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SETI@home Weekly Update

21 April 2000 - Dan Knight

As part of Team Mac Observer, we've been following teams in our neighborhood (#19 this week) closely for the past few weeks - but SETI@home is a lot more than just our ranking in the Top 20.

My goal is to provide a weekly overview of the Top 20 teams, plus the next five teams and others that may be contending to join the Top 20 list. Key tools are the SETI@home team statistics page, the SETI Checker program (which visually graphs recent weeks for team performance), and Dave's Stats, which concentrate on The Knights Who Say Ni!

In the following analysis, data in the second column comes from the SETI statistics page. Information in the third column comes from my analysis and Dave's Stats, which is my source for the average recent work units per day. Note that this is a volatile figure which can change a fair bit from day to day, especially as members join or leave a team and bring their work units with them.

1. Team Art Bell. The undisputed leader among club teams, Lamb Chop should overtake them next year.

914,847 units

12,526 members

2,782 years

avg. 26:38

+20,614 units

+24 members

Avg. 2,944 units per day

2. Team Ars Technica Lamb Chop has the best average time per unit of any team in the Top 25. They are gaining on Team Art Bell by about 1,300 units per day and should overtake them sometime mid-2001.

709,196 units

2,116 members

1,089 years

avg. 13:27

+36,483 units

+124 members

Avg. 5,211 units per day

3. Team MacAddict is the top Mac team, but they are not crunching enough units to climb in the standings.

641,390 units

3,495 members

1,079 years

avg. 14:44

+24,717 units

+62 members

Avg. 3,531 units per day

4. Team Slashdot is a distant fourth and destined to be overtaken by The Planetary Society and The Knights Who Say Ni! very soon. Dave projects Slashdot at #6 in late May.

342,300 units

2,115 members

697 years

avg. 17:50

+6,189 units

+4 members

Avg. 884 units per day

5. The Planetary Society should overtake Team Slashdot midweek and move to #4, then get dropped back to #5 when The Knights Who Say Ni! move up to #4 in early May.

338,646 units

1,081 members

731 years

avg. 18:55

+11,390 units

+4 members

Avg. 1,627 units per day

6. The Knights Who Say Ni! are moving up in the standings - they were #9 in late March and #8 earlier this week. They could become #4 by the end of April.

314,022 units

490 members

526 years

avg. 14:40

+24,700 units

+16 members

Avg. 3,528 units per day

7. SETI.Germany was recently bumped back to #7 by The Knights. Their hold on #7 looks pretty firm.

291,865 units

1,150 members

511 years

avg. 15:20

+8,032 units

+8 members

Avg. 1,140 units per day

8. O'Grady's Go2Mac.com Team is the second highest Mac team and not expected to rise in the standings.

258,187 units

1,204 members

489 years

avg. 16:34

+8,255 units

-76 members

Avg. 1,179 units per day

9. I'm originally from Canada, so it's nice to see this team of Canucks among the Top 10. They should eventually pass O'Grady's team.

256,014 units

881 members

484 years

avg. 16:34

+8,606 units

+6 members

Avg. 1,229 units per day

10. Rounding out the Top 10 is Linux. They lost a lot of work units and several years this week. They do not appear to have any chance of moving up in the club team rankings, although their average is understated due to losing a member with a lot of units this past week.

218,427 units

401 members

367 years

avg. 14:43

-5,300 units

+7 members

Avg. -758 units per day due to lost members

11. OS/2 Warp isn't dead, as this team demonstrates. They are averaging 20 hours per unit, the second slowest among the Top 15 club teams. They may overtake Linux in May.

176,998 units

586 users

404 years

avg. 20:00

+5,308 units

+2 members

Avg. 758 units per day

12. SETI Switzerland has moved up from #14 in the past week and will probably pass OS/2 Warp in the coming months, although they will themselves be overtaken by the Dutch team. Their high number of additional work units this week came with a new member, so their average is overstated.

166,720 units

344 members

285 years

avg. 14:58

+20,255 units

+4 members

Avg. 2,893 units per day

13. Team User Friendly is composed of fans of the comic strip. With their average of 502 units per day, it does not appear they will rise in the standings.

153,607 units

817 members

351 years

avg. 20:02

+3,216 units

+1 member

Avg. 459 units per day, they will overtake OS/2 Warp this week and Linux in the near future.

14. Team NIPPON was bumped to #13 by SETI Switzerland this week. They could pass Team User Friendly any day.

152,128 units

542 members

256 years

avg. 14:44

+5,295 units

+7 members

avg. 756 units per day

15. SETI@Home Poland and FreeBSD have been going back and forth over #15 and #16.

138,939 units

300 members

243 years

avg. 15:19

+3,562 units

no new members

Avg. 508 units per day

16. FreeBSD is in a battle with SETI@Home Poland for #15. This will soon become a battle for #16 when the SETI@Netherlands team passes both.

