What distinguishes an "application" from a "version"?

Sofar, it only seems if a project lists an application separately which seems kind of hazy in defining it...

~Y

Applications are completely separate sub-projects run by a BOINC project. From a BOINC perspective, they have absolutely nothing to do with other applications. They use different work generators, have different queues, different validators, etc

Application versions (called app_versions in BOINC-speak) are, by contrast, related to each other and are typically very similar or identical except for either the platform they run on (e.g., Linux vs. WIndows) or the version of the software (new vs. old). Typically, at any give time, most applications will have as few as 3 acive app_versions (Windows, Mac, and Linux), or as many as 12 (for each of Linux, Mac, and Windows there might be one each of a 32 bit CPU, a 64 bit CPU, an Nvidia GPU, and an AMD GPU app version.) Over the life of an application, as the software evolves and is updated, there may be hundreds of app_versions, although most will be deprecated and no longer in use.

Sometimes a project has a choice of making either separate applications or app_versions. For example, when PrimeGrid had an Android version of one application, it was just one of many app_versions, but not a separate application. I've seen other projects do the opposite and make the Android versions its own application. There's advantages to both approaches. As a different app_version, but the same application, it allows single workunits to match x86 tasks against Android tasks. It's much simpler and easier to do than setting up a second application. On the other hand, Android devices are much, much slower than desktop computers, so if the Android app is an app_version, either you're going to have tasks that run very quickly on desktop computers (which puts a lot of load on the server), or they'll run very slowly on the Android devices. (There is a new BOINC feature that permits having multiple queues of different sized tasks which should work well to alleviate this problem.)

For most projects, it depends on how similar the software and the data is. If they're similar or identical, app_versions usually make more sense. If either is significantly different, then perhaps separate applications is the way to go.

Another concern is how much control you want to give to the users. The way BOINC works, it's much easier to use different applications if you want to allow the users to select which one to run. It *is* possible to allow users to select different app_versions (we do it at PrimeGrid), but it's a lot more complex.

Primerows moved to Stop@home
All accounts (before February 25) are the same as on old project
New users need invitation

New active apps
Search Prime Sequence LM - low memory, 200Mb, 15 min
Search Prime Sequence MM - medium memory, 500Mb, 30 min
Search Prime Sequence HM - high memory, 1100Mb, 12 min

Primerows moved to Stop@home
All accounts (before February 25) are the same as on old project
New users need invitation

New active apps
Search Prime Sequence LM - low memory, 200Mb, 15 min
Search Prime Sequence MM - medium memory, 500Mb, 30 min
Search Prime Sequence HM - high memory, 1100Mb, 12 min

From what I can see I will have to Detach and then Re-Attach in order to get work as I still have the old name on my computer and it gets a Server-Error when trying to get work.

P.S. Answered my own question by detaching and then re-attaching anyway to see what happened.
All worked fine and now I have work.

Conan

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climateprediction.net

Weather At Home 2 (wah2) (region independent) (app name wah2_ri)

Statistics shows as Weather At Home 2 (wah2)
two different (but very similar) application - a single line in the statistics

I have three of the old tasks just sat there as they do. They are some months old.

I downloaded 5 more today and I noticed that all 8 tasks are now labelled as region independent.

I'm really wondering how this is handled here sometimes.
I also now have some of these "new" region independent WAH units and these started crunching a bit earlier. After the last update the "normal" Weather at Home line appears to be increasing by the crunched hours instead of counting a new app.
According to the CPDN-apps page, the region independent seems to be a seperate app, so it "should" be counted as a new app here - but is obviously added to the old one.
Makes no sense to me to be honest, but well... ;-)

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Life is Science, and Science rules. To the universe and beyond
Member of BOINC@Heidelberg
My BOINC-Stats

I think there was a WAH2 app out first (there was a v7.05 in Sept 2015) but the latest 8.24 version of WAH2 was released after the region independent model:

Weather At Home 2 (wah2) (region independent) v8.12 - released 8 Mar 2016
Weather At Home 2 (wah2) v8.24 - released 3 Nov 2016

Some previous regional models may be adapted into region independent models for future work IIUC; so '(region independent)' might turn up again in app names!

Short tasks turned up recently (2nd Feb 2017) for the UK Met Office HadCM3 app too.

