<ot> Out of pure curiosity, how is it possible to squeeze more than 4 cores worth of performance out of the same 4 cores with HT? Are the native cores inefficiently set up, or is it an artifact of the type of computing in science apps?</ot>

On topic, it certainly seems more fair to count points rather than core time, and given that it seems pretty important to some I guess it's worth looking into. I just noticed on my new i7 it generated a little more time than I expected. At a cost, I'll add, as it sounds like a four-engine aeroplane ;-)

Anyhow, happy crunching :)

[Maybe it's like this. This airplane has four engines, but the Soviets put two contrarotating propellers on each engine. Maybe they figured they could get more work out of 8 propellers than 4, but not drag 4 more engines around. Maybe so. The Tu-95D Bear reconnaissance version has extreme endurance and range.

My 2 pence worth!

I fail to see why this thread is of any importance at all?, I crunched before there were Any badges... I crunched when there was only Bronze, Silver, Gold... And I crunch now that there is Ruby Emereld & Sapphire as well. And before I joined WCG, I also crunched on Grid.org, before they went down and they only had points.

Yes, I do agree that, on a personal level, it is nice for me to look at the badges I have obtained and I go for higher colours in full knowledge that it is helping that particular peice of research to finish, but thats it, thats all, other than that I really couldn't give two hoots about Points or Badges.

Maybe I've missed the point, but all I'm really interested in is trying to ensure that other people don't have to die premeturley and in untold amounts of pain from Aids & Cancer, as so many of my friends and family have, and if there comes a time when I am able to buy a 6000 core system, HT'ed to 12,000 cores, then I will and I will know that a cure will come even quicker.

I crunch because I want to, as does (I would assume), everyone else and I bring fourth any and all systems I can that will make a difference and if I make it to Blue in 5 weeks then great, fantastic.... If I make Blue in 5 years then equally great, fantastic, my ability to get badges makes no real difference to me one way or the other.

Remember, this whole discussion is all about a coloured square somewhere in Cyberspace, there are just soo many more improtant things to worry about then who gets what colour, when and with what system.

D.