> Aaron Blosser wrote:
>> Of course the last time we got into this (poaching thread) we learned that
>> there are people out there who insist on running first time LL tests on
>> P-60's and what not. :-(
> I really get annoyed with remarks like this. I don't think I commented
> on the last go around on this subject, but since it popped up again I
> feel I must this time.
AOL.
I use almost only relatively slow computers. More than 100 of them. If
they are only 1/5 as fast as what some people think is apropiate, it means
that they can do 100 tests in the same time as an appropiate machine does
5. While a very few people think I should stop using those computers for
testing, I'm no 23 on the GIMPS (not Primenet) top-100 list. (I can't
find this Mr. "Go Away Loosers With Slow Computers" there, but he is
probably working under some pseudonym.)
> So what if my processor is 20% some percent of the speed of someone
> elses? It means he and I are getting 120% more done than he can, by
> himself.
This is the whole point about distributed copmputing -- just the idle-time
on as many as possible slow computers makes one unbeatable speed-monster.
This spring I retired a lot of Indys because there were no exponents left
with FFT size at or below 128KB. (256KB FFT takes many months for each
exponent and a few of the now rather old machines got RAM problems.) 18
of them (less than half) participated in the NFS factoring of M619 (which
should be done in a couple of weeks), and together they became one of the
major contributors. 18 Indys, which were standard low-end workstations
five years ago, are not worthless. They can still outperform a couple of
Pentiums.
--
Sturle URL: http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~sturles/ Er det m}ndag i dag?
~~~~~~ MMF: http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=BUP399 - St. URLe
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