The text on this page describing each SETISpy screens was partially copied from Roelof J. Engelbrecht's SETISpy website. Get more details of each screen here.
Process
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If you are running the SETI@home client, the progress information of the current work unit (packet of radio telescope data) will be displayed here on the Progress page. The Performance page describes the speed, rate, and efficiency in detail. The drift rate field displays the current drift rate (chirp rate) that is being analyzed. The FFT number field shows the current FFT number. SETI@home Version 3.03 performs 31560 FFTs per work unit. The percentage completed is also displayed in the window caption. |
Performance
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The processing rate shows how quickly the current work unit is being processed. In this example, the processing rate is one work unit every 7.47 hours, or 13.39% per hour. The processing rate depends on the amount of work that the SETI@home client must do. This is expressed in FLOPs (FLoating point OPerations), shown in the floating point operations to process field. The FLOPs varies from work unit to work unit. Using the FLOP number, the processing rate can be translated into a processing speed, which I show in MegaFLOPs per second. The processing speed makes it easy to compare the SETI@home processing power of different computers. The processing efficiency shows how many processor (CPU) cycles are used to calculate one Floating Point Operation (FLOP). The lower this number, the more efficient is your processor. If you select Show instantaneous performance, instantaneous performance information will be displayed rather than the average for the work unit thus far. |
Results
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The Results page allows you to view the signal processing results. All signals found are indicated by colored dots on the Signal Strength graph. The number of returned signals of each type is shown on the right, together with a colored dot describing the signal type. If you right-click and choose Legend from the menu, the Results Legend window is displayed, showing the thresholds for returning various signals. You can click on the View Log button to view the log file that contains the processing time and strongest spike and gaussian information of all work units completed while SETI Spy was running. |
Work Unit
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The Work Unit page shows information on the work unit currently being processed, including the name, date recorded, sky position, angle range, telescope, and base frequency. The Sky Map button displays a map of the sky where the current work unit was recorded. Right click on the Sky Map and several options will come up, including Show History, Legend, Telescope Path, Copy to Clipboard, and Save to File. |
User Stat
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The User Statistics page displays the information and statistics or the user the current work unit will be attributed to. You can click on the user name to view the user's website of choice. For security, the user e-mail address is not displayed on the User Statistics page. The date the user signed up with the SETI@home project is shown, with the number of results returned, the total CPU time, and the average CPU time. The User Statistics page also shows the result interval, with is the average elapsed time between result returns. The CPU dedication is equivalent to the average number of processors in the user account working full-time on SETI@home since registration. If you click the Update button, SETI Spy updates the user stats from the SETI@home web site. *It may happen that the Update Button appears to be "grayed out" and cannot be pressed. If this is the case, please follow the instructions in FAQ 2.17.* |
Client
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The first item displayed on the Client page is the version of the SETI@home client you are using. The SETI@home folder that SETI Spy is monitoring is also shown, as well as the operating system and the amount of physical memory (RAM). If you are running SETI Spy locally, the Client page will display a Configure button. Clicking this button displays the SETI@home Client Configuration dialog box. If you are setting up SETISpy with SETI Driver, refer *here* for a GREAT pictorial step-by-step on setting that up! |
Processor
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This section shows the type of processor (CPU) you are using, as well as the cache sizes and CPU speed. On some CPU's you can hover the mouse pointer over the CPU type to get a more descriptive name. The CPU speed is used to calculate the processing efficiency on the Performance page. The L1 and L2 cache sizes are important because SETI@home usually runs faster with larger caches. If you are running SETI Spy locally, you can use the Refresh button to recalculate you CPU speed. You may want to do so to verify the reported CPU speed. |
Setup
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The Setup section contains a number of sub-pages that can be accessed by clicking the buttons on the top of the section. This is a pretty self-explanitory section. Check off the options that you like to use. There is no "Save" button, because everything is automatically saved into the setispy.ini file. There is one thing that is worth bring up in this section. The Client tab contains an button called Calibrate. Click on that button and the new window allows you to calibrate the SETI@home progress percentage to make it more accurate. This will improve the MegaFLOPs and CpF estimates as well as the estimated total time, time left, and time done. Go *here* to calibrate SETISpy for YOUR machine. |
About
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The About page shows the program version, description, and copyright information. You can visit the SETI@home or SETI Spy web site or send Roelof email by clicking on the underlined links. When you ran SETI Spy for the first time, you accepted a disclaimer. You can review the disclaimer by clicking on the disclaimer button. |
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