Welcome to the Great Conjunction Challenge

The ninth and final challenge of the 2020 Series will be a 10-day challenge marking the extraordinarily rare astronomical event known as the Great Conjunction. The challenge will be offered on the GFN-18, GFN-19, and GFN-20 subprojects, beginning 21 December 13:22 UTC and ending 31 December 13:22 UTC.

In astronomy, "conjunction" describe meetings of planets and other objects on our sky’s dome. The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is already underway and highly conspicuous in the west after sunset each evening. On December 21, the pair will be only 0.1 degree apart. Great Conjunctions happen every 20 years; the last one was in the year 2000. But these conjunctions aren’t all created equal. The 2020 Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will be the closest since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226! 2020’s extra-close Great Conjunction won’t be matched again until March 15, 2080.

Or, if you prefer a different completely real and equally scientific field...

In astrology, a conjunction is when the vibrations of two planets blend and work together. Both planets are associated with authority, but each very differently. Jupiter is a generous leader who’s associated with health, wealth, and having a good time, while Saturn favors strict responsibility and setting limits. A Great Conjunction represents a time for you to release old habits in order to make way for new ways of doing things. If you aren’t open to change, it can feel uncomfortable. But if you are, you can make incredible progress toward dreams you’ve held onto for a long time. For best results, choose a big, juicy goal that’s been calling to you for a while and spend as much time as you can in 2021 working toward it.


Sources: EarthSky, AstroShaman

To participate in the Challenge, please select only the GFN-18 and/or GFN-19 and/or GFN-20 subprojects in your PrimeGrid preferences section.

Note: The deadline for some of these WUs is longer than ten days, so make sure your computer is able to return the WUs within the challenge time-frame. Only tasks issued AFTER the start time and returned BEFORE the finish time will be counted.


Application Builds

IMPORTANT: Overclocking -- including factory overclocking -- on Nvidia GPUs is very strongly discouraged. Even if your GPU can run other tasks without difficulty, it may be unable to run GFN tasks when overclocked.

Supported platforms:

• Windows: Nvidia GPU (OpenCL): 32 bit, AMD/ATI GPU (OpenCL): 32 bit, CPU: 64 bit, 32 bit
  
• Linux: Nvidia GPU (OpenCL): 32 bit, 64 bit, AMD/ATI GPU (OpenCL): 32 bit, 64 bit, CPU: 64 bit, 32 bit
  
• Mac: Nvidia GPU (OpenCL): 64 bit, AMD/ATI GPU (OpenCL): 64 bit, CPU: 64 bit, 32 bit
  

A Cautionary Reminder

ATTENTION: The primality programs Genefer (for CPUs) and GeneferOCL (for GPUs) are computationally intensive; so, it is vital to have a stable system with good cooling. It does not tolerate "even the slightest of errors." Please see this post for more details on how you can "stress test" your CPU, and please see this post for tips on running GFN on your GPU successfully.

As with all number crunching, excessive heat can potentially cause permanent hardware failure. Please ensure your cooling system is sufficient.

GFN-18 WU's are currently averaging 6.5 hours on CPU and 30 minutes on GPU.
GFN-19 WU's are currently averaging 3.5 days on CPU and 1.75 hours on GPU.
GFN-20 WU's are currently averaging 25.5 days on CPU and 5 hours on GPU.
For a general idea of how your GPU stacks up, you can have a look at the fastest GPUs list.

If your CPU is highly overclocked, please consider "stress testing" it. Overclocking your GPU is not recommended at all for GeneferCUDA. Sieving is an excellent alternative for computers that are not able to run Genefer. :)

Please, please, please make sure your machines are up to the task.

Time zone converter:

The World Clock - Time Zone Converter

NOTE: The countdown clock on the front page uses the host computer time. Therefore, if your computer time is off, so will the countdown clock. For precise timing, use the UTC Time in the data section to the left of the countdown clock.

Scoring information

Scores will be kept for individuals and teams. Only work units issued AFTER December 21st 13:22:00 UTC and received BEFORE December 31st 13:22:00 UTC will be considered for credit.

