Despite the title, I don't have any optimized applications yet, but I'm still working on it. I have however lowered the crunch time from 1h04m to 48m on my dual-core MacBook using the x86_64 application. I have yet to benchmark either the i686 or PPC applications yet, but I have compiled versions. So far, this has just been achieved by changing the GCC compilation flags. I'll keep updates in here.

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So how do we get a copy to test with?

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I've already PM'd jedirock. Hopefully he wants testers. Would be nice to get a little closer to the windows apps.

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Mars rules this confectionery war!

So how do we get a copy to test with?

I'm going to attempt to speed them up a bit more before releasing them. Glad to know people are interested though. ;)

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Of course we are interested ...

Of course we are interested ...

Me too :)

Of course we are interested ...

Me too :)

and me :)

Of course we are interested ...

Me too :)

and me :)

If I knew what they were I'm sure I would be ;)

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I've got a G4 that is currently using the stock app...if you need a tester for the PPC, I can help...

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Click to help Seti City.

I have a G3, G4, CD, and C2D and I'd be willing to try any/all of them as test...

C

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Team MacNN

jup, opti apps for PPC G4 and G3 too would be very nice, now with the double workload WUs around. Thanks for your work.

jup, opti apps for PPC G4 and G3 too would be very nice, now with the double workload WUs around. Thanks for your work.

Just a quick note that I can't test the PPC version natively. I can test it using Rosetta, but I wouldn't trust it for final numbers. So while I'm compiling PPC apps, I'm basically doing it blind.

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So how do we get a copy to test with?

I'm going to attempt to speed them up a bit more before releasing them. Glad to know people are interested though. ;)

Well, I don't think I'm going to get any more huge speed increases anytime soon. It's too late here to compile the PowerPC and Intel 32-bit variants right now, but I'll do so tomorrow and release them. I'll also benchmark the Intel 32- and 64-bit versions, see if there's any difference, and give you my findings. As always, YMMV, especially with the PPC apps, but hopefully they'll help.

As for why it's taken so long, I've been compiling some apps for yoyo@home in the past few days too. Seem to be going pretty speedily along now, but that could also be because they have hand-tweaked ASM code in there. ;)

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Jedi, no need to apologise for taking your time. Your doing this off of your own back. The many of us mac users are very grateful for your efforts.

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Mars rules this confectionery war!

I don't have a Mac. If you give me one I'll try the apps out. ;p

And good job. Atleast someone is willing to take the time to do those apps and share their work too.

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

All right, my latest compiles. I actually tried something I haven't done with BOINC apps before, and stuck all three architectures (Intel 32- and 64-bit, and PowerPC) in one fat binary for convenience. So it's the same file for any Mac. I don't think there's really any performance difference between Intel 32- and 64-bit versions, other than possibly different versions of SSE. For PowerPC, I've tried to do as much as possible, and that means GCC optimizations, along with Altivec.

This is the zip with everything you should need.

Instructions for installing:
1) Unzip file to produce an application and an app_info
2) Shut down BOINC
3) Copy files to /Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/projects/milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway
4) Open a Terminal.app window, and copy and paste "sudo chown boinc_master:boinc_project /Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/projects/milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway/app_info.xml /Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/projects/milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway/milkyway_0.18_apple_darwin" in and hit Enter. Enter your password, and that fixes permissions.
5) Start BOINC

I haven't done a full crunch of a WU with these yet as they're so fresh, but they pass Travis's test WUs and my first crunch is over 20% done at this point. Enjoy!

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Installed on my iMac, will have to wait and see though.

I always just reinstall the Manager to fix the permissions problem.

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3 to 4 per cent faster on a C2D.

3 to 4 per cent faster on a C2D.

I took off 25% of my crunching time with these on my 2GHz C2D. From 1h4m to 48-49m.

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That's odd. My 2.8GHz C2D (E8235) has reduced the longer tasks from 35.49 (2149 sec) to 34.20 (2060 sec), a reduction of about 4%. The shorter tasks have gone from 22.05 (1325 sec) to 21.23 (1283 sec), a reduction of about 3%.

Maybe my C2D is newer than yours and the stock app was already making use of instructions not available on an older chip?