138,816 units

293 members

243 years

avg. 15:19

+4,014 units

+8 members

Avg. 573 units per day

17. The real climbers over the past few weeks have been SETI@Netherlands, which moves from 19 to 17 this week. They should soon pass both SETI@Home Poland and FreeBSD soon to reach 14th place during the next few days.

138,383 units

499 members)

233 years

avg. 14 :44

+24,248 units

+159 members

Avg. 3,464 units per day thanks to new members

18. Team Lockergnome has the slowest average time in the Top 20 and moves down one step this week. Team Mac Observer should overtake them any day.

126,068 units

1,309 members

365 years

avg. 25:21

+2,907 units

-4 members

Avg. 415 units per day

19. The third Mac team Team Mac Observer (which Low End Mac supports) moved up from #20 this week and could overtake Team BeOS today or tomorrow and should reach #18 within a few days. If membership keeps growing and work units accumulate at this pace, Dave predicts we'll reach #15 in May.

123,132 units

542 members

215 years

avg. 15:20

+12,554 units

+54 members

Avg. 1,793 units per day with help of new members

20. Team BeOS was at #18 for a while, but moved down when SETI@Netherlands and Team Mac Observer passed them this week. They may pass Team Lockergnome in coming months.

120,662 units

557 members

221 years

avg. 16:03

+4,557 units

+10 members

Avg. 651 units per day

Just below the Top 20 we have:

21. Yahoo SETI Club Team does not appear to be a threat to any team in the Top 20.

111,674 units

290 members

221 years

avg. 17:19

+4,059 units

+1 member

Avg. 579 units per day

22. The Amateur Radio Operators team should eventually (in several months) pass the Yahoo SETI Club.

101,507 units

277 members

238 years

avg. 20:31

+4,402 units

+3 members

avg. 628 units per day

23. Quebec should pass the Amateur Radio Operators soon. This week, they passed the Maximum PC Team.

100,059 units

379 members

207 years

avg. 18:09

+4,659 units

+5 members

avg. 665 units per day

24. Team Yellow Dwarf moved ahead of the Maximum PC Team this week.

97,020 units

200 members

177 years

avg. 16:00

+3,420 units

+2 members

avg. 488 units per day, the Dwarfs will slowly drop in the team standings.

25. The Maximum PC Team moved back one step when Team Yellow Dwarf passed them.

96,157 units

403 members

201 years

avg. 18:16

+1,424 units

-6 members

avg. 203 units per day due to lost members

And below the Top 25, the following teams look interesting:

26. Team AnandTech has moved up from #31 over recent weeks and passed FurSETI (now #27) on Thursday. They should overtake the Maximum PC Team and enter the Top 25 soon.

93,489 units

291 members

147 years

avg. 13:49

+5,584 units

+4 members

avg. 797 units per day

28. Matrox Users could get past FurSETI (now #27) in the coming week or so.

92,418 units

426 members

141 years

avg. 13:23

+4,707 units

+6 members

avg. 672 units per day

30. Coming out of nowhere, Scarfy looks interesting. Since late March, they've moved up from #52 (and 36 last week). This is a team to watch. Dave projects Scarfy at #20 within the month.

82,313 units

1 member at two locations

61 years

avg. 06.03

+5,592 units

no new members

avg. 1,859 units per day

37. Look at Team EDGE has moved up from #39. Dave predicts they will reach #32 within a month.

77,529 units

76 members

113 years

avg. 12.45

+4,273 units

avg. 1,309 units per day

Well, that's how the competition looks this week on the SETI@home team page. Come back next Friday for an update. (And if you'd like to join a team, I'd like to see you join Team Mac Observer.)

Recent articles about SETI@home

• Team 6100 Update, 2001.12.20. We've completed over 500 units and donated over 5 years of CPU time to SETI@home since May 2000.
• Team 6100 @300 units, SETIonMac, 2001.08.14. Team using old Power Macs has passed the 300 unit mark running SETI@home.
• SETI@home monthly update, 2001.08.01. Sad news - Team Mac Observer has fallen to #26 in the team standings.
• A look at SETI Checker, 2000.04.25. This freeware program lets you follow your favorite SETI@home teams.

Links

• SETI Station, a site for Mac SETI@home enthusiasts. Includes full instructions for speeding things up with a RAM disk.
• SETI@home home page
• Results by CPU (PowerPC is #2 behind Intel)
• Results by OS (Mac OS trails Windows)
• Results by platform (Mac #2 behind Pentium/Windows)
• Top 200 teams
• How to join Team Mac Observer

back to SETIonMac index