Changelog-mfakto.txt

version 0.16.0
==============================
- includes features merged in from mfaktc 0.23.x and 0.24.0

new features:
- added results.json.txt to comply with PrimeNet results reporting standards
- implemented runtime logging
  - set Logging=1 in the INI file to enable
- merged in checksum generation code from mfaktc (thanks to James Heinrich)
  - removed a redundant checksum generation function from checkpoint.c
  - to accommodate this change, the checkpoint format has been updated to no
    longer put quotes around stored factors. mfakto should still be able to
    read checkpoints from a previous version
  - additional code contributions and bug fixes by Danny Chia

enhancements:
- added support for RDNA 3 devices
  - also covers RDNA 3.5 and 4
- improved detection of GPU type
  - added provisional support for CDNA
  - implemented pattern-matching code by Rich Felker
  - additional code contributions by Mingye Wang
- added code to handle situations where the device's clock speed could not be
  determined
- improved some warning messages
- getOSJSON() has been made more robust

bug fixes:
- fixed double precision issues in barrett15 kernels
- Intel Compute Runtime is now supported for all vector sizes (thanks to Pavel
  Roskin)
- added a workaround for cl_barrett15_74 kernel failures on macOS Sonoma
  (thanks to Pavel Roskin)

build:
- continuous integration via GitHub Actions (thanks to Pavel Roskin and
  Henning Gerhardt)
- removed the dependency on ROCm as it is not needed
- Visual Studio: dependencies are now automatically downloaded and installed
  via vcpkg
- Visual Studio: mfakto.ini is now copied to the output folder on build
  completion
  - simplified the post-build script

other changes:
- updated the code to use OpenCL 2.0 instead of deprecated OpenCL 1.0 APIs when
  possible
- updated some default settings in mfakto.ini to match mfaktc.ini (thanks to
  James Heinrich)
  - Stages changed from 1 to 0
  - StopAfterFactor changed from 2 to 1
- requested by James Heinrich: results are no longer saved to deprecated
  results.txt by default (thanks to NStorm)
  - please use results.json.txt for submissions
  - set LegacyResultsTxt=1 in mfakto.ini to restore old behavior and re-enable
    logging to results.txt
- merged in James Heinrich's changes to mfaktc.ini and re-organized mfakto.ini
  to be more user-friendly
- removed references to unnecessary AllowSleep option
- removed inaccurate throughput information from program output
- macOS is now detected as "macOS" rather than the kernel name "Darwin"
- switched to the semantic versioning scheme
- removed the unused SmallExp setting

version 0.15
==============================
new features:
- implemented a keyboard shortcut menu to dynamically adjust settings like
  SievePrimes, SieveSize and SieveProcessSize (and others)
  - note: kernel selection is not currently available

enhancements:
- more GPU models are now detected
- some support for Intel HD Graphics

bug fixes:
- SieveCPUMask on Linux had "random" results
- specifying a device number greater than 1 via the -d option caused the kernel
  to not compile correctly
- the verbosity level was not passed to valid_assignment()
- the '-d g' option was hard-coded to use an invalid device number
- the DETAILED_INFO and CHECKS_MODBASECASE debug options no longer cause
  compilation to fail
- the line "Overflow!" was printed ad infinitum when the DETAILED_INFO debug
  option was enabled
- the number of threads per grid could be set to zero when less than the
  vector size * maximum threads per block

build:
- mfakto now compiles and runs on macOS
- updated Windows build instructions and fixed some errors
- fixed some Linux compilation issues
- removed dependency on AMD APP SDK as it has been discontinued

version 0.14 (2014-04-17)
==============================
new features:
- mfakto can now save and reload compiled OpenCL kernels to reduce startup time
  - use the UseBinfile option to customize the kernel file name
- added a MoreClasses option to mfakto.ini to allow for a "less classes"
  version
  - very short assignments will benefit from reduced overhead with GPU sieving
    enabled
- added a FlushInterval option to mfakto.ini to fine-tune the number of kernels
  in the GPU queue; this address the high CPU load in newer AMD drivers

enhancements:
- the --perftest option has been extended to GPU sieve evaluation
  - this is useful for optimizing GPUSievePrimes, etc.
- added code to sync with the working directory if access is temporarily lost
  (such as due to an ejected USB device or interrupted network drive)
- slight performance improvement in the Montgomery multiplication kernels
- recognition of additional GPUs, such as the Radeon HD 8000 and Radeon 200
  series, and new APUs (thanks to kracker)
- mfakto is now compatible with Windows 8.1

bug fixes:
- GPUSieveSize being a multiple of GPUSieveProcessSize is now enforced
- fixed a small memory leak of around 0.5 kB per assignment

build:
- mfakto can now be compiled with MinGW (thanks to kracker)

other changes:
- improved English wording in program output and INI file, etc. (thanks to
  kracker)
- added a warning for VectorSize=1

