If all of BOINC with all of its projects were combined into one supercomputer, how many PetaFLOPs do you think it would have? An estimate on the power usage?

According to http://boincstats.com/en/stats/-5/project/detail/ the average floating point operations per second is 13,092,496.5 GigaFLOPS / 13,092.497 TeraFLOPS (that is 13.1 PetaFLOPS)

It is very hard to even estimate the overall power usage, as there are many obsolete CPUs and GPUs used.

Frankly I wish all that computing power would exclusively go to projects like GPUGRID, Folding@Home, WCG or Rosetta. Those alleviate suffering and move mankind more forward than e.g. decoding meaningless Enigma transmissions from WW2.

Just my two Cents. So may the shitstorm fall on me.

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I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

According to http://boincstats.com/en/stats/-5/project/detail/ the average floating point operations per second is 13,092,496.5 GigaFLOPS / 13,092.497 TeraFLOPS (that is 13.1 PetaFLOPS)

It is very hard to even estimate the overall power usage, as there are many obsolete CPUs and GPUs used.

And this project has currently 1,680,460 GigaFLOPs, which is almost 13% of the total. Amazing, what a few hundred crunchers can accomplish!

A few weeks ago, we were at over 2,000,000 GigaFLOPs.

Firstly, Boinc is not a supercomputer!
Nor does 'Boinc' have a supercomputer. It's a tool for a very broad spectrum of (and I use the word very loosely) 'scientific' research. People don't connect to Boinc, they use Boinc to connect to many different research projects. Sometimes their only affiliation/commonality is their use of Boinc.

Frankly I wish all that computing power would exclusively go to projects like GPUGRID, Folding@Home, WCG or Rosetta. Those alleviate suffering and move mankind more forward than e.g. decoding meaningless Enigma transmissions from WW2.

Just my two Cents. So may the shitstorm fall on me.

People chose to crunch for numerous different projects for combinations of many different reasons; some logical, some irrational, some sad, some funny... IMO you're ~99% correct, but I could be wrong, right or somewhere in between. What I've learnt from experience is that some of the less thought of projects have helped push the boundary's of what Boinc can do/facilitates. Indirectly, the lesser accepted projects have helped enhance Boinc as a research tool and just because you don't think highly of a project doesn't mean you can't learn from their mistakes or take advantage of their success. If person A didn't develop a tool to allow distributed computers to help search for aliens then it's likely someone else would have. I've learnt a lot form other Boinc projects, especially their forums (so it's there for all to access). TN-Grid Platform is probably a project you've never heard of, but they are doing some good cutting edge CPU research. It's not as big as here & their science isn't readily accessible (you need to be well read) but it's not to be sniffed at. Back in Oct they were interested in some help porting their app to cuda (G, M, T, Dr's...).

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What I've learnt from experience is that some of the less thought of projects have helped push the boundary's of what Boinc can do/facilitates. Indirectly, the lesser accepted projects have helped enhance Boinc as a research tool and just because you don't think highly of a project doesn't mean you can't learn from their mistakes or take advantage of their success. If person A didn't develop a tool to allow distributed computers to help search for aliens then it's likely someone else would have. I've learnt a lot form other Boinc projects, especially their forums (so it's there for all to access). TN-Grid Platform is probably a project you've never heard of, but they are doing some good cutting edge CPU research. It's not as big as here & their science isn't readily accessible (you need to be well read) but it's not to be sniffed at. Back in Oct they were interested in some help porting their app to cuda (G, M, T, Dr's...).

I agree for the most part. There's too much judgment about what people choose to do with their own computers. Personally I feel good about crunching WUs for GPUGrid, so that's what I mostly do. However I don't feel that it's of any use to judge others based on what they choose to do with their own equipment and their own money. I don't hear anyone complaining about the VAST amount of money that could be regarded as wasted running games, etc. For many people BOINC is also a competition and a game, and I would submit that no matter what project someone runs it's most likely more useful than running world of warcraft, etc. etc. etc...

What I've learnt from experience is that some of the less thought of projects have helped push the boundary's of what Boinc can do/facilitates. Indirectly, the lesser accepted projects have helped enhance Boinc as a research tool and just because you don't think highly of a project doesn't mean you can't learn from their mistakes or take advantage of their success. If person A didn't develop a tool to allow distributed computers to help search for aliens then it's likely someone else would have. I've learnt a lot form other Boinc projects, especially their forums (so it's there for all to access). TN-Grid Platform is probably a project you've never heard of, but they are doing some good cutting edge CPU research. It's not as big as here & their science isn't readily accessible (you need to be well read) but it's not to be sniffed at. Back in Oct they were interested in some help porting their app to cuda (G, M, T, Dr's...).