I just found out shortly ago completely by accident when I went on Free-DC and wondering what this Stop@Home project was doing on my list.

How the heck are you suppose to know the URL changed unless you find a post someplace or stumble across like I did??

Then there's all those clients out there trying to hit the old URL...

(for each of Linux, Mac, and Windows there might be one each of a 32 bit CPU, a 64 bit CPU, an Nvidia GPU, and an AMD GPU app version.) Over the life of an application, as the software evolves and is updated, there may be hundreds of app_versions, although most will be deprecated and no longer in use.

I was thinking on it and understand a Windows client is doing the same thing as the Mac client as the Linux client... But I wonder (and I'm relatively new on it) is GPU clients. I've seen where it's the same app but does a deeper analysis or crunches mores #s (so to speak). Is that part of the same app or is it a different app?

Offhand, without delving into each project, I can't speak as to how they're listed or how any GPU clients may differ...

Free-DC has Stop@Home Stats:

http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?page=proj&proj=sto

I was thinking on it and understand a Windows client is doing the same thing as the Mac client as the Linux client... But I wonder (and I'm relatively new on it) is GPU clients. I've seen where it's the same app but does a deeper analysis or crunches mores #s (so to speak). Is that part of the same app or is it a different app?

It's usually doing the exact same work, except using a different process.

If it was doing something different, such as "the deeper analysis" you mentioned, it would need to be a different application.

It's usually doing the exact same work, except using a different process.

CUDA & OpenCL are different languages and while they often port they might need to be compared & proven to be similar enough for analysis and publication. CPU apps such as C can sometimes also be ported to CUDA or OpenCL but that tends to involve more validation (Vina is a long way from many CUDA apps).

If it was doing something different, such as "the deeper analysis" you mentioned, it would need to be a different application.

Depends on the projects setup/strategy/approach. At GPUGrid they use one main app and vary the 'task type'. Can be more detailed or less (steps), but runs on the same ACEMD app. Can be completely different research, but runs on the same app...
In this case the app is more of a tool (like Vina); you can do different types of in silico research with it. Point is, what a project calls an app WRT Boinc varies from project to project - its really down to the research groups approach.

Sorry, I was not being clear. My BUMP was about the new climate prediction app. It still is not showing up.

Weather At Home 2 (wah2)

Weather At Home 2 (wah2) (region independent) <--- This one is missing

They are two different applications. You can see here:

https://www.cpdn.org/cpdnboinc/apps.php

Is this ever going to get fixed?

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Reno, NV
Team: SETI.USA

Sorry, I was not being clear. My BUMP was about the new climate prediction app. It still is not showing up.

Weather At Home 2 (wah2)

Weather At Home 2 (wah2) (region independent) <--- This one is missing

They are two different applications. You can see here:

https://www.cpdn.org/cpdnboinc/apps.php

Is this ever going to get fixed?

Doesn't show as a separate application in the WuProp Active Projects list, should show though as it's a separate application at the project ... https://www.cpdn.org/cpdnboinc/apps.php ... May be nothing Sebastien can do about it ...

Sorry, I was not being clear. My BUMP was about the new climate prediction app. It still is not showing up.

Weather At Home 2 (wah2)

Weather At Home 2 (wah2) (region independent) <--- This one is missing

They are two different applications. You can see here:

https://www.cpdn.org/cpdnboinc/apps.php

Is this ever going to get fixed?

Doesn't show as a separate application in the WuProp Active Projects list, should show though as it's a separate application at the project ... https://www.cpdn.org/cpdnboinc/apps.php ... May be nothing Sebastien can do about it ...

Listed now >>> The application Weather At Home 2 (wah2) (region independent) from project climateprediction.net is active

Thanks!

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Reno, NV
Team: SETI.USA

LHCathome-dev - Sixtrack Simulation

Tasks are available again for:

duchamp - Duchamp Sourcefinder

http://54.196.169.236/duchamp/

DENIS@home - DENIS Project that replicate the calculus made in Literature and fill the Markers Database

DENIS@home - DENIS Project that replicate the calculus made in Literature and fill the Markers Database

By the way, this is a very long name for a new active application ;-)

New application

Citizen Science Grid - EXACT2 Convolutional Neural Network Trainer

The application EXACT2 Convolutional Neural Network Trainer from project Citizen Science Grid uses 1.3GB RAM per task!