version 0.13 (2013-05-19)
==============================
new features:
- most important: GPU sieving (thanks to George Woltman)
  - set SieveOnGPU=1 in mfakto.ini to enable
  - use GPUSievePrimes, GPUSieveSize, GPUSieveProcessSize to tweak it (see
    mfakto.ini for details)
  - GPU sieving also works on lower-end GPUs, but may have around 20% less
    throughput than CPU sieving
    - try out different settings to determine the best configuration
  - known issue: Catalyst 13.4 and 13.5 have a bug that could cause mfakto to
    use up to one CPU core. Stay below 13.4 or downgrade to a previous version
- closer alignment with mfaktc
  - verbosity level can now be configured with the Verbosity option in the INI
    file, or the -v switch
  - output adjustments
  - updated internal file and function structure
- added a --perftest option to test CPU sieving performance; this will be
  extended to kernels
- the SieveCPUMask option can now be used to set the affinity of the CPU
  sieving thread
  - this has no effect on operating systems that do not support setting CPU
    affinity

enhancements:
- all kernels are now between 2% and 20% faster
  - performance of CPU sieving is also improved
  - increased use of intrinsics like amd_bitalign and mad_hi
  - direct use of comparison functions
  - removed some unnecessary calculations due to better judgment of required
    precision
  - new kernels (thanks to George Woltman and Oliver Weihe for the ideas and
    CUDA examples)
  - many new kernels based on 15-bit math
    - users should see improved performance on Cayman and GCN devices
- better diagnostics through improved tracing and error code handling
- an extra 30,000 test cases are now available in the -st2 self-test

other changes:
- made some changes "under the hood" to prepare for Intel HD 4000 and NVIDIA
  device support
  note: these GPUs are not fully supported yet

version 0.12 (2012-07-29)
==============================
new features:
- added worktodo.add file support
  - assignments in worktodo.add are appended to worktodo.txt between five and
    approximately 10 minutes after the file's creation or on completing an
    assignment
- added a SieveCPUMask option to the INI file
  - note: this will become functional in mfakto 0.13

- added automatic detection of GPU type
  - can be overridden with the GPUType option in mfakto.ini
  - removed the PreferKernel option

enhancements:
- increased performance for Radeon HD 7700 - 7900 series due to optimization for
  Graphics Core Next
- improved estimation of the number of compute units

bug fixes:
- critical change: fixed missing factors for certain exponent ranges
  - thanks to dabaichi and Axelsson for the bug report and help at
    http://mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=13977&page=16#383
- occasional abort on very high SievePrimes, usually above 450,000
- mfakto now prints the kernel's name instead of "KERNEL_FILE" if a kernel
  could not be found (thanks to Axelsson)

other changes:
- tweaked the progress line output format
  - percentage complete changed from %6.2f to %5.1f
  - current exponent changed from %d to %-10u
- added around 30,000 new test cases (factors) to the test data for pre-release
  testing (thanks to James Heinrich)

version 0.11 (2012-05-21)
==============================
new features:
- added several new INI file options
  - SievePrimesMin to replace the fixed value of 5000
  - V5UserID and ComputerID for recording the username and computer name in the
    results file, similar to Prime95
  - TimeStampInResults to record timestamps in results.txt
  - ProgressHeader and PrintFormat to adjust the progress information printed
    after each class. See the included mfakto.ini file for details
- added a --perftest option to test the sieving performance, depending on
  SievePrimes
  - also tests SieveSizeLimit if it is not fixed at compile time

enhancements:
- new 24-bit Barrett reduction kernel for FCs up to 70 bits
  - very fast due to an optimized squaring function
- new 15-bit Barrett reduction kernel for FCs up to 73 bits
  - almost as fast as the 24-bit kernel
  - testing on a Radeon HD 6900 series (Cayman) GPU has shown a 50% speedup
- implemented file locking to reduce concurrency
  - access to the worktodo.txt and results files is now synchronized using a
    lock file (such files have a .lck suffix)
- mfakto can now evaluate the PrimeNet credit of an assignment (GHz-days) and
  the current throughput (GHz-days per day)
- pressing Ctrl + C during a self-test will display a summary of tests
  completed so far

bug fixes:
- removed many compiler warnings

build:
- the sieving code is now compiled with gcc 4.6 on Linux
  - this improves the sieving performance by around 20%

other changes:
- the number of GPU threads is now a fixed power of 2
  - no changes to the GridSize option