I agree for the most part. There's too much judgment about what people choose to do with their own computers. Personally I feel good about crunching WUs for GPUGrid, so that's what I mostly do. However I don't feel that it's of any use to judge others based on what they choose to do with their own equipment and their own money. I don't hear anyone complaining about the VAST amount of money that could be regarded as wasted running games, etc. For many people BOINC is also a competition and a game, and I would submit that no matter what project someone runs it's most likely more useful than running world of warcraft, etc. etc. etc...

Haha, Took the words out of my mouth!

My only concern about this project is how long it will be running. Before I put more money to it, I'd like to feel at ease that it won't end any time soon(possibly a time estimate on how long it will run?). Might seem foolish but I see these other projects closing down. I don't want to go out and buy something and then have this project be done. This is pretty much the only project on Boinc I run, so I'm a bit cautious. Thanks

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Cruncher/Learner in progress.

I don't hear anyone complaining about the VAST amount of money that could be regarded as wasted running games, etc.

Oh yes ... me, if I may. Wasted entirely!

Except for Mass Effect Andromeda next year ...... that is a must and I can't miss out on all the fun..... I apologize for my characterlessness and ... X-D

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I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

Don't hate on games, they are a large reason these companies like nvidia have the R&D money to make GPUs this fast and a very large reason why so many people have high power GPUs at all. BOINC wouldn't even be possible without these people.

Biomedical projects help you live longer, but the purpose of life is not just to live longer but to learn something in the process. That is why I also support the CERN projects (ATLAS, LHC), Cosmology and Universe at the moment. They are pushing the boundaries of science, which is one way of expanding knowledge, though not the only one.

All of you are correct ... and I like playing games too.

But I admit to be biased in this regard. Because my little son suffers from muscle weakness and that is one reason for my Boinc participation. Yes, either of us must perish some day, but nobody shall be shunned by the world and in torment until his last breath. Especially not our little ones. Those of us who have children in chronic pain, suffering from Muscular Dystrophy, COAD, Autism, epilepsy, FXS or Rett know how I feel...

Can you imagine, what if all the gamers worldwide would spend their GPU power for a week ... just a single week...

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I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

1.21 Jigawatts

1.21 Jigawatts

That's funny, I call one of my computers flux-capacitor :)

That definitely is not enough!

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I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

Up to 2.4 PetaFLOPS now!

Does anyone know the highest its even been?

2.5xx Peta Flops in recent times when there is a constant flow of work. Obviously any interuption in work flow will reduce it quickly and takes a while to recover.

Not sure if there might be a better thread for this question, especially as it has been ignored for nearly four weeks, but I concur (mostly):

"My only concern about this project is how long it will be running. Before I put more money to it, I'd like to feel at ease that it won't end any time soon(possibly a time estimate on how long it will run?). Might seem foolish but I see these other projects closing down. I don't want to go out and buy something and then have this project be done."

While I do run quite a few other projects, I (try to) use my GPU exclusively for GpuGrid. (A reasonable alternative was POEM, but that has now folded [pun intended]). I have in the past (about 3-4 years ago) invested in a (+- small) upgrade. I am pondering doing so again. As I've posted before: I am NOT a gamer. I have a GPU solely to support scientific computing projects.

SO, some moderator,... any moderator... any idea how long GPU might keep rolling along?
I presume this really is a question not for a moderator, but for some of the academic faculty doing research which feeds the computing needs for this project.

Thanks,
LLP PhD PE

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I think ∴ I THINK I am
My thinking neither is the source of my being
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This department has half a dozen of researchers and therefore the termination of all their investigations on short notice is VERY unlikely. They would have to cancel some labour contracts, lectures and dissertations otherwise. Of course life is not 100% safe and predictable, but even if they would stop all the simulations you can anytime move to Folding@Home and let your GPU help there.

Besides, 'unemployed' GPUs can be sold again. Assuming that you don't want to spend a lot of money for the card (as you do not play games with it) and the electricity cost I guess the gtx 1050 (or 1050ti) for 120-160€ is a good idea. Most of those don't even require a 6-pin supply from the PSU. So the amount invested and the risk of capital loss seem not hypercritical to me...

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I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.