CPU Boundries, Buffering, & Speed Discussion

[jdlev]

Well, the fantasy football optimization algorithm is up and running. Like all software, it's still got a few bugs, but I've tested it on smaller data sets, and it seems to hum along with the smaller data sets (usually less than 5 players per position).

So here's the rub, I've got it running on an older dell poweredge 2600 server with the 2.4gHz xeon processor running your typical sata hard drives. The program runs, and runs, and runs...and runs.

I extrapolated that with 10 positions to fill, and narrowing down the choices to about 150 options, the program has to run roughly 1.5 Quadrillion iterations to find the optimal solution.

I read up on the buffering issues, but confess, I have no idea what buffering is other than a place to store data (I assume in the memory) for quick access?

Is there a way to figure out how long a program should theoretically take to run through the full program? The whole I/O, pipes, tunnels, etc on computer communications is somewhat intimidating

I'm looking forward to the weekend, so I can load the program on my home server. I'm sure it will run through the program like a ferrari as opposed to the donkey cart the program currently runs on. I think the biggest difference will be made by the dual ssds drives it has. Those things move! The i7-3820 processor and 64gb of Ram should help as well :) I added a few lines to keep track of the start & completion time of the program to see how they compare. I will say if you guys don't have ssds - they're worth every penny. It completes a full check disk in under 5 minutes. My application servers in the office....3 friggin hours. Anyways...I'll stop ramblin now. Have a good weekend everyone :)