I've just seen a tweet from Einstein@Home announcing BOINC for Android phones. Very smart, only crunches when plugged in (so it doesn't kill your battery) and only transfers data over wifi (so no data charges). Are there any plans to implement CharityEngine on the Android platform too?
We are aware of this development and been following it closely. I've been testing the software for a while. I like it, but it still has some way to go before it is ready for us as it lacks certain account management functions. We discussed such support before and as a demand grows and features are added it is very likely to see a CE version.
Yes, we do indeed want CE on Android asap. There are two particular uses for it that have enormous potential for raising money, so watch this space... ;)
What most users may not have realized is that the projects code will need adapting, I see less projects on my ubuntu laptop than I do in windows and of the world community grid projects only the fight aids one comes for android so I guess it means each project being redeveloped for the new OS and CPU architecture.
I'm not that well up on the tech behind bitcoin mining but will the hardware used for that ever be usable for something like CE projects ? again another branch of specialized processors that would lpough through work like water if the sort of calcs required were just the sort they do.
FPGA - too varied, each platform different and needing incredibly specific tweaks for each set of calculations, would probably need to be rewritten for each new project, and would still not perform better than GPU. Not worth the time to develop by any stretch of the imagination.
ASIC - the first two letters are for Application Specific, ie the hardware can never and will never do anything but the single calculation it was fabricated to do. Despite endless thousands of people saying "yeah, but what if someone hacked it to do x/y/z" this will never change.
tl;dr - Nothing beyond GPU is feasible, since FPGA would need rewritten from the ground up constantly, and a new ASIC would need designed and fabricated (boatloads of money) for each new type of WU.
Well FPGA's by their very nature are going to be impracticle as they can be changed every run of the boards. I don't know what specific calculation the ASIC's do but just wondered if the same calculation was usable elsewhere. After all GPU's cannot do everything and have gradually mutated into somethng more univasally usable for still specific types of calculations (furrior transforms I'm told).
Was on the back burner, will be coming this year. Key for us is finding commercially viable applications for the mobile version. It has to earn its keep, basically!
I've always wondered just how powerful smartphone processors are. Most people are probably being duped by reading specifications that state the speed of the processor. What many do not probably realise is that although they work at similar speeds to older computer processors they still cannot complete anyway near the same amount of work in a clock cycle. This for example is why AMD processors are often faster than Intel processors of the same clock speed because of the internal design. Just because it says 1 GHz don't think you're going to get the same work from it you would get from an Intel Pentium 3 at 1 GHz.
I've just seen a tweet from Einstein@Home announcing BOINC for Android phones. Very smart, only crunches when plugged in (so it doesn't kill your battery) and only transfers data over wifi (so no data charges). Are there any plans to implement CharityEngine on the Android platform too?
We are aware of this development and been following it closely. I've been testing the software for a while. I like it, but it still has some way to go before it is ready for us as it lacks certain account management functions. We discussed such support before and as a demand grows and features are added it is very likely to see a CE version.
Beat me to it, Jon!
Yes, we do indeed want CE on Android asap. There are two particular uses for it that have enormous potential for raising money, so watch this space... ;)
What most users may not have realized is that the projects code will need adapting, I see less projects on my ubuntu laptop than I do in windows and of the world community grid projects only the fight aids one comes for android so I guess it means each project being redeveloped for the new OS and CPU architecture.
I'm not that well up on the tech behind bitcoin mining but will the hardware used for that ever be usable for something like CE projects ? again another branch of specialized processors that would lpough through work like water if the sort of calcs required were just the sort they do.
Bitcoin mining hardware for CE:
GPU - already working
FPGA - too varied, each platform different and needing incredibly specific tweaks for each set of calculations, would probably need to be rewritten for each new project, and would still not perform better than GPU. Not worth the time to develop by any stretch of the imagination.
ASIC - the first two letters are for Application Specific, ie the hardware can never and will never do anything but the single calculation it was fabricated to do. Despite endless thousands of people saying "yeah, but what if someone hacked it to do x/y/z" this will never change.
tl;dr - Nothing beyond GPU is feasible, since FPGA would need rewritten from the ground up constantly, and a new ASIC would need designed and fabricated (boatloads of money) for each new type of WU.
Well FPGA's by their very nature are going to be impracticle as they can be changed every run of the boards. I don't know what specific calculation the ASIC's do but just wondered if the same calculation was usable elsewhere. After all GPU's cannot do everything and have gradually mutated into somethng more univasally usable for still specific types of calculations (furrior transforms I'm told).
There is an alternative distributed computing project from Samsung (Austria) called Power Sleep.
It works overnight while your phone charges, after it has first reached 100% battery.
Check it out: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.samsung.powersleep
And also there's an app for HTC
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.htc.ptg
Any update on this CE? I've recently installed the HTC Power to Give app on my phone and it seems like it should be the next logical step for CE too
Hi Steve,
Was on the back burner, will be coming this year. Key for us is finding commercially viable applications for the mobile version. It has to earn its keep, basically!
Cheers,
Mark
I've always wondered just how powerful smartphone processors are. Most people are probably being duped by reading specifications that state the speed of the processor. What many do not probably realise is that although they work at similar speeds to older computer processors they still cannot complete anyway near the same amount of work in a clock cycle. This for example is why AMD processors are often faster than Intel processors of the same clock speed because of the internal design. Just because it says 1 GHz don't think you're going to get the same work from it you would get from an Intel Pentium 3 at 1 GHz.
Hi
Do we have any news for this? Willing to implement CE at my mobile phone.
Hi
Do we have any news for this? Willing to implement CE at my mobile phone.