Before credit is granted for any WU, it has to be verified 3 times. So my question is this - does the Seti project only send this work unit out 3 times and wait for either results or the deadline to pass?

Reason I ask is this; I have two old PC's (200mhz Pentiums) running BOINC that take about a week to finish a WU. My concern is that if Seti sends out WU's until they receive 3 results, then I am spinning my wheels with these PC's - there will always be 3 other PC's in the world that complete the same workunit faster than mine, meaning these PC's will never get credit for any WU.

Any thoughts?

<a>

I dont know this for a fact however I would presume that;

Each WU will be sent three times. There is a 14 day deadline for return of a result. I would guess that until the 14 days have expired SETI dont do anything but wait. If after the deadline say two results are returned but one is not then I presume one more copy of the WU is sent to another computer when this is returned the 3 computers that have succesfully crunched the WU will be credited.

I guess that could mean that sometimes you could wait up to 4 weeks for credits from a WU or is that covered by sending the three WU copies to computers with similar processing times?

There again I could have just written a pile of bu%£sh@#.

Neil

As long as you get the WU Results turned in before the Deadline there should be no problem with those PC's getting Credit. They won't send the WU out again until the Deadline passes.

My concern is that if Seti sends out WU's until they receive 3 results, then I am spinning my wheels with these PC's

-------------------------------

If that is the case then you are not the only one who has to be concern.
It would mean that those using one machine even a moderate fast one
would almost never receive any credit because the WU would be completed
by big crunchers way before any other users. My guess is they sent out each
WU 3 times and wait for results or deadline.

If that isn't the case then it doesn't seem to be a big problem for you because looking at your credit you seem to have enough processing power to complete WU in short time. It would only concern your 200 MHz machine, witch is not a big problem I guess.

Best regards
Marc

> My concern is that if Seti sends out WU's until they receive 3 results, then I
> am spinning my wheels with these PC's
>
> -------------------------------
>
> If that is the case then you are not the only one who has to be concern.
> It would mean that those using one machine even a moderate fast one
> would almost never receive any credit because the WU would be completed
> by big crunchers way before any other users. My guess is they sent out each
> WU 3 times and wait for results or deadline.
>
> If that isn't the case then it doesn't seem to be a big problem for you
> because looking at your credit you seem to have enough processing power to
> complete WU in short time. It would only concern your 200 MHz machine, witch
> is not a big problem I guess.
>
> Best regards
> Marc
>
>
WUs are sent three times. If they are returned as with an error, they are resent immediately. If they are not returned before the deadline, they are resent shortly after the deadline (when the verifier gets to that point in its queue). WUs may be resent if there is a server crash that takes part of the database with it. They will not be resent unless the one of the above three wituations occurs.

Crunching with any computer that will return the results within the deadline is OK. The result will be uploaded at the end of the crunch, and reported when one of the following four times occurs: The next WU is downloaded (the one after the replacement), 24 hours before deadline, the end of the crunch if it is less than 24 hours before deadline, or a manual update.