Re: Mersenne: double-check mismatches

2004-01-17 Thread Brian J. Beesley
On Saturday 17 January 2004 02:32, Daran wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2004 at 07:15:46PM +, Brian J. Beesley wrote:
> > ...matching
> > residuals mean that the chance of an error getting into the database as a
> > result of a computational error is of the order of 1 in 10^20.
>
> That's per exponent, isn't it?  The chance that one of the roughly quarter
> million status-doublechecked exponents being in error is about five orders
> of magnitudes higher.

Sure. That's why I ran the project to triple-check a not inconsiderable 
number of smaller exponents where one (in some cases both) of the residues 
was reported to less than 64 bits, usually only 16. No discrepancies were 
discovered.
>
> Still acceptible, or at least a minor consern in comparison to the other
> security issues.
>
It's easy enough - and computationally exceedingly cheap - to report more 
residue bits but, as you say, other issues are not so easy to fix.

Regards
Brian Beesley
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Re: Mersenne: double-check mismatches

2004-01-16 Thread Daran
On Thu, Jan 15, 2004 at 07:15:46PM +, Brian J. Beesley wrote:

> ...matching 
> residuals mean that the chance of an error getting into the database as a 
> result of a computational error is of the order of 1 in 10^20.

That's per exponent, isn't it?  The chance that one of the roughly quarter
million status-doublechecked exponents being in error is about five orders
of magnitudes higher.

Still acceptible, or at least a minor consern in comparison to the other
security issues.

> Regards
> Brian Beesley

Daran G.
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Re: Mersenne: double-check mismatches

2004-01-15 Thread Brian J. Beesley
On Thursday 15 January 2004 01:00, Max wrote:
> Hello!
>
> Is any statistix on double-check mismatches available?
> How often this happens?

~2% of all runs are bad.
>
> If my result get mismatch with some other's will I get any notice about
> that?

No. But you can check the database - any results in the file "bad" have been 
rejected because of a residual mismatch.

> Can I learn which of my results were confirmed by others?

Yes. Check the "lucas_v" database file.
>
> P.S. Having periodical problems with overheating (coolers become dusty)
> causing ``roundoff'' etc. hardware errors in mprime,

Can you not run a hardware monitor program based on lm_sensors so that an 
alarm sounds at a temperature below that which causes problems? Most P4 
chipsets will also automatically throttle the CPU clock if/when overheating 
occurs, so you will be notified by increasing iteration times rather than 
errors.

> I don't much believe in computational results unless they're confirmed
> by several parties.

This attitude is entirely reasonable for long runs given consumer-grade 
hardware.

> BTW, how error-proof is mprime ?

On its own, not particularly. The computational cost of reasonably robust 
self-checking would be too much to bear. However, given that independent 
double checks are run, the _project system_ is pretty good - matching 
residuals mean that the chance of an error getting into the database as a 
result of a computational error is of the order of 1 in 10^20.

_Detected_ errors - roundoff or otherwise - are not a problem. It's the 
undetected ones which are dangerous.

If you have any ideas about how to improve this, I'm sure that George will 
consider them.

There _are_ significant weaknesses in the project - in particular there is a 
_possibility_ that forged double check results could be submitted - that is 
one reason why I'm trying to triple-check all the exponents where both tests 
were run by the same user. Yes, I'm aware that a determined person with a 
working forging formula could bypass that check, too, but we've got to start 
somewhere.

Regards
Brian Beesley
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RE: Mersenne: double-check mismatches

2004-01-15 Thread Hoogendoorn, Sander
> Is any statistix on double-check mismatches available?
> How often this happens?

See http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1116

Combined error rate is between 3 and 4%
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Re: Mersenne: double-check mismatches

2004-01-14 Thread Steinar H. Gunderson
On Wed, Jan 14, 2004 at 05:00:18PM -0800, Max wrote:
> Is any statistix on double-check mismatches available?
> How often this happens?

About 0.5%, IIRC.

/* Steinar */
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Mersenne: double-check mismatches

2004-01-14 Thread Max
Hello!

Is any statistix on double-check mismatches available?
How often this happens?
If my result get mismatch with some other's will I get any notice about 
that?
Can I learn which of my results were confirmed by others?

P.S. Having periodical problems with overheating (coolers become dusty) 
causing ``roundoff'' etc. hardware errors in mprime,
I don't much believe in computational results unless they're confirmed 
by several parties.
BTW, how error-proof is mprime ?

Thanks,
Max
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