I have been talking to the HEAD IT Guy in the place where I work now and it seems they have been looking for a way to truly put their new machines through their paces when they put them together in the IT build lab. Currently they spend two weeks running each and every server as fast as possible before deployment, and the desktops get the same treatment for 1 week. The Blade Servers get run for for between 1 week for those running Linux and 4 weeks for those running Windows Server Edition or Windows Enterprise edition. At any one time the average number of machines in the IT build Lab is 40* desktops, 15* Servers (Quad Core), 5* Dual Core Workstations and 20* 4 to 16 core Blade Servers.

Our little chat was to show him BOINC, and then SETI and how the two run together, then how they get the system running at 100% CPU capacity. He was impressed as it means they can set it running and leave it, and they actually have data sets from the units for comparison, something they don't really get from their usual software. For the Workstations, which are for Graphics, he liked the idea that it can be set to display the graphics whislt pushing the CPU. The part he really liked was that it will work every part of a multicore platform equally, which really lets them get any bugs out opf the systems.

He is going to evaluate it on his machine for a week or two, as he is often away from his desk, and then make a decision as to whether to use it for their machine testing or not. The best part is I have convinced him that for security reasons they should use my account as it is not traceable back to the "Company" and so will not attract unwarranted attention.

Keep your figures crossed for the next few weeks, if he does go for it, and it's looking likely, not only will it drastically boost my own output, but the team RAC and overall output will soar as a result, especially as next month they will be testing a new batch of "Floor" Servers as they call them. Each is a 16 Xeon Dual Core 7100 Sequence CPU's Standalone Server. The spec for each is amazing..and they cost more than £340K each, and they will be testing them so they can then roll them out to replace the existing units which are starting to "show their age" (Their 3 years old 12 Xeon units!!). They have 12 floors of the building, although three of those will not get one of these units as they are used for other non-critical purposes. But even so, that is 9*16 dual core units, or 288 CPU's, each with 8MB L2 Cache ans a total of 200GB of DDR3 Memory (If I have remembered it right from the conversation). These units will all be tested at once, and run for three months before deployment as these are Super Critical bits of kit.

I may just turn back to religion and start praying about now!!

"All really intelligent people should be cremated for reasons of public safety" -- The Amazing Screw-On Head

Oh maaaaan... That's amazing. I hardly could follow the numbers

I really hope you could include them into your cruncher base. If you need assistance just give us a shout