Primegrid: International Women's Day Challenge on March 8th

[zombie67]

https://www.primegrid.com/forum_thread.php?id=10168

• This is different from TdP, which was hunting primes. For the challenge series, it is work that counts not finding primes. So it does not matter is you are first vs your wingman.
• The challenge is one day in duration, Mar 8 15:00:00 to Mar 9 14:59:59 (UTC). There is a countdown clock on the the PG home page, to make UTC translation easier.
• Tasks count only if they were sent to your machine after the challenge start and returned before the end. So no bunkering.
• The sub-project is SGS, which is CPU only. They have apps for everything except ARM. It will also run on macOS/ARM, via rosetta2 just fine. AVX helps, and AVX-512 helps even more. E cores on newer intel chips do not help, and just burn more electricity.
• Best configuration is with HT/SMT off (or leaving HT/SMT on, and telling BOINC to use 50% of CPU), and running one task per core. Cache requirement is 1mb per task, so almost all CPUs can handle 1 task per core. You CAN use MT to speed up task completion, but that is less efficient overall. And the goal here is to return the most tasks in 24 hours, not to be first.
• It is not necessary for your wingman to report in order for your tasks to be counted. But if the wingman reports later, and it turns out that your task is invalid, the score for that task will be removed after the challenge, during the cleanup.
• Scores will be kept for individuals and teams.

FWIW, I have all my machines set up and running SGS now, and I will be doing a rolling start. The tasks complete so fast, I am willing to take the hit, in order to just not worry about timing it just right.

[Al]

Would it be beneficial to do a rolling start (with Zero resource) until after the start, then increase the catch just in case PG has any server problems? Or not really necessary?

[zombie67]

For the challenges with a high volume of small tasks like this one, there have been issues in the past with some downtime. Usually lasting no more than 15-30 minutes. Their admin staff is very good, actively monitors the servers, and they have back-up plans in place, just in case.

For me, I will be running with a cache of .01 days, just to account for any short downtime without impacting the 1st ratio too much.

It starts at 10 AM EST today.

[zombie67]

I got an SGS prime already. Not that it counts for the challenge.

Stats: https://statsgr.id/challenge.php?challenge_id=2023_2

[Ron Shurtz]

Congrats on the Prime, Z.

It takes me back to the good old days seeing the team, (all be it just the three of us) ahead of Sicituradastra.

[zombie67]

Yep, we are doing GREAT with only 3 players.

I have two no, plus a DC. I see that Al got a DC too. Not that primes matter. But it's a nice plus.

[Al]

Good job Z!

Looks like we'll even get a team top 10 finish.

[zombie67]

That was fun! I like the shorter challenges.