not get reassigned for weeks. With short deadlines, the expired WUs goes right back out to another folder. And keeps going out until someone completes it.

Which do you think helps the project more? Giving longer deadlines to let work units sit for weeks on part time systems, or to have short deadlines, which is incentive to turn in the work quickly?

I think that the thing that benefits FAH most is the new feature which allows the PS3 to shut itself down when a WU is finished. Personally, I'd like to see that option remain set once it is selected, rather than requiring it to be enabled every time the PS3 is restarted. I think many people who use their PS3 for folding part-time would prefer that once a WU is downloaded, it is completed without starting a new assignment. Those who fold full-time would not select this particular option, of course.

The Pande Group could help this effort by providing plenty of WUs that can be completed rather quickly and the assignment process could provide a preference for these "small" assignments to anyone who has not completed a WU recently. Projects 2567 and 2568 are already available which take 20% to 30% as long as most of the other projects (with shorter deadlines, too.)

How long does a typical PS3 owner spend on a single game session or a single Blu-Ray movie? Maybe they'd be willing to contribute a similar amount of time folding.

. . . just my 2 cents.