SETI@home Weekly Update

May 5, 2000 - Dan Knight

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

The "fun" addition to Team Mac Observer this week has been my own 66 MHz Power Mac 6100, which completed a single work unit in under 60 hours. Not bad for six-year-old technology! In fact, I'm starting a sub-team, Team 6100, for Power Mac 6100 owners. Ten of these roughly equals a G4/400. ;-)

None of the Top 15 teams changed places this past week, which is quite remarkable in and of itself. In fact, the only change in club team standings among the Top 20 was when FreeBSD passed SETI@Home Poland.

Most teams have a lower average units per day score, since the SETI@home server was down for most of a day earlier in the week.

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 cover the whole SETI@home project, as well as the team he's part of, 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.

You can also view weekly reports from April 14, April 21, and April 28.

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

953,324 units

12,542 members

2,881 years

avg. 26:29

+16,291 units

+4 members

Avg. 2,313 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 could overtake them late this summer.

773,185 units

2,161 members

1,168 years

avg. 13:14

+27,123 units

+10 members

Avg. 3,874 units per day

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

678,454 units

3,573 members

1,132 years

avg. 14:37

+13,484 units

+33 members

Avg. 1,926 units per day

4. The Knights Who Say Ni! are moving up in the standings - they were 9 in late March and 6 last week. They should reach 3 by the end of the year.

410,487 units

533 members

599 years

avg. 12:47

+23,032 units

+23 members

Avg. 3,290 units per day

5. The Planetary Society overtook Team Slashdot as they were being passed by The Knights Who Say Ni!

360,225 units

1,100 members

770 years

avg. 18:44

+7,039 units

+10 members

Avg. 1,005 units per day

6. Team Slashdot has dropped to sixth after being overtaken by The Planetary Society and The Knights Who Say Ni!

355,061 units

2,117 members

718 years

avg. 17:43

+5,222 units

-1 member

Avg. 746 units per day

7. SETI.Germany was recently bumped back to 7 by The Knights Who Say NI! Their hold on 7 looks pretty firm. They could pass Team Slashdot in July or August.

311,501 units

1,191 members

540 years

avg. 15:11

+8,919 units

+18 members

Avg. 1,274 units per day

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

272,854 units

1,211 members

516 years

avg. 16:34

+6,544 units

+2 members

Avg. 934 units per day

9. Canada lost a lot of work units this week, but remains at 9.

231,981 units

903 members

497 years

avg. 18:46

+6,297 units

+15 members

Avg. 904 units per day

10. Rounding out the Top 10 is Linux, which doesn't appear to have any chance of rising in the standings.

228,081 units

407 members

379 years

avg. 14:34

+5,176 units

+3 members

Avg. 739 units per day

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

186,420 units

590 users

422 years

avg. 19:49

+4,060 units

+2 members

Avg. 580 units per day

12. SETI Switzerland remains at 12 and is expected to pass OS/2 Warp in a couple days. However, they will probably be passed by SETI@Netherlands soon after that.

185,397 units

354 members

308 years

avg. 14:33

+9,748 units

+6 members

Avg. 1,392 units per day

13. The real climbers continue to be SETI@Netherlands, which remains at 13 this week. By the end of May they should pass the Swiss, reaching 11 in about four weeks.

177,387 units

698 members

299 years

avg. 14 :45

+12,935 units

+85 members

Avg. 1,847 units per day thanks to new members

14. Team NIPPON passed Team User Friendly, but were themselves passed by SETI@Netherlands.

162,432 units

552 members

270 years

avg. 14:33

+4,339 units

+3 members

avg. 619 units per day

15. Team User Friendly, composed of fans of the comic strip, has the slowest average time among the Top 15. They are expected to slowly drop in the standings.

160,283 units

821 members

363 years

avg. 19:51

+2,808 units

+2 members

avg. 401 units per day

16. FreeBSD had a large infusion of work units on Thursday and moved up to 16. They may pass Team User Friendly in June.

147,645 units

298 members

257 years

avg. 15:14

+6,026 units

+3 members

Avg. 860 units per day

17. SETI@Home Poland was passed by the FreeBSD team on Thursday and seems destined to slowly fall in the standings.

144,838 units

307 members

252 years

avg. 15:14

+1,957 units

+2 members

Avg. 279 units per day

18. Team Lockergnome has the slowest average time in the Top 20, but could still pass SETI@Home Poland in the coming week.

144,426 units

1,310 members

380 years

avg. 23:03

+3,077 units

-1 member

Avg. 439 units per day

19. The third Mac team Team Mac Observer remains at 19 this week and continues to close on Team Lockergnome and SETI@Home Poland. It is expected to reach 17 by the end of May.

141,691 units

603 members

249 years

avg. 15:23

+5,075 units

+7 members

Avg. 725 units per day

20. Team BeOS rounds out the Top 20.

129,020 units

608 members

235 years

avg. 15:57

+3,825 units

+42 members

Avg. 546 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.

114,871 units

288 members

224 years

avg. 17:05

+2,279 units

no new member

Avg. 325 units per day

22. The Amateur Radio Operators team should pass the Yahoo SETI Club, probably in June.

110,643 units

280 members

255 years

avg. 20:11

+3,256 units

-1 member

avg. 465 units per day

23. Quebec seems stuck at 23 until the Matrox Users pass them.

106,795 units

389 members

219 years

avg. 17:58

+2,877 units

+6 members

avg. 411 units per day

24. Matrox Users continued its climb, moving from 27 to 24 this week. They should pass Quebec within the week and both the Yahoo and Amateur Radio teams during May.

104,014 units

427 members

156 years

avg. 13:09

+6,678 units

+2 members

avg. 954 units per day

25. Team AnandTech passed Team Yellow Dwarf, but was passed by Matrox Users to remain at 25. They also seems destined to pass the Yahoo and Amateur Radio teams.

103,898 units

296 members

160 years

avg. 13:31

+3,939 units

+3 members

avg. 562 units per day

This week, nothing below the Top 25 looks to be moving into the Top 20 within the coming weeks.

That's how the top team standings look this week on the SETI@home team page. Come back next Friday for another 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