Posts by darknightcl

1) Message boards : RALPH@home bug list : Bug reports for Ralph 5.42 and 5.43 (Message 2656)
Posted 21 Dec 2006 by darknightcl
Post:

- The more common usage of dual core processors today
- The increased level of comlexity in the graphics (the sidechains), this part of the 'theory of graphics crashes' coincides quite happily with the release of the docking program and the increased graphics deisplay.
- More active people reporting things on the forum (due to more R@H members overall)


K, but is it only dual core processors that are having this problem? I have noticed a low rate of work unit failure on another computer, which is a single cored 64-bit AMD processor, but I'm never watching closely enough to see if it is this same graphics failure, or some other problem (though I'll admit the problems did seem to stop with 5.43, but I also don't have any work unit history for this computer, it has been concentrating almost exclusively on CPDN for the last week or so, I'll go see if I can crash work units on it later).

Also, previous versions of rosetta were stable on my Athlon X2, or at least the crash rate was low enough that I didn't notice it. I believe the last stable release was 5.37 or something like that. If memory serves you could rotate and zoom on a molecule in 5.37, with no problems. Essentially, you've now reduced the level of the graphics complexity to below that of 5.37, and my computer is still crashing almost all of its work units. Right now I have one which hasn't done anything for about 40 minutes, but the time counter continues to increment, it is like the science code has stalled. I'll leave it to see if the watchdog kicks in. The important point is that I don't think (I'm not certain on this point) the graphics had been displayed at all. I'd noticed that the time remaining estimate was going up, not down, and decided to check on it.

My point is that I didn't start noticing work unit failures until release 5.41, and these failure occur on computers other than my dual cored X2.

In case anyone is curious I have stress tested my computer using Prime95, both cores (separately) with no problems. I've also tested my RAM using Memtestx86, the most recent version, again, no problems.
2) Message boards : RALPH@home bug list : Bug reports for Ralph 5.42 and 5.43 (Message 2653)
Posted 21 Dec 2006 by darknightcl
Post:
Another thought... One of the posts by Chu was mentioning that there is no locking mechanism in place to prevent the science thread and the graphics thread from trying to access the same memory at the same time, which can cause a problem if it occurs (or at least that is what I understand the post to mean).

If it is the case that the current problem is caused by the graphics and science threads conflicting in this manner, wouldn't we have started seeing this problem a long time ago, like when graphics were first introduced? Why has the problem only started cropping up now?

Just a thought...
3) Message boards : RALPH@home bug list : Bug reports for Ralph 5.42 and 5.43 (Message 2652)
Posted 21 Dec 2006 by darknightcl
Post:
K, so I've been running Rosetta for over a year now, and only recently started having problems with the project. For instance, roughly 75% of the work units I download crash out with the funny graphics errors. One thing that I've noticed that I haven't seen anyone else mention is this. Sometimes the model displayed seems to "disconnect" at some point along the backbone. For example, it will be a nice continuous C-alpha trace (I assume this is a C-alpha trace of the protein), then it will suddenly have a break in it, like the protein has been cleaved with a peptidase. The two ends will sometimes wave around in a manner that is just not consistent with them still being connected, so it almost looks like there is a problem with the science code, like it is taking liberties (such as introducing breaks where it is convenient to have them) with the sequence, which doesn't seem probable, as that would undermine the science being done. The other possibility might be that there is a problem with the communication between the graphics code and the science code, but I'm not a programmer and cannot make any suggestions with regards to this. I'm running version 5.43 of the rosetta application, with CC 5.4.11 (the official release version). I have an AMD64 X2 4200+ with 1GB DDR 400 RAM, GeForce 6150 integrated graphics, latest directx (9c), Windows XP Pro SP2 (32-bit) with all the necessary patches.

I'm not sure if the helps but I figured I'd mention it.






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