Clarification about Timeout and Expiration needed

[ETA_2025]

I'm have ten Raspberry Pi 4B's folding 24/7, and occasionally they are assigned work units that they can't complete before the Timeout, or even the Expiration.

Unfortunately, the FAQ topic, Running Folding@Home -> Are there any limits to how long my machine can take to finish a work unit (WU)? is not very helpful, and needs to be rewritten.

Firstly, is my understanding correct, that work units submitted before the Timeout will receive full credit and bonus points, while work units submitted after the Timeout, but before the Expiration, will receive full credit only, and also be assigned to another machine, which is undesirable? Finally, a work unit not submitted before the Expiration, will automatically be dumped at the Expiration date and time, and no credit will be received?

So, should I manually dump any work units, by deleting the slot, that won't be completed before the Timeout, or only work units that won't be completed before the Expiration?

[toTOW]

Raspberry Pi 4B doesn't use a CPU with big.LITTLE architecture. It has four Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) cores in its Broadcom BCM2711 SoC. So it has to fold with its 4 cores.

Yes, the RPi 4 is the minimum requirement to run FAH within deadlines, and sometimes some projects that can't be completed on time slips through the testing process. Let us know when it happens.

You are correct : it is preferable to return WUs before the timeout (sometimes called "preferred deadline"). Between timeout and expiration (sometimes called "final deadline"), work will be duplicated and can be used for comparison purposes if needed. After the final deadline, the WU will be dumped automatically by the client, so it's a pure waste to let it run until expiration.

[calxalot]

Sorry. I thought all ARM systems were big.little now. I deleted my post.

[ETA_2025]

Yes, the RPi 4 is the minimum requirement to run FAH within deadlines, and sometimes some projects that can't be completed on time slips through the testing process. Let us know when it happens.

How?

You are correct : it is preferable to return WUs before the timeout (sometimes called "preferred deadline"). Between timeout and expiration (sometimes called "final deadline"), work will be duplicated and can be used for comparison purposes if needed. After the final deadline, the WU will be dumped automatically by the client, so it's a pure waste to let it run until expiration.

So, I should dump WU's that can't be completed before expiration ASAP, and let F@H know. What about WU's that won't be completed before timeout? Allow them to complete, or dump them too and let F@H know?

Note that this has nothing to do with points. I'm trying to avoid wasting everyone's time.

[toTOW]

I also consider that there is not point in completing a WU that won't finish before timeout ...

If you encounter this situation with your RPi 4, just post a message here.

[ETA_2025]

If you encounter this situation with your RPi 4, just post a message here.

Thanks, toTOW, I've been posting about the 18465 and 18466 WU's I've been getting, on my Raspberry Pi's, in the Issues with a specific WU thread.

[Joe_H]

toTOW and I have been in contact with the researcher running these projects, they have been having some problems getting the restriction entered and working.