UPDATE: If you are a programmer, when you finish this page, you might be interested to wander over to the Identifying Lychrels page or the Wish List page, and see what they are all about...
I've been lucky enough to try a number of programs written by different people, and do some comparisons.
The Speed King title has changed hands a number of times. I am TRYING to keep this page up to date!! If something is wrong, it's probably my fault, and if you let me know about it gently, I will correct it.
The following is a brief comparison of the fastest applications. The test machine is a 2.8GHz Pentium IV (Hyper-threading enabled) with an 800MHz FSB, over-clocked to 2.95GHz, with (2) - 512Mb, 400MHz (PC3200) DDR SDRAM modules (1GB total), 40GB hard drive, running Windows XP pro.
NOTE: Some of the apps below take advantage of the P4's Hyper-threading ability, and some do not. I have made no distinction between them on this page. If the app has the ability to utilize hyper-threading or any other "tricks" to gain an advantage in processing I have allowed it and run the app in the fastest method I can get it to run in. The only thing I have ever asked of the coders, was for them to send me an app that could be used in "the real world" for this search. I don't see any distinction between an app that uses H.T., and one that does not, for the purposes of this page.
The iterations tested below, represent a shallow test of the first 603,567 iterations, (3 - 250,000 digits), and a deep test of 50,000 iterations with a larger starting data file (20,000,000 to 20,020,728 digits).
I think everyone would agree with me, that the deeper test times are of greater importance than the shallow digit times. That is the reason that some apps are listed ahead of others, even though the shallow times are "backwards". I have ranked them based on deep iteration testing...
I don't know the best way to display all of the information that I want to, on this page, so I am going to list the times for the fastest apps that I have, and then detail only the three fastest... I hope it works....
SCREENSHOTS
NOTE: This page only deals with apps running in STAND ALONE MODE!! If you are interested in apps that can be run by spreading the workload across a network of computers, jump over to the DISTRIBUTED SOFTWARE page.
| Coder's name and Location | 0 - 603,567 Iterations | 48,316,988 - 48,366,988 Iterations |
| Vaughn Suite - Trinidad | 0:51 | 12:12 |
| Pierre Laurent - France | 1:09 | 12:40 |
| Eric Goldstein - Netherlands | 1:00 | 13:55 |
| Ben Despres - USA | 1:45 | 25:35 |
| Eric Sellers - Canada | 1:50 | 26:28 |
| Matt Stenson - Australia | 2:19 | 33:27 |
| Chris Lomont - USA | 1:23 | 37:15 |
| Istvan Bozsik - Hungary | 11:31 | Not Tested |
| Doug Hoyte - Canada | 14:24 | Not Tested |
| David Gillies - Costa Rica | 21:31 | Not Tested |
| Jack Driscoll - USA | 22:13 | Not Tested |
| John Walker - Switzerland | 1:07:30 | Not Tested |
| Wade VanLandingham - USA | 14:01:31 to 3,105 Iterations | Not Tested |
| Coder's Name and Location. | Eric Goldstein - Netherlands | Pierre Laurent - France | Vaughn Suite - Trinidad |
| Program Size. | 34 Kb | 180 Kb | 28 KB |
| Time to reach 603,567 iterations, starting at 0. | 1 Min 00 Sec | 1 Min 09 Sec | 0 Min 51 Sec |
| Time to reach 48,366,988 iterations, starting from 48,316,988 | 13 Min 55 Sec | 12 Min 40 Sec | 12 Min 12 Sec |
| Run Time Indication | Times written to log file. | Displays seconds count at screen update. | Displays total time of current file. |
| Digit Count Monitoring | Updates screen per entry in Config screen. (ie: every 15 sec) | Displays digit count per command line option. | Updates screen every 1,000 digits. |
| Iteration Counter | Updates screen per entry in Config screen. (ie: every 15 sec) | Displays iteration count per command line option. | Updates screen every 1,000 digits. |
| OS Environment | Windows. CPU Priority selectable with "Slider Bar" | Windows or Linux | Windows. Command Line. Real Time Mode. |
| Save Schedule | Save on quit. Autosave on user selectable intervals in seconds. Autosave on user selectable iteration intervals. Save on any iteration count specified. Save on any digit length specified. | Autosave on user selectable intervals in seconds. Autosave on user selectable iteration intervals. Save on any iteration count specified. Save on any digit length specified. | Save on quit. Save on any iteration count specified. Save on any digit length specified. Autosaves on user selectable iteration or digit intervals. |
| Max Calculation | Limited by test computer RAM. | Reported to be limited to 1 billion digits. | Limited by test computer RAM. |
| Versatility | Can be used to test any number for a palindromic solution. | Can be used to test any number for a palindromic solution. | Can be used to test any number for a palindromic solution. |
| Comments | Writes a very useful log file of program events such as milestones, periodic saves, start times, status etc etc. | The first network capable app, this is the standard everyone will have to live up to. | ... |
I am very happy with all of the applications I have tested. In the fact that the most important feature of each is that they are accurate. Eric's, Ben's and Vaughn's all run with other applications loaded, and they are "other application friendly". Eric and Ben use a slider bar allows you to select the priority of the 196 app, ranging from "CPU LOW" to "CPU INSANE". (and boy, are they at that setting!!)
If you have an application that you would like me to compare against these, I'd be happy to be an independent tester for anyone. Sadly, I am limited to DOS or Windows applications.
I have been using different apps for long enough that I have found certain "features" that have become important to me. (Or just really nice to have.) If you are going to send me an app to test, I would ask for the following to be available in your final version. (Well, no one has ever had a "final version" except the people who have decided to stop working on this problem, but you get my idea.) I can test without some of these things, but I would like to have them in place for a functional copy!!