In this challenge we will be using the same scoring algorithm as we use to determine BOINC credits, including bonuses! Because the score bonuses are included in the challenge score, it is advantageous to run the longer tasks if you can manage to finish them within the 10 day challenge window. This will land you a higher position in the leaderboard and therefor a higher score on the overall leaderboard.

At the Conclusion of the Challenge

We kindly ask users "moving on" to ABORT their WU's instead of DETACHING, RESETTING, or PAUSING.

ABORTING WU's alows them to be recycled immediately; thus a much faster "clean up" to the end of a challenge. DETACHING, RESETTING, and PAUSING WU's causes them to remain in limbo until they EXPIRE. Therefore, we must wait until WU's expire to send them out to be completed.

Please consider either completing what's in the queue or ABORTING them. Thank you. :)

More information on Generalized Fermat Numbers and the Genefer program

• Generalized Fermat Number Search Forum
  
• Wikipedia: Generalized Fermat Numbers
  
• Wikipedia: Pierre de Fermat
  
• Yves Gallot's Generalized Primes Search pages
  

Best of Luck to everyone!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

How do I join the challenge?

Ahhh my alarm clock was set 2 minutes late... getting tasks now :)
____________
SHSID Electronics Group
SHSIDElectronicsGroup@outlook.com

GFN-14: 50103906^16384+1
Proth "SoB": 44243*2^440969+1

I am running on i7-8650U CPU @ 1.90GHz. Why are my estimated times for the Genfer19 Tasks at 50 days; Genfer 18 at 10 days, and Genfer 20 at 200 days? At those completion times, I will never get any credit for this challenge

I am finding myself hitting a very hard cache wall on some of my CPU tasks running GFN 18's

For example when i set it to run 50% with boinc on a 3950x i was seeing task times that were almost twice as long as on my 3900x tasks. I am pretty sure this is a cache wall because i lowered this to 37.5% boinc usage and with 12 tasks running the task times improved by almost 50% faster. This however means i am leaving 4 cores idle which is not ideal. I am wondering if it would be possible to specify 2 cores per tasks in an app_info.xml or similar? If so does someone have the details of the commands needed. Thanks!

Hmm thanks for clarifying and confirming what i figured was the case. Its a shame how this basically hamstrings my 3950x I also think my first gen Ryzen is having similar struggles do you happen to have recommended task numbers for Ryzen 7 (1700 / 1700x / 1950x)

24 hours in - here are the stats! Separated by subproject.

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 26 (GFN-18)
(As of 2020-12-22 15:25:56 UTC)

45357 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 30202 (67%) / 15155 (33%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

3755 (8%) were aborted. [2875 (6%) / 880 (2%) / 0 (0%)]
662 (1%) came back with some kind of an error. [402 (1%) / 260 (1%) / 0 (0%)]
22154 (49%) have returned a successful result. [10610 (23%) / 11544 (25%) / 0 (0%)]
18786 (41%) are still in progress. [16315 (36%) / 2471 (5%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

9481 (43%) are pending validation. [4408 (20%) / 5073 (23%) / 0 (0%)]
12668 (57%) have been successfully validated. [6198 (28%) / 6470 (29%) / 0 (0%)]
3 (0%) were invalid. [3 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
2 (0%) are inconclusive. [1 (0%) / 1 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=11935916. The leading edge was at b=11805752 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 1.10% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 27 (GFN-19)
(As of 2020-12-22 15:25:58 UTC)

6179 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 1513 (24%) / 4666 (76%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

353 (6%) were aborted. [101 (2%) / 252 (4%) / 0 (0%)]
200 (3%) came back with some kind of an error. [10 (0%) / 190 (3%) / 0 (0%)]
3153 (51%) have returned a successful result. [44 (1%) / 3109 (50%) / 0 (0%)]
2473 (40%) are still in progress. [1358 (22%) / 1115 (18%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

