Distributed Computing and You
05.30.06 - 10:43am
I hate it when I waste resources. Letting the water run while I brush my teeth, leaving the door open when the air conditioner is on, and leaving my computer idle all bother me. The first two examples probably seem very obvious as to what is being wasted, but what about the third? Do you see it? For most computers, from the moment you turn it on the processor is churning away at a specified frequency. No matter what is going on, that processor of yours is running full tilt, computing nothing. This is what bothers me, processors computing nothing, this is both electricity and computing capacity being wasted. Now what if I told you that all these unused clock cycles could be used to help mankind? If that interests you, keep reading and maybe you’ll find a new competition to join.
Super Distributed Computing
Distributed computing is a model case where there is definitely power in numbers. A single processor would not be capable of helping much with the problems that supercomputing tries to solve, but a thousand individual processors definitely could help to put a dent into the problem. This is were distributed computing has so much power within the computing field, numbers. Super computers are simply huge arrays of computers and memory linked together in a high speed network. The project that is being crunched by a super computer is then evenly distributed between all the processors and they all crunch the numbers till the project is finished. Distributed computing does the same thing, but with computers located all over the world. With this huge network, computers of all speeds can come together to crunch numbers for scientists and cut down on wasted computer cycles.
BOINC!
In order to make distributed computing “mainstream” it was necessary to make the installation and running processes as simple as possible. BOINC stands for the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. BOINC has succeeded in doing just that with their cross-project platform. With BOINC you can sign your computer up to join a distributed computing project and start crunching with no need to know secret commands or use a command line interface. If you can install a simple program and fill out a few boxes with information, you can run BOINC.
The Competition
There is nothing like a good competition to bring out the best in people. To be honest, if there wasn’t some form of competition then I wouldn’t really care much about distributed computing and helping those scientists with lab coats and huge glasses. The competition was made possible by points that are awarded by the BOINC client for successfully completed Work Units. With BOINC, when you complete a WU for a project, based on your computers computing power and how long it takes, BOINC will award you a calculated value of points that will be added to your total. Faster computers will compute faster and generate more points and overclocked computers literally dominate in this field. If you think your computer is fast, you should see what the competition is running. With hundreds of teams and hundreds of thousands of computers, the sheer computing power that has been generated through the competitions is phenomenal.
Pick me! Pick me!
Unlike in middle school when you were the last person picked for the kickball game, BOINC teams won’t hound you for that dusty old computer or slow laptop, they need every MHz they can scrounge up. For example in my own team, XtremeSystems.org, we have many Pentium 3, Celeron, and K7 processors crunching away for us, slowly pumping out their numbers. The beauty of these projects is that no matter how slow your computer is, you can contribute something. Some users have entire “farms” of slow computers that when combined can really push out some numbers and compete with the fastest processors on the market. If you frequently visit an online computer related forum, chances are they have a team put together for distributed computing. If you don’t, either get some friends together to form a team or join up with one of the many teams online. Joining a very active team will both give you a sense of accomplishment and a new network of online friends. I personally have gained quite a lot from my friends that are scattered across the globe, from trading computer pieces to exchanging information, the experience has been great.
Now What?
So now you have BOINC up and running and your computer is crunching away, what do you do now? Recruit! The more time you spend on a team, the more you will want to help your team out by getting as many computers crunching for your team. The competitions can be intense as you watch your team advance through the ranks and aim to be number one. Join up with a team and crunch for cancer and AIDS.
Links and Information
Here are a few links with information on how to install BOINC, select a project, find a team, and install the optimization files. The optimization files are highly recommended as they will significantly increase your production.
XtremeSystems.org BOINC and Rosetta@home installation guide.
XtremeSystems.org Optimization File Guide
DC-Vault.com Online Score Comparison for all teams
BOINC Website with Projects
Free-DC Stats Page
Let me know if I was unclear with something in here, just follow the guides if you are interested in joining up, just make sure you join your specified team unless you want to join up with XS.org. Either way, get crunching!
Sounds interesting. I’d like to try it sometime.
Have a look at this very nice DC project.