QRB

=Quick Return Bonus=

With the release of SMP2 Beta client a new point system was introduced, one which is aimed at making it unambiguous that speed for the project is more important than throughput. This system effectively takes away the options donors had in previous time to increase their Points Per Day by running systems in manners which did not take into account the serial nature or work units. More about the new point system can be found in the official FAQ.

Serial nature of work units
An explanation by Dan Ensign

The excerpt below is the important part for indicating why this QRB has been put into effect with the new SMP2 beta client.

So to summarize, when I'm setting up a project, I might do the following:


 * 1) Pick 100 different unfolded or partially unfolded conformations of my protein of interest. These become my RUNs.
 * 2) Then, I set up 100 different CLONEs for each RUN. (Well, I don't actually set them up myself, I just run a program. But I run it really well. And intelligently. And I look good doing it.) Each CLONE contains one WU at this point.
 * 3) Then, I let the (100 RUNs) x (100 CLONEs) = 10,000 WUs loose on the world ("you guys").
 * 4) Then, I go have lunch.
 * 5) I come back weeks later to find WUs crunched and GENerations progressing  -- each of the original 10,000 WUs was the beginning of one trajectory, so at the end, I have 10,000 trajectories of 50 or 100 or more ns.
 * 6) Finally, I sift through the data and learn something new about protein folding!

The bolded 'GENerations' are the work units turned in from a donor's machine. That unit is one of a kind, it was generated either by the the project owner if it was a GENeration 0, or it was a work unit which is based on the result of a previous one. (Each GEN simulates 5 or 10 or 20 ns.) All tied together these generations are capable of displaying a large enough time slice to be of use to the researchers.

The above explanation is also old, it was made when the classic client was state of the art if I recall correctly. With the first SMP client the slice of time simulated in a single generation could be drastically increased. I can remember someone compared the situation then compared to the situation now with 'flipping a coin' thousands of times to get lucky, hopefully.

With the increased period of time each generation is capable of simulating, another interesting and important part of why the QBR is now in effect becomes clear. These scientists are clever guys, and it's not unheard of that they find a certain strain of GENerations more interesting then another strain in the same RUN or CLONE. So, making adjustments to which RUNs and or CLONEs will progress to the next generation and which should not will increase the speed with which interesting things can be observed by them.

So, the coin flipping is still in effect, but the chances are increased. And, it makes it even more important that each GENeration is turned in as quickly as possible. Much more then it would be important to run as many concurrent GENerations at one time, on the contrary there are now likely to be less different RUNs and CLONEs active in one project but there will be more generations for those RUNs and CLONEs.

Eligibility for the bonus
Eligibility is determined by the qualifications as described on


 * 1) Run the latest SMP client (v6.29 or above).
 * 2) Configure that client with a passkey.
 * 3) Complete 10 bonus qualified WUs (curently a2 and/or a3 work units)...
 * 4) within their preferred deadlines...
 * 5) using the same passkey and fah user name combination
 * 6) on one or more of your systems.
 * 7) Successfully return >=80% of assigned [bonus] WU's.

Or.

The bonus applies after you've done 10 a2 or a3 WUs provided you have used the same passkey and the same UserName on all applicable machines and provided you meet the 80% rule.

Once that requirement has been met, the bonus currently applies to a3 WUs and to bigadv projects (at least for the time being). You can tell by looking at the last column of psummary. The last field in the summary is the kFactor which is the base for getting a bonus

The bonus point formula
Peter Kasson, the man behind much of the new SMP2 Beta client has defined the bonus formula as follows in :

Bonus point formula Briefly summarizing our bonus formula, the bonus is applied for users who have a passkey, have successfully returned at least 10 bonus-eligible WU's, successfully return >=80% of assigned WU's, and return the WU before the preferred deadline. Bonus points do not apply to partial returns.

Our bonus formula calculates final points as follows: final_points = base_points * max(1,sqrt(k*deadline_length/elapsed_time)) Note that the max(1,...) ensures that final_points are never lower than base_points.

We can convert this formula to points per day as follows: ppd = base_ppd * speed_ratio * max(1,sqrt(x*speed_ratio)), where speed_ratio is the machine speed relative to the Core i5, and x = k * deadline_length.

To emphasize again why speed is important to the science consider this donor's post on. A base worth of a project consisting of 470 points but when completed as fast as this donor's machine is capable of provided him 5149 awarded points.

A stand alone calculator for the bonus points provided by third party developers is available as well.

The most widely used monitoring programs can calculate the PPD with bonus factor included.

Important things to remember

 * 1) There is no guarantee that bonus points will be awarded, even if you are completely faultless. It doesn't matter if the Stanford servers are down, or your ISP is down, or an asteroid hits your house.  If the fully completed work unit is not returned to Stanford before the deadline, no bonus points are credited.
 * 2) Make sure your passkey is the same when downloading and uploading a complete workunit or you will not receive the bonus. See:.
 * 3) Partial work units (EUEs) are not eligible for the bonus, but partial base points may still be credited.
 * 4) Remember that your bonus status can be revoked. See:.