1414 (45%) are pending validation. [17 (1%) / 1397 (44%) / 0 (0%)]
1726 (55%) have been successfully validated. [27 (1%) / 1699 (54%) / 0 (0%)]
5 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 5 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
8 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 8 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=4126618. The leading edge was at b=4108048 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 0.45% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 28 (GFN-20)
(As of 2020-12-22 15:25:59 UTC)

10354 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 516 (5%) / 9838 (95%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

1566 (15%) were aborted. [190 (2%) / 1376 (13%) / 0 (0%)]
288 (3%) came back with some kind of an error. [1 (0%) / 287 (3%) / 0 (0%)]
4365 (42%) have returned a successful result. [0 (0%) / 4365 (42%) / 0 (0%)]
4135 (40%) are still in progress. [325 (3%) / 3810 (37%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

2261 (52%) are pending validation. [0 (0%) / 2261 (52%) / 0 (0%)]
2101 (48%) have been successfully validated. [0 (0%) / 2101 (48%) / 0 (0%)]
2 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 2 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
1 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 1 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=1576306. The leading edge was at b=1552110 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 1.56% as much as it had prior to the challenge!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Day 2 stats:

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 26 (GFN-18)
(As of 2020-12-23 17:25:41 UTC)

73152 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 46775 (64%) / 26377 (36%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

5583 (8%) were aborted. [4648 (6%) / 935 (1%) / 0 (0%)]
973 (1%) came back with some kind of an error. [414 (1%) / 559 (1%) / 0 (0%)]
47254 (65%) have returned a successful result. [25747 (35%) / 21507 (29%) / 0 (0%)]
19342 (26%) are still in progress. [15967 (22%) / 3376 (5%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

12498 (26%) are pending validation. [6569 (14%) / 5929 (13%) / 0 (0%)]
34741 (74%) have been successfully validated. [19168 (41%) / 15573 (33%) / 0 (0%)]
5 (0%) were invalid. [4 (0%) / 1 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
10 (0%) are inconclusive. [6 (0%) / 4 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=12019764. The leading edge was at b=11805752 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 1.81% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 27 (GFN-19)
(As of 2020-12-23 17:25:44 UTC)

12555 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 3064 (24%) / 9491 (76%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

999 (8%) were aborted. [708 (6%) / 291 (2%) / 0 (0%)]
381 (3%) came back with some kind of an error. [0 (0%) / 381 (3%) / 0 (0%)]
7668 (61%) have returned a successful result. [486 (4%) / 7182 (57%) / 0 (0%)]
3507 (28%) are still in progress. [1870 (15%) / 1637 (13%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

2480 (32%) are pending validation. [127 (2%) / 2353 (31%) / 0 (0%)]
5165 (67%) have been successfully validated. [359 (5%) / 4806 (63%) / 0 (0%)]
9 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 9 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
14 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 14 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=4145210. The leading edge was at b=4108048 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 0.90% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 28 (GFN-20)
(As of 2020-12-23 17:25:45 UTC)

17237 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 770 (4%) / 16467 (96%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

1633 (9%) were aborted. [235 (1%) / 1398 (8%) / 0 (0%)]
535 (3%) came back with some kind of an error. [1 (0%) / 534 (3%) / 0 (0%)]
10247 (59%) have returned a successful result. [0 (0%) / 10247 (59%) / 0 (0%)]
4823 (28%) are still in progress. [534 (3%) / 4289 (25%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

3268 (32%) are pending validation. [0 (0%) / 3268 (32%) / 0 (0%)]
6963 (68%) have been successfully validated. [0 (0%) / 6963 (68%) / 0 (0%)]
8 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 8 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
8 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 8 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=1595652. The leading edge was at b=1552110 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 2.81% as much as it had prior to the challenge!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

They'll be along shortly,

they've been delayed by transport restrictions due to a most annoying pandemic situation that will shortly be an unpleasant memory.

Please be patient and enjoy the challenge. :)

Reward for effort is imminent, just who..... is the question ;)
____________
My lucky numbers 1059094^1048576+1 and 224584605939537911+81292139*23#*n for n=0..26

Merry Christmas to all!!

