Here are some code development updates on some important client/cores
GPU core: we’ve got the GPU core running in house and we found and fixed some bugs in our QA stage. We’re now continuing QA to see if we find any more bugs. Right now, the GPU core is running on all new ATI cards, so we’re excited to roll it out. We are using CAL now (ATI’s hardware abstraction layer) and that seems to make life a lot easier, and also should make running a GPU client a lot easier from the point of view of donors, as the driver issues and complexities should now be resolved. We are still looking into an NVIDIA client. The NVIDIA GPUs are very different to program, so a port isn’t a simple thing to do. We are looking into this, though.
SMP core: right now, SMP on Linux and OSX is behaving fairly well, whereas Windows is giving some issues. This is perhaps not a surprise, since the SMP code must use MPI, which has its origins on UNIX and is a newcomer to Windows. We have been working with Windows MPI developers to improve the situation, but they tell us this isn’t a simple fix. Since we are in the business of studying proteins, not writing MPI libraries for Windows, we will wait until the MPI experts improve the Windows MPI before we make any claims of improvement there.
Finally, beta clients will be expiring soon, and we are in the process of QA for new clients. We will also extend the expiration deadlines in the future clients to give some more time, and since the clients are appearing to be maturing.