POEM@home News

[Dirk Broer]

Can you give us an example for the 4870 app_info.xml? I might want to use my 4770 likewise.

[Dirk Broer]

Can you give us an example for the 4870 app_info.xml? I might want to use my 4770 likewise.

solved it myself for the time being using

<app_info>

	<app>
		<name>poemcl</name>
		<user_friendly_name>POEM++ OpenCL</user_friendly_name>
	</app>

	<file_info>
		<name>poemcl_0.1_windows_intelx86__opencl_ati_100</name>
		<executable/>
	</file_info>
	
	<app_version>
		<app_name>poemcl</app_name>
		<version_num>1</version_num>
		<plan_class>opencl_ati_100</plan_class>
		<avg_ncpus>0.5</avg_ncpus>
		<max_ncpus>0.5</max_ncpus>
		<flops>2.1e10</flops>
		<coproc>
			<type>ATI</type>
			<count>0.5</count>
		</coproc>
		<cmdline></cmdline>
		<file_ref>
			<file_name>poemcl_0.1_windows_intelx86__opencl_ati_100</file_name>
			<main_program/>
		</file_ref>
	</app_version>

</app_info>

Merely knowing that something can be done is enough sometimes....

[mmstick]

You pretty much have it, for the 4870 I simply have the avg_ncpu to 0.67, max_ncpu to 3, and count to 0.33. Using such gives 100% utilization. 6850 though I can't seem to get 100% CPU, but can at least get 92% using (now) either the 10 WUs at once or this:

<app_info>

<app>
<name>poemcl</name>
<user_friendly_name>POEM++ OpenCL</user_friendly_name>
</app>

<file_info>
<name>poemcl_0.1_windows_intelx86__opencl_ati_10 0</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>

<app_version>
<app_name>poemcl</app_name>
<version_num>1</version_num>
<plan_class>opencl_ati_100</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>0.67</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>4</max_ncpus>
<flops>2.1e10</flops>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>0.16</count>
</coproc>
<cmdline></cmdline>
<file_ref>
<file_name>poemcl_0.1_windows_intelx86__opencl_ati _100</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>

<app>
<name>poempp</name>
<user_friendly_name>POEM++</user_friendly_name>
</app>

<file_info>
<name>poempp_0.8_windows_intelx86</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>

<app_version>
<app_name>poempp</app_name>
<version_num>8</version_num>

<file_ref>
<file_name>poempp_0.8_windows_intelx86</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>
</app_info>

The extra app I added to it recently is so that I can do both CPU and GPU WUs at the same time, so that I may run 4 cores in CPU, with the other 4 cores running my 6850.

I might buy two 7970's or the dual version in next few months, I would like to see how well they perform, and hopefully a price drop soon. If they perform as well as early GPGPU benchmarks have shown, they are going to be awesome in GPU projects, once they are supported.

[Dirk Broer]

As I am a noob regarding app_info.xml files, I have some questions when I compare mine with yours:

<avg_ncpus>0.67</avg_ncpus>

Meaning that on average .67 of your 8 cores is to be used? that would be 5.36 core so that can not be right.
.67 of 4 cores (see below) is 2.68, so I am missing someting here.
I think my own 0.5 means that 1 core of that cpu is to be used, and it does.

<max_ncpus>4</max_ncpus>

Here you max the total of cores to be used at 4. As you have an octo-core you can do that.
My 0.5 would not work then, but it does, so I am missing someting here.

<flops>2.1e10</flops>

I've also seen app_info.xml stating 4.1e12, would that speed up the processing, or will the WUs be bigger?

<count>0.16</count>

Meaning 6 POEM WUs at a time on the one core of your GPU? 1/6=roughly 0.16, but better use 0.1666666666667 then
My 0.5 means 2 Wus at a time, and it does.

[mmstick]

0.67 simply means it is using 0.67 of 1 CPU core per unit on average. So avg_ncpus(0.67) * numberOfGPUWUs(6) = 4 total cores used.

For max_ncpu I have never seen it affect anything at all, I suppose it was meant to able to speed up a WU to the number set if the processor is otherwise idle and capable of going beyond average.

For the FLOPS I simply have no idea. Overall there seems to be a lack of documentation on how to properly configure and what each parameter means in BOINCs app_info.xml.

