I have found there is something weird in the way credit is given:

If I have a slow machine and do, say, 1 WU of whatever science in the course of a day I will get, say, 100 credits.

If I decide to run a substantially faster machine using the same science client, or as happened with Einstein@home, an optimised client has become available to those wanting to try a beta client, then I might need to do (for example) 6 WUs to achieve the same credit.

Now I agree that credit is NOT everything, BUT it encourages competitiveness, and makes people want to run their PC through the night, 5 days a week (gotta have time for a game or 2).

Surely the amount of cycles done should dictate the amount of credits ? A fast machine should get more credits than a slow machine - period.

Not sure if I am being naive here, but for now, while I will still work to do a WU in the smallest possible time, I plan on minimising the actual amount of WU as there is no recognition for high speed boxes over slow ones - in fact fast boxes score less per WU in a single science project.

Following this line of thought it seems to me that as the aim is to get as many WUs done as possible, in order to help science, then surely science should recognise those people who make the effort to churn out those WUs.

Gray

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...as happened with Einstein@home...

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/forum_thread.php?id=3532#28506

patience

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Also:

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/forum_thread.php?id=3983

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Surely the amount of cycles done should dictate the amount of credits ? A fast machine should get more credits than a slow machine - period.

Credits are claimed based on two primary factors:

- your benchmark scores (proportional)
- the cpu time of the WU (inversely proportional)

I have 8 different computers running 9 projects. The credits "claimed" are very consistant across all computers and all projects with the following notable exceptions:

- The benchmarks scores for LINUX are about half that of Windows (running on the identical h/w), therefore you claim about half the credits.

- One project, uFluids, consistantly hands out about 10% more credits than the other projects.

One project, SETI Advanced Beta, varies the credits based on the size and complexity of the WU. The credits vary from -50% to +50% and tends to avergae out to +25% over the long run.

--- bt