CUDA client for SETI

[vaughan]

SETI now supports the NVIDIA CUDA application. Further information is available here. (http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/beta/cuda.php)

[NeoGen]

We are witnessing the birth of a new era in Distributed Computing. :)

The point when we'll all start shifting towards GPUs instead of CPUs to crunch. The point when we'll start equipping our crunchers with multiple GPUs instead of CPUs.

I wonder if in two years from now, the evolution of the GPU will be so great that the CPU will only act as "feeder" for the GPU, as it happens today that people reserve a core to feed the GPU...
Maybe in the future if the GPU keeps gaining more and more computing power versus the CPU it will come to the point that all the cores in the CPU will be used to feed multiple GPUs in a box?

[Bender10]

You're on the right track.

The developement work right now on GPUgrid (which is bogging down most client progress), is to get the GPU to crunch efficiently with very little (if any) loading on the CPU.

[AMDave]

reminder - that is Seti BETA

they are still testing and tweaking things like time estimates and queue priorities

for more info on issues as they arise (and are knocked out) check out this thread:
http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/beta/cuda.php

all guinea-pigs welcome to see if their GPU goes fzzzzZZZZZT! :icon_twisted:

[NeoGen]

Something like this deserves to go to the site's news.

Where's an admin when we need one? :icon_razz:

[AMDave]

There you go.
I copied vaughan's post into the News thread - with a wee edit to say "Beta"
Hope he doesn't mind us hijacking his post:icon_rolleyes:

[NeoGen]

I can imagine the top crunching machine's hardware in a year or two on most boinc projects...

1500w PSU
1x Octocore CPU (feeder)
4x (multicore) NVidia or ATI GPU with brutal processing capacity
12Gb RAM (to be able to crunch a bundle of workunits all in parallel)

...and a liquid nitrogen cooler kit :icon_mrgreen:

[vaughan]

There you go.
I copied vaughan's post into the News thread - with a wee edit to say "Beta"
Hope he doesn't mind us hijacking his post:icon_rolleyes:
No problem.:)

[liuqyn]

CUDA is live on main site now too. haven't tried it yet though, maybe when I get home.

[Nflight]

I can imagine the top crunching machine's hardware in a year or two on most boinc projects...

1500w PSU
1x Octocore CPU (feeder)
4x (multicore) NVidia or ATI GPU with brutal processing capacity
12Gb RAM (to be able to crunch a bundle of workunits all in parallel)

...and a liquid nitrogen cooler kit :icon_mrgreen:
Your Computer is right here and now NeoGen: http://www.gpugrid.net/forum_thread.php?id=530


The technical specifications for this (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3011/3059121775_0d3c80a5a4.jpg) machine are the following:

Motherboard:
MSI K9A2 Platinum / AMD 790 FX 4xPCI-E 16x
CPU:
9950 AMD Phenom X4 2.60Ghz, RAM 4Gb.
GPUs:
4x NVIDIA GTX 280
Power supply:
Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W, with 4 PCI-E 8-pin and 4 PCI-E 6 pin power cables.
Box:
Antec Gamer Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case.

Or you could try on one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_SkullTrail

[Brucifer]

That board would be HOT, and I mean temperature wise!! Would love to have one though with 4 GTX280's in it, but it would sure take some serious ventilation in it to keep it from melting. :icon_mrgreen:

Now the Skulltrail board is interesting, but I think that it won't be long and there will be some competition out there for them which will expand the options available for the serious gamer/cruncher. :)

[NeoGen]

What about a rig with 4x Nvidia Tesla GPUs? :icon_mrgreen:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/tesla_supercomputer_wtb.html

Prices are at about $10K, give or take a couple thousand.

[AMDave]

Yeeha.

Oh. %!@#$%^&*!!!
I hit the BUY NOW button and my credit card melted and the wife passed-out.:icon_mad:

No Tesla Quad for me until I pay off Christmas, car loan, school fees, contents insurance ... and anything else my wife can think of before I am ever allowed to bring this up again :icon_rolleyes: HAHA

[Brucifer]

LOL, nothing like getting your wife's heart started!!! :icon_mrgreen:

I can't remember, whether it was Bender10 or IronBits over at FDC (think it was IB at FDC) and he wrote a short note about the Tessla card in the thread over there on GPU's. While it would be a kick to have one of those boxx(s) to play around with if I didn't have to pay for it, I'm sure that it won't be too much longer and there will be some more reasonably priced alternatives out there. As SMDave was mentioning, 10 big ones for one of the boxx systems.... Technology is moving pretty fast, and while a business or school might afford that for their research stuff, crunchers like us usually aren't quite so fortunate to have the "disposi-bux" to just plop down on a toy like that! :icon_mrgreen: At least this cruncher sure doesn't! :)

[Brucifer]

So has anyone tried their nvida on the non-beta seti@home project???

[jamers]

So has anyone tried their nvida on the non-beta seti@home project???


Just before leaving for work this morning I switched the machine with the 9500 GT from RC5 (which was due to expire within the hour) to Seti. It download two astropulse units, estimated to take 158+ hrs to complete. After 12.5 hrs/20% complete, it is estimating 96hrs to completion and falling.

On a completely different note, today I purchased 1 9800GTX+ and 3 more of the 9500's. The 9800 will replace the 9500 now installed and the 9500 I pull will be matched up with one of the new ones so I can revive a couple of old AMD_64 X2 3800's that are SLI capable. This should make for a decent small RC5 farm.

[Ototero]

Loved your DNET work. Let's hope your new graphics cards perform for SETI.