Monday, April 27, 2009

BOINC

Problem: Large scientific computations require many computers in order to effectively process the data.

Solution: BOINC is a software system that makes it easy for scientists to create and operate public-resource computing projects. This allows researchers to distribute the computation to millions of regular computer users through a client-side platform that runs when the computer is idle. The paper describes features that went into BOINC to make it easy for scientists and attractive for users. Incentives for users are a nice interface and a count of how much they are contributing to the project (Top Alien Hunters).

Influence: I remember running SETI@home 24/7 in the background on my P3 600MHz overclocked to 800MHz.
Main project website: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
Listen for ET’s call: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/
Find gravity waves: http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/

1 comment:

  1. I suggest also checking out GridRepublic if you haven't yet. They are a nonprofit working in collaboration with BOINC to create an easy way to join, discover, and control projects running BOINC from a single login with point and click ease. Their goal is to make volunteer computing attractive and simple for everyone to want to become involved. Their website is: http://www.gridrepublic.org

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