And COME, PRIMES, COME!!
____________
SHSID Electronics Group
SHSIDElectronicsGroup@outlook.com

GFN-14: 50103906^16384+1
Proth "SoB": 44243*2^440969+1

Merry Christmas and happy Challenge Day 4!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 26 (GFN-18)
(As of 2020-12-25 03:25:52 UTC)

112470 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 70254 (62%) / 42216 (38%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

7022 (6%) were aborted. [5373 (5%) / 1649 (1%) / 0 (0%)]
1331 (1%) came back with some kind of an error. [437 (0%) / 894 (1%) / 0 (0%)]
81466 (72%) have returned a successful result. [45799 (41%) / 35667 (32%) / 0 (0%)]
22651 (20%) are still in progress. [18645 (17%) / 4006 (4%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

16199 (20%) are pending validation. [8588 (11%) / 7611 (9%) / 0 (0%)]
65247 (80%) have been successfully validated. [37197 (46%) / 28050 (34%) / 0 (0%)]
10 (0%) were invalid. [7 (0%) / 3 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
10 (0%) are inconclusive. [7 (0%) / 3 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=12141774. The leading edge was at b=11805752 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 2.85% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 27 (GFN-19)
(As of 2020-12-25 03:25:57 UTC)

19027 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 3651 (19%) / 15376 (81%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

1218 (6%) were aborted. [738 (4%) / 480 (3%) / 0 (0%)]
571 (3%) came back with some kind of an error. [2 (0%) / 569 (3%) / 0 (0%)]
13864 (73%) have returned a successful result. [1051 (6%) / 12813 (67%) / 0 (0%)]
3374 (18%) are still in progress. [1860 (10%) / 1514 (8%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

2727 (20%) are pending validation. [207 (1%) / 2520 (18%) / 0 (0%)]
11093 (80%) have been successfully validated. [844 (6%) / 10249 (74%) / 0 (0%)]
27 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 27 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
17 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 17 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=4162690. The leading edge was at b=4108048 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 1.33% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 28 (GFN-20)
(As of 2020-12-25 03:25:59 UTC)

27376 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 927 (3%) / 26449 (97%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

1786 (7%) were aborted. [267 (1%) / 1519 (6%) / 0 (0%)]
1723 (6%) came back with some kind of an error. [3 (0%) / 1720 (6%) / 0 (0%)]
18691 (68%) have returned a successful result. [3 (0%) / 18688 (68%) / 0 (0%)]
5177 (19%) are still in progress. [654 (2%) / 4523 (17%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

3733 (20%) are pending validation. [1 (0%) / 3732 (20%) / 0 (0%)]
14928 (80%) have been successfully validated. [2 (0%) / 14926 (80%) / 0 (0%)]
24 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 24 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
6 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 6 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=1621174. The leading edge was at b=1552110 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 4.45% as much as it had prior to the challenge!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Day 5 update:

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 26 (GFN-18)
(As of 2020-12-26 15:15:58 UTC)

156531 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 101022 (65%) / 55509 (35%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

16211 (10%) were aborted. [13500 (9%) / 2711 (2%) / 0 (0%)]
2131 (1%) came back with some kind of an error. [849 (1%) / 1282 (1%) / 0 (0%)]
116805 (75%) have returned a successful result. [68727 (44%) / 48078 (31%) / 0 (0%)]
21384 (14%) are still in progress. [17946 (11%) / 3438 (2%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

14489 (12%) are pending validation. [8334 (7%) / 6155 (5%) / 0 (0%)]
102281 (88%) have been successfully validated. [60364 (52%) / 41917 (36%) / 0 (0%)]
23 (0%) were invalid. [19 (0%) / 4 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
12 (0%) are inconclusive. [10 (0%) / 2 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=12245500. The leading edge was at b=11805752 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 3.72% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 27 (GFN-19)
(As of 2020-12-26 15:16:03 UTC)

