Hmmm...

The only catch is once you give the participants the choice, you might end up not getting enough horsepower to run a search efficiently due to runtime length or other concerns. It seems like the experience at SAH has folks increasingly looking for a way to opt out of AP due to run length, tightness factor, and concerns about that other issue, for example. ;-)

Good point. :-)

Two possible refinements:

1 - Make it an opt out - long work units are enabled ny default and anyone having problems meeting deadlines can choose not to receive them;

I don't actually know if the second one is possible :-)

2 - Have the work allocator check the computer speed in some way and then allocate accordingly.

Two more thoughts... :-)

I have a 1.23 WU at 20% done with 8 hours to completion. That means it will run 2 1/2 hours past the deadline of 5:30 pm today. Another is at 34% with 6 hours showing remaining. That second one Might squeeze in on time as I have removed throttling from my system as soon as I noticed how they were due Today!

They might have completed with time to spare if I had left it running at full speed - but I like the underclocking. It means that my system will not experience the same wear and tear even though it's running 100% CPU all the time. It was a nice respectable 55 Celcius, now it's at 70C. OK for short sprints, but I would prefer not to floor it all the time.

There are two more 1.23's behind them. They are also due today, just a half hour later. I might as well abort them, right? Better to return them to the mix before they even start, No?

I'm not meaning to over-complicate things here, but...

ClimatePrediction has a feature in its account settings to enable one to pick which length of work unit to run. Maybe it would be possible to do this purely for the longest work units - then people with slower computers could leave it blank and not get them. I guess it'd have to be well 'publicised' to make sure everyone knows about it, so that those who can run the longest work units don't miss out.

Just a thought... :-)

Rosetta has a similar choice of how many hours to run each unit.

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Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected the expected?
If it makes sense, DON'T do it.