Multi-Tasking

[UBT-Shaman]

Hi all,

I could be asking something that loads of people have asked, so if I am, I apologise.

I have seen screen shots and read threads where it seems that people are running several tasks at once. I am totally in the dark about how to do this - I can only get one task to run at a time, with the others either ready to run or preempted.

How does one go about running several tasks at once? There are periods when my PC is idle and BOINC has free reign over my system resources. I'd like to use that constructively. Any advice?

Thanks!

Robin

[UBT - Halifax-lad]

You can only do it with multi CPU on your machine so if you only have one CPU core in your comp that's why your only running one process

[UBT-Shaman]

Thanks!

That makes sense to me, yep. Certainly cured THAT particular curiosity!

Robin

[UBT - Timbo]

Thanks!

That makes sense to me, yep. Certainly cured THAT particular curiosity!

Robin

Hi Robin (and welcome to the Team),

Check which CPU you have in your PC - if it's an Intel Pentium 4, some versions have Hyper-Threading, which allows you to run two tasks at once

This can be enabled in the BIOS as long as your OS supports multiple CPU's (my P4 @ 3.06GHz does this running under XP Pro!).


Likewise, newer P4's (and later) have dual CPU cores with Hyper-Threading, meaning you can run even more BOINC projects at once.

AMD also are doing this on some of their new CPU's.

In time, you maybe be running 2, 4, 8 (or more) BOINC projects at once, depending on the new CPU's coming out soon (which will need new motherboards/memory, etc to support all of this - I'm already saving up !).


regards

Tim

[UBT-Shaman]

Thanks Tim,

I'm not especially savvy at that sort of thing, so I'll have a poke and see if I can make any sense out of my processor. It's an AMD XP 1500+ 1.30 GHz if that helps anyone identify if it CAN multi-thread!

Thanks!

R

[Temujin]

Thanks Tim,

I'm not especially savvy at that sort of thing, so I'll have a poke and see if I can make any sense out of my processor. It's an AMD XP 1500+ 1.30 GHz if that helps anyone identify if it CAN multi-thread!

Thanks!

R

Nope, I think your out of luck there mate

[UBT - Timbo]

Thanks Tim,

I'm not especially savvy at that sort of thing, so I'll have a poke and see if I can make any sense out of my processor. It's an AMD XP 1500+ 1.30 GHz if that helps anyone identify if it CAN multi-thread!

Thanks!

R

Hi Robin,

As John mentioned, the XP1500+ doesn't have the extra "core" to permit multiple projects to be run at the same time. You might need to save up for one of the new mobo's and CPU core and then you'll see some dual action !!

Mind you - there's nowt wrong with the one you've got - but you could do more work with a "duallie".

Start saving up those pennies now !

regards,

Tim