24552 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 4266 (17%) / 20286 (83%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

1310 (5%) were aborted. [764 (3%) / 546 (2%) / 0 (0%)]
772 (3%) came back with some kind of an error. [0 (0%) / 772 (3%) / 0 (0%)]
19526 (80%) have returned a successful result. [1966 (8%) / 17560 (72%) / 0 (0%)]
2944 (12%) are still in progress. [1536 (6%) / 1408 (6%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

2463 (13%) are pending validation. [219 (1%) / 2244 (11%) / 0 (0%)]
17000 (87%) have been successfully validated. [1747 (9%) / 15253 (78%) / 0 (0%)]
45 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 45 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
18 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 18 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=4179982. The leading edge was at b=4108048 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 1.75% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 28 (GFN-20)
(As of 2020-12-26 15:16:05 UTC)

38785 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 1161 (3%) / 37624 (97%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

2010 (5%) were aborted. [290 (1%) / 1720 (4%) / 0 (0%)]
2757 (7%) came back with some kind of an error. [11 (0%) / 2746 (7%) / 0 (0%)]
28343 (73%) have returned a successful result. [19 (0%) / 28324 (73%) / 0 (0%)]
5675 (15%) are still in progress. [841 (2%) / 4834 (12%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

4197 (15%) are pending validation. [1 (0%) / 4196 (15%) / 0 (0%)]
24090 (85%) have been successfully validated. [18 (0%) / 24072 (85%) / 0 (0%)]
44 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 44 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
12 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 12 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=1650904. The leading edge was at b=1552110 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 6.37% as much as it had prior to the challenge!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

I started tracking the leading edge of all of the GFN projects during the middle of the year. Here is how each of the projects in the challenge have progressed since then, all on a single chart:



The uptick in GFN 18 tasks is certainly noticeable. Great progress.
____________

Nice work. The relative increase for GFN-20 is even larger, considering its base is only 1/6 of that of GFN-18. You could plot the slope to show that.
____________
Primes: 1281979 & 12+8+1979 & 1+2+8+1+9+7+9 & 1^2+2^2+8^2+1^2+9^2+7^2+9^2 & 12*8+19*79 & 12^8-1979 & 1281979 + 4 (cousin prime)

Nice work. The relative increase for GFN-20 is even larger, considering its base is only 1/6 of that of GFN-18. You could plot the slope to show that.

12 hours left in the challenge! Some friendly reminders... :)

At the Conclusion of the Challenge

When the challenge completes, we would prefer users "moving on" to finish those tasks they have downloaded, if not then please ABORT the WU's (and then UPDATE the PrimeGrid project) instead of DETACHING, RESETTING, or PAUSING.

ABORTING WU's allows them to be recycled immediately; thus a much faster "clean up" to the end of a Challenge. DETACHING, RESETTING, and PAUSING WU's causes them to remain in limbo until they EXPIRE. Therefore, we must wait until WU's expire to send them out to be completed.

Likewise, if you're shutting down the computer for an extended period of time, or deleting the VM (Virtual Machine), please ABORT all remaining tasks first. Also, be aware that merely shutting off a cloud server doesn't stop the billing. You have to destroy/delete the server if you don't want to continue to be charged for it.

Thank you!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Also, if you abort WUs on a VM, make sure to report them (click the "Update" button) before destroying the VM. I've failed to do that at least twice.

GFN19 just lags behind. It's probably worth noting for future years that combining more than two different projects together in this way during a challenge will lead to at least one of them sparsely being chosen due to the others being more advantageous from a pure optimization perspective.

And we're done! Here are the final stats. Cleanup tasks are now avaliable.

