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AP6 for NV & ATi GPUs r1316 released

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Raistmer:
Here is replacement for r521, r555 and r560 GPU builds of AstroPulse that was used before.
These new builds offer substantional (in many cases) speed increase and (in case of NV build) bug fixes that will result in less invalid results.

On low-end HD6450 plugged into PCI  GPUs r1316 can consume too much CPU so ATi r1305 provided for such hosts.
On other hosts better to use ATi r1316 cause it gives advantage both in CPU and GPU times over r1305 (and older).

There was long time from last GPU AP release so there are many changes in command line params and app behavior:

First of all, defaults are changed to work on slowest known GPUs so almost certainly will not use your GPU at max. Use command line params to tune to your GPU.

Second big change - there is ap_cmdline.txt file that can be used to add command line parameters to app.
Put params there as you would put them in corresponding tag in app_info. App_info tag supported too so use a way that more convenient to you.

GPUlock and CPUlock are disabled by default. So -no_cpu_lock and -no_gpu_lock params are deprecated.
One can use -cpu_lock and -gpu_lock instead to enable these features.
On hosts with BOINC supporting OpenCL app will use device supplied by BOINC. With older BOINC versions own enumeration ability will be used.

-instances_per_device param still supported but not required for using multiple instances of app.
One should set <count> tag in app_info to get multiple instances running.

-sbs param supported by will only issue warning if single block allocation will be bigger than supplied value. Needed memory amount will be allocated still. App's memory requirements depend from -unroll N and -ffa_block N params.

Other params like -hp, -ffa_block N, -ffa_block_fetch N, -unroll N work as before.

Please, report noticed issues here or in corresponding threads on SETI forums.

I would like to thank Lunatics crew, especially our alpha testers arkayn, Claggy and Mike,  and beta testers from SETI beta site for invaluable help in debugging and tuning these new releases.

Raistmer:
Here is example of possible app_info section:



<app>
   <name>astropulse_v6</name>
</app>
<file_info>
   <name>AP6_win_x86_SSE2_OpenCL_ATI_r1316.exe</name>
   <executable/>
</file_info>
<app_version>
   <app_name>astropulse_v6</app_name>
   <version_num>604</version_num>
   <avg_ncpus>0.04</avg_ncpus>
   <max_ncpus>0.2</max_ncpus>
   <plan_class>ati13ati</plan_class>
   <cmdline></cmdline>
   <coproc>
      <type>ATI</type>
      <count>1</count>
   </coproc>
   <file_ref>
      <file_name>AP6_win_x86_SSE2_OpenCL_ATI_r1316.exe</file_name>
      <main_program/>
   </file_ref>
   <flops>30987654321</flops>
</app_version>


As usual, installation of this app requires advanced skills and understanding of anonymous platform mechanism provided with BOINC. If you unsure ask for help on SETI boards or wait next Lunatics installer release.

Urs Echternacht:
Low end GPU with increased CPU-times was a Radeon HD6450 in a PCI-Slot !

Raistmer:
I made 2 posts about current situation with driver support for OpenCL on both vendors forums recently:
http://devgurus.amd.com/thread/159432
http://developer.nvidia.com/devforum/discussion/10636/feature-request-to-add-synchronization-mode-tuning-via-nv-specific-opencl-extension

If you have something to say on topic or explain why this important for users, please do post in corresponding threads.

Fredericx51:

--- Quote from: Raistmer on 09 Jul 2012, 03:03:18 am ---I made 2 posts about current situation with driver support for OpenCL on both vendors forums recently:
http://devgurus.amd.com/thread/159432
http://developer.nvidia.com/devforum/discussion/10636/feature-request-to-add-synchronization-mode-tuning-via-nv-specific-opencl-extension

If you have something to say on topic or explain why this important for users, please do post in corresponding threads.


--- End quote ---

Installed AstroPulse app. rev.1316, all looking good, even the AP running the 555 version,
stopped at 33% when I changed versions.
Oh well, SETI went off-line, maintenance started. Wanted to link to this host.
And here
is the host.

One done 32% with rev.555 and the rest with rev.1316 the 2nd with rev.1316.

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