version 0.10 (2011-12-19)
==============================
new features:
- checkpoints are now backed up
  - mfakto will attempt to use the backup file if a checkpoint is corrupt or
    otherwise unreadable
  - backup files have a .bu suffix
- merged in features from mfaktc 0.18
  - the CheckpointDelay option as described below
  - extended self-test (-st2)
  - updated the factor found result line as discussed at the GIMPS forum
  - the signal handler now also catches SIGTERM
- users can now limit how often checkpoints are written
  - set CheckpointDelay=<s> in mfakto.ini to have mfakto wait s seconds between
    checkpoint saves
  - use Checkpoint=1 to enable CheckpointDelay
  - set Checkpoint=<n> for n > 1 to write a checkpoint only after n classes
    have been processed
- added a --inifile command-line option for loading custom INI files, to
  support multiple mfakto instances in the same directory
  - usage: --inifile <file>
  - the shorthand '-i <file>' is also accepted
  - defaults to mfakto.ini
- added a ResultsFile parameter to the INI file

enhancements:
- mfakto now allows reading checkpoints from any mfaktc or mfakto version as
  long as the other parameters and the checksum are OK
- diagnostic messages are now displayed if a checkpoint is unusable
- optimized the mul24 kernel by splitting it into two ranges: up to 64 bits,
  and 61 to 72 bits
  - this results in a 10-20% performance gain for 70-bit assignments

bug fixes:
- added workaround for known issues with Catalyst 11.10 and above
- mfaktc 0.18 change: fixed an edge case where a factor found in the last class
  caused mfakto to report the bit range as incomplete

build:
- added some optimization options to the Linux makefile

other changes:
- enabled MODBASECASE for Barrett reduction kernels
- added preliminary support for GPU sieving
  - note: the sieving kernel is not yet functional

version 0.9 (2011-10-01)
==============================
enhancements:
- better calculation for SievePrimesAdjust

bug fixes:
- fixed a bug in the 72-bit kernel that could cause mfakto to miss factors
  below 48 bits
  - known issue: this change reduces the kernel's performance by about 3-5%
  - added a test for the bug to the self-test

version 0.8 (2011-09-13)
==============================
new features:
- added a --help switch and parameter checking
- added a PreferKernel option to mfakto.ini as some devices require different
  kernels for optimal performance
  - use mfakto_cl_barrett79 for the Radeon HD 5000 series
  - use mfakto_cl_71 for the Radeon HD 6000 series

enhancements:
- tuned the settings for SievePrimesAdjust (should now be usable)

other changes:
- excluded the single-vector 72-bit mul24 kernel as it is incompatible with the
  AMD APP SDK 2.5
- removed THREADS_PER_BLOCK as it is no longer needed
  - mfakto will now automatically choose the value based on GPU capabilities
- removed the slow and unusable 95-bit kernel

version 0.7 (2011-08-10)
==============================
new features:
- vectorized the Barrett reduction kernels
- added a '-d c' switch to force running on CPU
- added an option to enable debuggable kernel code

enhancements:
- removed crash workaround from Barrett reduction kernels: 3% faster
  - no longer needed since Catalyst 11.7
- improved error handling and added more robust checks for invalid
  configurations
- fixed and optimized CPU pre-processing limits

bug fixes:
- fixed index evaluation in Barrett reduction kernels
- fixed shifts of greater than 31 bits in Barrett reduction kernels
- resolved a few compiler warnings

other changes:
- re-enabled the MODBASECASE checks
- added warning for devices that do not support atomic operations

version 0.6 (2011-07-09)
==============================
new features:
- automatic adjustment of SievePrimes is now functional
  - note: not optimal and needs tuning

enhancements:
- extended Barrett reduction kernels to 79- and 92-bit factor sizes
- added support for GPUs without atomic operations, such as the Radeon HD 4000
  series
- optimization in the 24-bit kernels: 3% faster
- slightly faster sieve initialization per class

other changes:
- added a few test cases to the short self-test

version 0.5 (2011-06-19)
==============================
new features:
- added vectorized 72-bit kernels with 2-, 4-, 8- and 16-wide vectors
  - use the new VectorSize option in mfakto.ini to choose the version

enhancements:
- mfakto now supports up to 2.1 million threads per grid with GridSize=4

bug fixes:
- fixed 72-bit subtraction in various places (thanks to Oliver's comment on
  http://mersenneforum.org for the hint)
- fixed boundaries for the 95-bit kernel (and resolved the -st failures)

other changes:
- replaced the "(a > b) ? a - b : a" statements with sub_if_gt_*() functions
  without if-conditionals
  - this is a prerequisite for the vector approach
- moved the new DETAILED_INFO and CL_PERFORMANCE_INFO debug macros to params.h
- added GPLv3 headers to source files

version 0.4 (2011-06-09)
==============================
- initial version distributed to selected users

new features:
- merged in signal handler from mfaktc 0.18-pre2

enhancements:
- unrolled the modulo loop in the 95-bit kernel: 10% faster

bug fixes:
- the 71-bit mul24 kernel is working for all tests
  - fixed bit-shifting offset in square_72_144_shl
	- fixed carry in sub72

other changes:
- cleaned up unused code
	- CUDA references and workarounds
  - OpenCL examples