My Science Fair Project-The Ultimate SETI@Home Computer

Since 1984, the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute has been monitoring radio signals from space, hoping to find a message from intelligent aliens in our galaxy. Is this a wild goose chase? Possibly, but not necessarily. Mathematical formulae like Drake’s Equation, which calculate the possibility of alien life based on the abundance of resources, have demonstrated that extraterrestrials are likely to exist.
SETI is largely a volunteer organization, and it doesn’t have enough computing power in its labs to process the massive of amount of data it receives from the Arecibo radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, so it lets volunteers process the data on their home computers. In this effort, called SETI@Home, enthusiast’s desktops analyze as much signal information as possible while they aren’t in use, then send the data back to SETI via the internet, sorted into radio interference and possible extraterrestrial signals.
The goal of the science fair project will be to research SETI and build the perfect SETI@Home computer. The computer will be tested rigorously for speed and efficiency in processing SETI data and running other community-service programs. Other computers with different specifications, including Hal Rogoff’s dual processor workstation, will also run SETI@Home and have their results compared to the project computer. Adaptations to the computer will include cutting edge technology like a socket 775 motherboard, 3.4 Gigahertz processor and a Gigabyte internet card. Other components will be selected to optimize the machines SETI@Home speed. Results and observations from the experiment will be recorded on a weblog at
SETI@Home breaks information into work units to be sent to home computers and processed. The project machine is expected to process one unit approximately every three hours, putting it near the top SETI’s pack.

The case--back when it was empty and room wasn't strewn with computer parts.

The Computer

All of the computer’s components are yet to be bought, but the core features are be an ASUS P5AD2 Premium motherboard and an Intel Pentium 4 550 processor initially operating at 3.4 gigahertz. The P5AD2 Premium uses DDR2 system memory, so the computer will have one gigabyte of that memory, operating initially at 533 megahertz.
The motherboard was chosen for two reasons. Having just been released, it uses the new LGA775 processor socket, the device on the motherboard to which the processor attaches. LGA (lowered grid array) sockets have communication pins in the socket instead of on the processor, making the connection more delicate but simultaneously more conductive. This increases the speed of communication between the processor and motherboard, one of the most inhibiting factors in today’s computers. Also, it is said to be fit for overclocking (“power modding”), the finessed process by which a computer owner increases CPU and system memory voltage, boosting performance. The effects of overclocking will be tested on Seti@home, and it is expected to provide a serious advantage.
Overclocking will probably push the processor to at least four gigahertz in the time provided for the experiment, likely higher. The CPU was chosen as the most powerful Pentium 4 aside from the six gigahertz model, which was not chosen due to its price of approximately $500. Intel’s Pentium 4 line was selected over AMD’s Athlon processors for two reasons: Athlons sacrifice raw clock speed for clever data juggling techniques, which can be hard to manage. Also, the fastest Athlons (the Athlon 64 series) use 64-bit architecture, a technology that is wasted on 32-bit operating systems and applications.The machine will probably be assembled by December, and it is then expected to complete a Seti@home work unit every three to five hours, possibly faster with different settings enabled.

The machine is currently nickname "Project Epsilon" for no good reason. The Lambda was already taken. I will be playing HL2.

Testing

Once the project computer is assembled, various tests will be conducted to
monitor the effect of computer modifications on the speed of mailto:SETI@Home operation. Different settings and components will be tweaked and replaced, and the results will be used to create a list of optimal conditions for SETI@Home. This list will be posted at setisciencefair.blogspot.com so other SETI@Home users can emulate it with their PC for maximum signal analysis.
One of the most important and delicate tests will be that of overclocking the computer, discussed briefly in the “The Computer” section. Overclocking is easy to try, but hard to master, and its nuances are discussed in the “Overclocking” section.
The importance of RAM (Random Access Memory) will also be examined. It is know that SETI@Home can accomplish its task with as little as sixteen megabytes of RAM, but the program will be tested with one 512 megabyte DDR2 module, then with two of these modules running in tandem (for a total capacity of one gigabyte). This would seem an irrelevant test, since SETI@Home, as mentioned, will only implement sixteen of these 512 or 1,024 (one gigabyte) megabytes, but since DDR2 is specifically designed to run in pairs of modules, writing efficiency and speed increase with two modules.
To record information streaming from the CPU, the RAM must run at least close to its interlocutor’s speed. If the CPU runs at 4.01 gigahertz and the RAM only records at 433 megahertz, the RAM will not remain up-to-date, and the system will either crash, or the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), will lower the processor speed. Because of this, the RAM’s write speed will be overclocked simultaneously with the CPU. This, also, is discussed further in the “Overclocking” section. It is likely that many tweaks and changes will have little or no effect on mailto:SETI@Home running speed. This will not be a failure, but a crucial part of discovering which modifications are useful and which are not; extreme precision and useless data are facets of computing experiments; many of the performance differences that are detected will probably be small, and largely irrelevant to average SETI@Home volunteers. The publishing of these findings will be useful for extreme speed optimization and interesting from a conceptual perspective. Also, with more powerful computers in the years to come, certain small performance differences may become more evident or fall under greater scrutiny.

The Arecibo Radio Telescope

One must understand that, as home to Earth’s most sensitive radio telescope, the Arecibo National Observatory handles a broad range of tasks, SETI@Home a low priority. It only a small portion of each day scanning the sky for extraterrestrial signals, but this is plenty time to keep 52,411,88 home computers busy. Run by the National Atmosphere and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), its attention is focused mainly on Earth’s atmosphere, which it can view with extreme precision using radio waves. Being a radio telescope, Arecibo does not enhance visual pictures like a pair of binoculars or a magnifying glass. Instead, it measures radio waves coming from the atmosphere and above, which are bounced off its 1000 feet-in-diameter spherical dome up into a Gregorian dome, which houses diverse antenna arrays.

The front of the case. Like my room, it really needs a cleaning. There are two blue LEDs under the overlap that look awsome in real life. You can just see the glow...