And yes, the 0.16 is the number to use for 6 WUs, since the program doesn't understand anything beyond two decimal points and if you set 0.17 it seems to refuse to run more than 5.

[Dirk Broer]

So when I run 2 WUs on my HD 4770 as I do now, the
<avg_ncpu>0.50</avg_ncpu> means 50% of a cpu core is available to support GPU crunching (per WU I hope),
<max_ncpu>0.50</max_ncpu> seems pretty pointless while doing two WUs at a time given this argument from the site of the link before:
"<max_ncpus></max_ncpus> - This controls the total amount of CPU core(s) available to support GPU crunching. Usually for best performance it should represent the number of concurrent tasks specified in <count> value multiplied by the amount of CPU core available to support each task as specified in <avg_ncpus> value. Therefore for a single concurrent task <avg_ncpus> value and <max_ncpus> value is the same but <max_ncpus> value is a multiple when more than 1 task is run concurrently"
Mine should be 1 then.

<flops>2.1e10</flops> means the expected FLOPS of the application

<count>0.50</count> means that 2 WUs will be proccessed at a time per GPU core
<count>0.33</count> would mean three tasks

[Nolion]

Can anyone share an example of a functioning Linux x86_64 app_info.xml? I'm getting error messages regarding the application filename when I try to configure for POEM++ OpenCL version v0.02 (opencl_ati_100). This is with Ubuntu 11.04, BOINC 7.0.2, and HD4850. Grateful for any help.

[vaughan]

Welcome Nolion. Not sure if this is what you need but it helped me in Windows 7.

From message 5323 at the official Poem forum:
Go here: http://boinc.fzk.de/poem/download at the bottom...
Sometimes takes a while to load in the browser, so be patient...

[Dirk Broer]

Hi Nolion,

Try this and post the result:

<app_info>
   <app>
      <name>poemcl</name>
      <user_friendly_name>POEM++ OpenCL</user_friendly_name>
   </app>

   <file_info>
      <name>poemcl_0.02_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu</name>
      <executable/>
   </file_info>
 
   <app_version>
      <app_name>poemcl</app_name>
      <version_num>1</version_num>
      <plan_class>opencl_ati_100</plan_class>
      <avg_ncpus>0.5</avg_ncpus>
      <max_ncpus>1.0</max_ncpus>
      <flops>2.1e10</flops>
      <coproc>
         <type>ATI</type>
         <count>0.5</count>
      </coproc>
      <cmdline></cmdline>
      <file_ref>
         <file_name>poemcl_0.02_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu</file_name>
         <main_program/>
      </file_ref>
   </app_version>

</app_info>

[Nolion]

Hi Nolion,

Try this and post the result:

<app_info>
   <app>
      <name>poemcl</name>
      <user_friendly_name>POEM++ OpenCL</user_friendly_name>
   </app>

   <file_info>
      <name>poemcl_0.02_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu</name>
      <executable/>
   </file_info>
 
   <app_version>
      <app_name>poemcl</app_name>
      <version_num>1</version_num>
      <plan_class>opencl_ati_100</plan_class>
      <avg_ncpus>0.5</avg_ncpus>
      <max_ncpus>1.0</max_ncpus>
      <flops>2.1e10</flops>
      <coproc>
         <type>ATI</type>
         <count>0.5</count>
      </coproc>
      <cmdline></cmdline>
      <file_ref>
         <file_name>poemcl_0.02_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu</file_name>
         <main_program/>
      </file_ref>
   </app_version>

</app_info>

Hi Dirk - Thanks for the suggestion even though it didn't go well for me. This is what I got in my event log (you're welcome to point out any possible newbie mistakes I made that may be contributing):

Mon 23 Jan 2012 08:22:51 PM EST | http://boinc.fzk.de/poem/ | Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
Mon 23 Jan 2012 08:22:51 PM EST | http://boinc.fzk.de/poem/ | File referenced in app_info.xml does not exist: poemcl_0.02_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Mon 23 Jan 2012 08:22:51 PM EST | http://boinc.fzk.de/poem/ | [error] State file error: missing application file poemcl_0.02_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Mon 23 Jan 2012 08:22:51 PM EST | Poem@Home | [error] No application found for task: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu 2 opencl_ati_100; discarding