Esignal 8.0 Not Updating / Time Loss

[huntergatherer]

I uninstalled 10.6 then installed v8.0 again with the fix and here's the result.

It appears the heavy CPU usage is caused by the Data Manager. I now have CPU usage spikes into the 30% range running just eSignal.

Are the workaround files for the Data Manager just files from the v10.6 Data Manager ? That would explain the heavy CPU usage. (My previous install of v8.0 ran at 3% usage)

My issue is the inefficiency of the program with how it overworks the cpu and not that I have EFS problems running on the newer versions. I have a QX9650 Intel Quad with WD Raptor HDD's. I can run a trading program along with other charting software with eSignal closed and the CPU usage barely has a heartbeat at 0% usage with spikes to 2%. Now that's efficient use of the same data being processed.

So far even with the heavy CPU usage at 30% I have not experienced the lock-ups and hangs that I had with 10.6 yet. It's probable that even with heavy usage the patched Data Manger works better with v8.0 so if a CPU can take it this could resolve compatibilty issues. I'll keep you posted....

[huntergatherer]

With a Quad core I can set which process runs on each core in the task Manager.

I want to try and configure the Data Manager to run on it's own core and let eSignal run on another to spread the load. It's a manual approach to "multi-threading".

What processes are for each in the Task Manager ?

[eostrom]

The DM that I provided is from the 10 series.

the process for the DM is called winros.exe and for the esignal program itself it's called winsig.exe

Please let me know of your results

[huntergatherer]

OK, I configured WinSig to run on a single core and WinRose to run across 3 cores.

It's an improvement. Hard to tell how good because the markets are dead right now. With this config I'm able to get CPU usage below 5% (slow market conditions). I'll see how it does next couple days. Thanks.

[SteveH]

If you're running 10.6 and a config like Windows 7 on an i920 with 4 cores and 8 "hyper-threaded pseudo cores", the process manager in Windows is not going to queue up the Data Manager process behind a busy eSignal process on the same core. It's way more sophisticated than that. If you're running 11.x, it's multi-threaded so the workload gets distributed among the 4 cores and the OS takes care of being smart about what gets run when and where.

The smarts for load balancing that you're hoping for is probably beyond our control. The developers of the eSignal Data Manager would have to "widen the pipes" with multiple socket connections to their servers and so now you have multiple threads of incoming data being serviced and spread among the cores. It wouldn't in their best interests on the server side to give so much bandwidth to each user given what their costs would be vs. what they charge. So, at times, there will be bursts of information coming across and delays in what we see on the charts is inevitable and there is nothing we can do about that.

[huntergatherer]

I've experienced no Delays Locks or Hangs with data and the charts with v8.0. I do with the 10 series continually.

All I'm trying to do is get back to what I had without changing the User Interface for now.

I'll try v11 with true "multi-thread" in the future. My OS is XPpro SP3.

Like I said before I've tried another fully "multi-threaded" charting package on eSignals data feed that ran perfectly. It more or less just idled along with 0% to 2% CPU usage.

Since no data is stored on the HDD I think eSignal tries to guard the data by transmitting each tick for all the bars visible on charts you have open continually to prevent access to historical data that was paid for already. Perhaps the bandwidth problem is that. If data was stored on the HDD it would be a whole lot less bandwidth with a lower price.

We the long term subscriber suffer through the churn of noobs.

[SteveH]

Yeah, I spent a long time on 8.0 when 10.x was new. At that time, I was on XP and 10.x would lag too often with the broker order flow. It took about 3-4 revisions to get that cleaned up.

I have an i920 with no overclocking turned on (2.6 GHz for each core) running Win 7 on eSignal 10.6 32 bit and things have been smooth for about 2 years now. I'll check the CPU utilization on Monday to see if I'm spiking as much as you are. I do have 5 screens with a decent number of involved EFS scripts running but only use around 5 symbols as I just trade Crude futures.

If the utilization is okay then I would suspect that something is off in XP SP3 which doesn't affect Win 7 users. The process / thread management in Win 7 is bound to be more efficient. This quote about Win 7 kernel lock removals could account for the big difference:

"For Windows 7, Microsoft removed several locks that seriously hindered performance - all without breaking a single application. The global dispatcher lock, for instance, is gone completely, and replaced by fine-grained locking which provides 11 types of more specific locks as well as rules on how locks can be obtained so that you no longer run into deadlocks."

[huntergatherer]

Hey Steve, Thanks for the info on Win7.

When Microsoft dropped the ball with Vista I decided to attach XP with a ball & chain to my leg and never switch to anything new they rolled out. You might of sold me on Win7 with one paragraph though.

I guess the "locks" are causing bottleneck problems with a Quad core in XP. Whenever WinSig 10 series pegs the core it locks or hangs the core and processing stops for whatever is on that core. Sounds like efficient code (if and when) and Win7 fixes that.

I still say if eSignal changes to storing data on the HDD and just sends live ticks out we would need a whole lot less processing power. In theory I guess If I have 50 charts open all I need is just the next 50 ticks not 60 million ticks just to refresh the chart and move it one bar over.

I guess we actually never get to leave Betaville. It's either the software or the operating system.

Have a good one. Hendrik