Folding on OSX/PPC, now deprecated

[jackrabbit]

This has been coming for a while and Vijay finally announced it on the F@h blog:

We have been going through various shortages for Power PC OSX WUs, due to the new cores not supporting PPC machines.  While we expect that we may have new PPC WUs in the future, we want to give a heads up that we are depreciating PPC OSX support in Folding@home.  We would love to support as many OS's as possible, but the overall compute power from the PPC group is small enough, and the efforts to support it large enough, that we have decided that it is better for us to put our resources into improving support for the other OS's we are supporting.  

Thanks to all of you who have faithfully supported FAH with the processing that you have donated!

[Aardvark]

Does anyone have a read on when distribution of PPC suitable WUs will actually cease??

I haven't been able to obtain a WU for my G4 MDD recently and I wonder whether the end has been reached.  Left a query on the Folding Forum and the reply was rather non-committal.

[Ravage]

I'd Guess that getting work for ppc  machines will be spotty at best.  If I still had my g4, I'd leave the client run, but then I was using it as a webserver and a fileserver too.  If I weren't using it for that, I'd probably turn it off and donate it to someone that could use it.  A G5 still has plenty of life in it and could still be used for day to day stuff.

[Aardvark]

I still do my "day to day" stuff on my G4 MDD. I accept that that is my problem but I do not have any graphic intensive needs. I just have a desire to let the folding capability run in the background and still produce points.

I understand that PG has to evaluate their future and act accordingly. I'm just trying to get a handle on when I need to throw in the towel and move on to some other Mac Desktop hardware.     :-)

I have set a benchmark. That is when there are no more PPC WUs available.

[jackrabbit]

In general, Pande group does not discuss timelines, certainly not dates.

The only thing you can do really is decide how long the period will have to be where you don't get work before you call it quits.

[Aardvark]

@ jackrabbit;

I have received a new WU which will keep my G4 "busy" for the next week, or so. I guess all that can be hoped for is that those that are still folding on PPC platforms will occasionally drop a comment into this thread.  Possibly we can get a feel, ahead of time, as to when PG is going to run the guillotine in on MacOSX PPC.

It is not like I have nothing else "in the game". I have a couple intel Macs that are folding SMP WUs.  I have gone many miles with this G4 and it still runs well, if you let applejack do a tune-up once in a while.

[susato]

I still use a G4 laptop as my "on the road" computer and for showing lecture slides.  I no longer Fold on it because it gets too warm, even with the fan maxed out.  Other minor things go out of whack intermittently (e.g. the keyboard) so I know it will have to be replaced before long.

I'll pass along to the PG that PPC owners will appreciate knowing when the final PPC compatible work unit has completed.  It's had a great run, since 2002.

[Aardvark]

@susato,

Anything you can do to bring the PG closer to real world reality would be appreciated by the MACOSX folders. They are a good group, but a bit "detached" at times......:-)

Ted

[Aardvark]

I completed and returned a OSX PPC WU today. A new WU was immediately available for download, so PG is still in the PPC OSX business. The WU was P2495R27C13G2. Is it possible, knowing the WU identity, to calculate a SWAG (ScientificWildAssGuess) as to the estimated life remaining for that Project? I realize that a lot depends on the speed mix of the Folders that are still in use for this service. Just a thought. Might be interesting to set up a pool on Drop Dead Day for PPC OSX WUs. HEY, March Madness will be over soon. Forgive my rambling.....

[susato]

Actually Christian (Macaholic) asked them that and as usual there is no firm answer. "As long as there's work".

Along with the development of clients for ever larger and more powerful computers, like the -bigadv units for machines with 8 or more cores, and the GPU units, Stanford has been working on developing projects that will use the large population of uniprocessor machines still available. Who knows what they'll come up with next?