Hi

why does it need all 8 cores to run?

Sb

---

Stanley


Boinc Wikipedia - the FAQ in active change

It is a Multi-Threaded Application, meaning it will use as many cores (threads) as are available to process the work units.
Just like SimOne@Home does.

Conan

thank you

they both confuse the scheduler and leave cores not working.

---

Stanley


Boinc Wikipedia - the FAQ in active change

Actually yafu doesn't need all 8 cores to run..... if you trick it!

1. set all projects to no new work.
2. set ncpus in cc_config to # of cores you want to use for yafu. (5 or more)
3. read cc_config for change to take effect.
4. allow new work for yafu.
5. bump minimum work buffer up by 2 days in preferences.
6. downloaded yafu WUs only need # of cores entered in step 2, not all 8.
7. set ncpus back to 8 and repeat step 3.
8. drop minimum work buffer down by 2 days.
8. allow new work for other desired projects.
9. set yafu to no new work otherwise new WUs will take all 8 cores.
10. if needed, suspend any running tasks for a few seconds to get yafu started.

This will keep you crunching yafu for a couple of days and allow GPU and other CPU tasks to run as well. I have not tried setting ncpus to 4 or less. It may allow multiple yafu tasks to run at the same time and defeat the goal. This process takes a few minutes and it would be far better if yafu had a way to select the # of cores in project preferences. Another method is to fire up a virtual machine with the number of cores you want for yafu.

there is another way now.
download boinc version 7.2.39, it's beta but works..
install.
create the following app_config.xml in the yafu directory. use text editor
this will over ride using up all of the cores.in this case it limits the number of threads to 2. so it does not keep your gpu projects apps from running or other ST apps from other projects that are getting close to deadline...
it also lets you run more than one yafu task at a time.
I did not come up with this, found it over on MW@H, a great big thank you to the person that posted it over on MW@H.. after you create the app_config.xml you will need to stop the BOINC client and restart for it to take effect...

<!-- YAFU -->
<app_config>
<!-- YAFU -->
<!-- YAFU -->
<app_version>
<app_name>yafu</app_name>
<plan_class>mt</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>2</avg_ncpus>
<cmdline>--nthreads 2</cmdline>
</app_version>
</app_config>

and in case your wondering if you change that app_config.xml to the following it will run like a ST task. just remember that when the yafu-x64-13401.exe is running ( that is on a 64 bit windows host) it will still try and use all of the cores, but that is for very short times, the avg_ncups and --nthreads part control the number of copies of the ecm and gnfs that it will start..

<!-- YAFU -->
<app_config>
<!-- YAFU -->
<!-- YAFU -->
<app_version>
<app_name>yafu</app_name>
<plan_class>mt</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>1</avg_ncpus>
<cmdline>--nthreads 1</cmdline>
</app_version>
</app_config>

and in case your wondering if you change that app_config.xml to the following it will run like a ST task. just remember that when the yafu-x64-13401.exe is running ( that is on a 64 bit windows host) it will still try and use all of the cores, but that is for very short times, the avg_ncups and --nthreads part control the number of copies of the ecm and gnfs that it will start..

<!-- YAFU -->
<app_config>
<!-- YAFU -->
<!-- YAFU -->
<app_version>
<app_name>yafu</app_name>
<plan_class>mt</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>1</avg_ncpus>
<cmdline>--nthreads 1</cmdline>
</app_version>
</app_config>

Thank you, very helpful

hi

one question about this app_config file.
i used this Settings in my app_config file:

<app_config>

<app_version>
<app_name>yafu</app_name>
<plan_class>mt</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>2</avg_ncpus>
<cmdline>--nthreads 2</cmdline>
</app_version>

<app_version>
<app_name>yafu-low</app_name>
<plan_class>mt</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>2</avg_ncpus>
<cmdline>--nthreads 2</cmdline>
</app_version>

</app_config>

the Problem is i want run 2 threads with 2 cores.
but if i start boinc yafu running 3 threads with 2 cores-
what i did wrong?
i hope someone can help me.

greetings
Ralf

---

Boinc runs here on:
Intel i7-3770K + IntelHD4000
Android-Stick-ARM-Cotex-A17
Sony-Z5C-ARM-Cortex-A53/A57
Nvidia GT-630 / Nvidia GTX-750Ti

I see the same effect. But I think, it is because of short running tasks. The ecm.exe runs between 3-15 sec and it comes to overlap.
I use following settings:

<app_config>
<app_version>
<app_name>yafu</app_name>
<plan_class>mt</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>4.0</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>4.0</max_ncpus>
<cmdline>--nthreads 4</cmdline>
</app_version>
<app_version>
<app_name>yafu-low</app_name>
<plan_class>mt</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>4.0</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>4.0</max_ncpus>
<cmdline>--nthreads 4</cmdline>
</app_version>
<project_max_concurrent>1</project_max_concurrent>
</app_config>

project_max_concurrent limited the project to start only one job/Wu.
One job is using 4 cpus. I can follow the progress in factor.log.