We will be starting a beta test for Help Conquer Cancer with versions of the application that can run on NVIDIA and ATI GPU's. We are expecting that this test will be conduct for a longer than usual length of time because GPU is a new environment for us and we expect to face some new challenges while we gain experience working with this technology.

The research application for the project was enhanced by the researchers. Their work is described in a paper published in the Journal of Physics as described here: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/viewNewsArticle.do?articleId=195. They implemented the changes in their application OpenCL.

At this time, the requirements to run the GPU version of the research application are as follows:

1) Has sufficient performance as determined by a small benchmark run at the start of a workunit. If the GPU fails the test, the application will exit and be reported as an error. You can check for this condition in the log file that is returned to the server by going to the Result Status page (https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/viewBoincResults.do) and clicking on the link under 'Status' for the appropriate result.

2) It also must support the OpenCl extension cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics. This is also checked at the beginning of the workunit and, if it fails, will be reported as an error and recorded in the log file.

Based on our testing in development, we have identified some graphics cards that will not be able to run this application version. These will not be sent the application version. However, we know that there are going to be a lot more that we need to filter out. We will be doing this during iterations of the beta testing.

Due to the nature of this effort, we will be conducting many rounds of beta testing in small sets. This will allow us to identify issues and make changes and retest.

At this time, we will be testing all of the versions for Help Conquer Cancer for purposes of examining the credit policies between the different application versions and we will be testing ATI Windows and NVIDIA Windows application versions for the purpose of determining its ability to run properly.

If you want to participate in this beta test you need to sign up to participate in beta testing here: https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/device/viewBetaProfiles.do and you need to check the box next to 'If my computer can process work on my graphics card, then please send me work to run on my graphics card for the projects that I have selected above' on this page: https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/viewMyProjects.do. If you have done both of these, then if there is currently work available for the beta test, then you will receive it.

Thank you for your support!