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KeithSloan
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Support of Raspberry Pi.

I would like to run World Community Projects on a Raspberry Pi see http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Its basically a low cost ARM computer that is causing a lot of excitement in the UK and else where.

Seems a good fit for World Community Grid as device is low cost £30.00 and consumes
little power and has reasonable CPU and fast GPU.

I understand that BOINC is open source and have found instructions on compiling the client etc. But I am unclear about World Community Projects. Are any of these Open Source? And were can I find more details.
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[Apr 12, 2012 8:16:34 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
KWSN - A Shrubbery
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Re: Support of Raspberry Pi.

WCG is one of the many sciences that run on BOINC. If you can get that running on your Pi then it's fair game. I doubt however that any of the WCG projects will actually run due to the minimum system requirements. Good luck in any case.
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[Apr 12, 2012 9:34:14 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
KeithSloan
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Re: Support of Raspberry Pi.

Pi has 256Mb of memory so that rules out three projects, but seems to meet the minimum for the rest.

Obviously they would need to be recompiled to run on Arm rather than x86, hence my question about source
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KWSN - A Shrubbery
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Re: Support of Raspberry Pi.

Absolutely not available for the short answer.

As for ARM, there has been slight discussion about compiling for this platform in the past. The conversation almost always ends with "it would be nice, but we don't have time".
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[Apr 12, 2012 10:43:19 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Former Member
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Re: Support of Raspberry Pi.

Hello KeithSloan,
At the moment, WCG does not have any projects compiled to run on ARM, so the lack of a BOINC compiled for ARM does not matter. I am personally dubious that ARM computers are evolving in a direction that will make them competitive with the x86 platform for grid computing, but knreed recently said that he is alert to the possibility.

Lawrence
[Apr 13, 2012 12:09:53 AM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
KeithSloan
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Re: Support of Raspberry Pi.

Hello KeithSloan,
I am personally dubious that ARM computers are evolving in a direction that will make them competitive with the x86 platform for grid computing
Lawrence


I disagree. If I could add a device to my home setup for £30.00 that I leave on 24 x 7
uses very little power. i.e. I just plug it into my router and let it do its own thing.
This would be much better than my main machine which is only on for say 8 hours per day giving only some of its resources to the grid.
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Former Member
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Re: Support of Raspberry Pi.

The problem is, is that ARM based processors, are built from the ground up for effieciency. They are working on better designs, as far as performace is concerned, but they're still MAINLY mobile chips. They are simply not designed to run full bore 24/7 365.

I personally have stock in them, because I think they're a great company, and what they make is VERY relevant in the mobile world, and soon to be home PC. But they will be used for surfing the internet, watching movies, etc.

Let me put it like this, lets say it has the necessary requirements, and a WCG does develop an app for HCC or whatever. It would be soooooo teribbly slow, one core no H/T, P4?, but without the added advantage of being designed for continous use. I too wish to get a Pi, just for to have fun with, but its not DESIGNED for what we do. A Pi would most likely burn out rather quick IMHO.

Maybe one day ARM will try to go the performace route, but personally, I doubt it. They KNOW Intel has them beat, and WILL ALWAYS have them beat when it comes to performace. So, I think they're going to stick to where they know, which is efficiency.

P.S. ARM makes their money from royalties and when companies sign up. Since power users like ourselves constitute such a small portion <.0001% (made that up, no data to back it up) it wouldn't be worth it for them to even pursue from a business standpoint.

Same reason so many people were (are) upset that Intel doesn't release a 6 core desktop chip for <$500, much less a a true 8 core/ 16 thread desktop version. I would personally LOVE to see motherboard manufactures (and Windows OS) allow for mutli-CPU boards. Wouldn't it be great if I could have TWO OR MORE i7's on one mobo. But this would cut into their server side. Same as NVIDIA releasing 680 w/ only 8 FP64 cores, people hate it, but NO ONE uses it for gaming, so why bother. If people want a FP64 chip, they're saying buy Quaddro or Tesla, that's what they're there for (NVIDIA perspective).

Companies go where the money is, and it's not in desktop grid computing.Maybe one day though smile
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[Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Apr 13, 2012 2:58:23 PM]
[Apr 13, 2012 2:56:41 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
David Autumns
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Re: Support of Raspberry Pi.

Hi KeithSloan

One day perhaps

If you are a regular rocket scientist then maybe this page will point the way http://wiki.winehq.org/ARM to getting the WCG running on the Raspberry Pi. If it works it won't be very efficient in getting the job done.

The ARM processor has a different instruction set and architecture to your regular X86 X64 PC Chip.

As such the way the code touches the CPU is different and would need recompiling and optimising.

The ARM CPU is about saving power, not about number crunching, although what it can achieve in the new iPAD is pretty impressive. (If only it would run Flash sad )

I know it sounds counter-intuitive but the best performance per Watt lies in that so called "power hungry" Graphics Card. I started mine crunching on GPUGrid (getting it ready for the WCG Launch wink ) and in just 4 weeks it has done the equivalent of 1/3 of my total X86 X64 crunching that has taken a run time of over 37 years here at WCG. Just 1 mid range GPU! (1 month GPU = 10+years of X86 = probably a lifetime of ARM including a leg)


btw I'm looking forward to my Pi arriving soon. Let's hope they can get the CE Mark sorted pdq.

Dave
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by David Autumns at Apr 13, 2012 10:59:21 PM]
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uplinger
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Re: Support of Raspberry Pi.

****Totally a personal post here. No official comment from WCG on the topic.****

Dave when did you purchase your Pi? Were you able to get it within the first few hours they mentioned the release? If not I hear that this first wave of 10,000 is marked for those people. So, my PI is going to probably need to be in the next wave of like 200,000 or so...I'm interested to see what it can do, especially since it's power consumption is 5W max. It does have a GPU on board, but from what I have not been able to find, i doubt it will run openCL within that GPU.

But still, looking forward to getting it and messing around with it when it arrives.

Thanks,
-Uplinger
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David Autumns
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Re: Support of Raspberry Pi.

Hi uplinger

They have taken my order but I cannot tell you when it will eventually arrive. Our patience will be rewarded.

http://www.itv.com/news/central/2012-04-12/cu...st-taste-of-raspberry-pi/

The GPU is this device http://www.broadcom.com/products/BCM2835 which has the ARM processor under the same cover and the RAM !

Here's another page of useful info http://www.grandmax.net/2012/01/broadcom-bcm2835-soc-has-powerful.html

Dave
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