1. Your app MUST be able to read and save a file in ISF format. Details of the format can be found on the File Verification page. If I can't read my existing files, I won't be able to do any deep iteration testing, and the world will never know of your programing genius. This also affects me in file verification. It is VERY important to me.
2. Your app should save on whatever schedule you think is best, by default, but I will ask that you allow it to be able to autosave on user selectable times (in seconds). Saving every 10,000 iterations is great, except that in the shallow numbers, you spend MORE time saving as you do running, and by the time you get to 50,000,000 digits, 10,000 iterations might not be often enough in my opinion. I move the autosave function anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours, depending on the weather here in Florida, or if I'm going on vacation or something. If your app doesn't save on a selectable time interval, I probably wouldn't use it in the long run. (But I can easily TEST it, without this function.)
3. Your app should autosave to a unique file name each time. What the name is, I don't care. I'll adapt to whatever name system you choose. But I really want to be able to go back and recalculate a portion of the number if something
goes wrong with my system, or if I just feel like it. (I have done that for verifications!!) I guess the more popular name system that I've seen has been something along the lines of:
StartingNumber_IterationNumber_DigitNumber.isf
This works really well for me, but if you choose something else for your own reasons, that's fine with me. Again, I can test without it, but in the long run, I probably won't ever use another program that doesn't save to a unique file each time.
And if you're worried about filling the hard drive with data.... I go through regularly and purge the directory. I pay very close attention to the capacity of my 196 partition. I lost some data once, because I had filled the drive, and I learned that lesson well!! Besides, as the files get larger.... I'll buy a bigger drive. :-)
4. A time display function is nice. Not NEEDED exactly, and I have seen a lot of different measurements, but it is a nice touch, however it's implemented.
5. Eric Goldstein's app writes a log file of program activity that is a VERY nice addition. A sample log, looks like this:
2003-01-03 19:02:57 Start
2003-01-03 19:02:57 Running as normal executable
2003-01-03 19:02:57 Priority set to 1 (was 1)
2003-01-03 19:02:57 Allocating 1048576 bytes...
2003-01-03 19:02:58 Allocation successful.
2003-01-03
19:02:59 Trying to read e:\196\running\periodic\ISF_Current_196.isf...
2003-01-03 19:02:59 Success. Continuing from iteration 163143316, digits 67526818
2003-01-03 19:02:59 Reallocation needed
2003-01-03 19:02:59 Allocating
68157440 bytes...
2003-01-03 19:02:59 Allocation successful.
2003-01-03 20:02:58 Periodic save at iteration 163173188, digits 67539100
2003-01-03 20:37:49 Suspended.
2003-01-03 20:38:23 Resumed.
2003-01-03 20:38:23
Stopping...
2003-01-03 20:38:23 Periodic save at iteration 163190179, digits 67546167
2003-01-03 20:38:35 Stopped
6. A stop, pause or suspend button that doesn't close the application is VERY important to me. Something to get the app to quit running while I'm trying to run something in LabView or whatever. A lot of times, I don't need to shut the app down for more than a few seconds, like when I do my Excel updates, and I want to be able to see the iterations and digits without opening the file. A suspend or pause button is the best. A stop works well enough, except for the time it's writing the file, and I'm waiting to restart it.
7. Your app MUST autosave on normal exiting. I can teach my girlfriend and her kids how to shut the program down safely, but I don't want them to have to worry about saving before they do so. Every app I have right now has this function. It's almost as important as reading an ISF file format!!
8. A self verification check of some sort is a definite plus!! Ben Despres' MOD-9 check has been documented MANY times to have saved my skin, when something has gone wrong. Eric Sellers and Eric Goldstein both implemented it in their apps, and both apps have "caught themselves" making an error somewhere along the line. For example, Eric Goldstein's app, verifies the file every time it saves or reloads. As a result, when there is an error, it is caught quickly. This is an extremely nice function!!!
9. Do us both a favor, and put a version number somewhere obvious in your app. Something like the title bar works well. This is important for me giving you feedback, so we both know which version is being discussed. I'll most likely keep copies of all the app revisions you send, and this will avoid confusion.
I think most of the other things I look for in an app are pretty "nit-picky". But the user-friendliness is important on any application, and in an environment like mine, where I have to share the computer, it could make all the difference, between running your app, or just testing it, and setting it aside.
I'd also like to thank all the people who have sent me applications to test. Some of them are:
Jason Doucette Jason was the first person to let me use his application for this quest. I ran his application from about 12.5 million to 14 million digits. His DOS based program got me hooked. Jason, thank you for letting me begin this quest.
David Gillies in Costa Rica sent me a Linux application. Unfortunately, my Linux load messed up, and I have never bothered to reloaded it, to test this app. Tom of the USA (I don't know his last name) has tested this app and as of an email dated August 24, 2002, he had this to say: 6619137 iterations, 383933 seconds, 2740498 size. Taking ~2000 seconds per 16k iterations now... Not sure how that compares for speed against the other clients, but it's chugging away... Thanks Tom! NOTE: Matt Stenson of Australia compiled and sent me David's code, as can be seen in the above time chart. Thanks Matt!
Nathan Moinvaziri sent me a Windows app. It lagged behind a bit compared to Istvan's, but I was very happy to get his program. Thank you Nathan.
Jack Ryan had sent me a Windows program that was accurate, but compared to these speed giants, I didn't use it. Thank you Jack.
Other people are either working on programs, or are running what they have created for themselves. I have not seem most of them, but I would like to credit Cesar Delgado, Alexander Macdonald, and everyone else who is working on this.
I like looking at the different approaches people take, to get to the same result. And secretly, I like the suspense, of testing, to find out if "this one" is going to become the new "Speed King"!!
Send me your applications for testing!!! Like I said... I love the suspense.