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 26 (GFN-18)
(As of 2020-12-31 13:41:28 UTC)

313802 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 196197 (63%) / 117605 (37%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

38712 (12%) were aborted. [32783 (10%) / 5929 (2%) / 0 (0%)]
4836 (2%) came back with some kind of an error. [1302 (0%) / 3534 (1%) / 0 (0%)]
251639 (80%) have returned a successful result. [148173 (47%) / 103466 (33%) / 0 (0%)]
17523 (6%) are still in progress. [13674 (4%) / 3849 (1%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

15018 (6%) are pending validation. [8278 (3%) / 6740 (3%) / 0 (0%)]
236541 (94%) have been successfully validated. [139833 (56%) / 96708 (38%) / 0 (0%)]
72 (0%) were invalid. [59 (0%) / 13 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
10 (0%) are inconclusive. [4 (0%) / 6 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=12677348. The leading edge was at b=11805752 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 7.38% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 27 (GFN-19)
(As of 2020-12-31 13:41:39 UTC)

40527 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 5674 (14%) / 34853 (86%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

1917 (5%) were aborted. [1004 (2%) / 913 (2%) / 0 (0%)]
1608 (4%) came back with some kind of an error. [31 (0%) / 1577 (4%) / 0 (0%)]
34665 (86%) have returned a successful result. [3688 (9%) / 30977 (76%) / 0 (0%)]
2266 (6%) are still in progress. [945 (2%) / 1321 (3%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

2165 (6%) are pending validation. [144 (0%) / 2021 (6%) / 0 (0%)]
32384 (93%) have been successfully validated. [3543 (10%) / 28841 (83%) / 0 (0%)]
106 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 106 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
10 (0%) are inconclusive. [1 (0%) / 9 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=4226304. The leading edge was at b=4108048 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 2.88% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

Challenge: Great Conjunction
App: 28 (GFN-20)
(As of 2020-12-31 13:41:40 UTC)

74288 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 1794 (2%) / 72494 (98%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

3496 (5%) were aborted. [467 (1%) / 3029 (4%) / 0 (0%)]
4137 (6%) came back with some kind of an error. [40 (0%) / 4097 (6%) / 0 (0%)]
62112 (84%) have returned a successful result. [173 (0%) / 61939 (83%) / 0 (0%)]
4494 (6%) are still in progress. [1114 (1%) / 3380 (5%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

4221 (7%) are pending validation. [8 (0%) / 4213 (7%) / 0 (0%)]
57748 (93%) have been successfully validated. [165 (0%) / 57583 (93%) / 0 (0%)]
121 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 121 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
22 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 22 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is b=1746488. The leading edge was at b=1552110 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 12.52% as much as it had prior to the challenge!

____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

A few days ago, GFN-19 was calculated with OCL3 in approx. 50 minutes (using GTX 1660 Super).
Today, GFN-19 was calculated with OCL2 and it took more than 1h 20m.
Is it going to stay like this?

Cleanup Status:

Dec 31: 17709 tasks outstanding; 11421 affecting individual (276) scoring positions; 4736 affecting team (50) scoring positions.
Jan 1: 13013 tasks outstanding; 7840 affecting individual (269) scoring positions; 3221 affecting team (43) scoring positions.
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

The results are final!
(actually, just the top three right now. the rest still may be decided by cleanup tasks.)

During these 10 days, we completed almost 350 thousand tasks. The most popular subproject was GFN-18, while the least popular by far was GFN-19. In addition to 4 new GFN-18 primes, we also averaged about 12 times these projects' typical output.

A RECORD BREAKING 171 teams and 930 individuals participated in the Challenge.

Top Three Individuals:
1. tng
2. Viktor Svantner
3. KajakDC

Top Three Teams:
1. Czech National Team
2. Antarctic Crunchers
3. SETI.Germany

Hopefully everyone had a chance to actually watch the Great Conjunction! This Challenge wraps up PrimeGrid's 2020 Challenge Series. In addition to being the first Challenge Series I oversaw as challenge coordinator, it was also a wild and rapidly adjusting one due to the current state of the world. Thanks for sticking with us through it all, and I hope these challenges provided you all with a fun little escape each month from the 2020-ness of it all.

The next Challenge to kick off the 2021 Series is the Good Riddance 2020! Challenge, which starts January 14th. We hope to see you there! Thank you again to everyone. We appreciate your participation and hope you had fun!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.