[LynxMukka]

Just wondering, does anyone else in {UFP} currently take part in distributed computer projects such as SETI@Home and MilkyWay@Home? Was wondering since we could potentially set up a {UFP} Team.

Let me know!

[Burtonshaw]

sorry for being slightly slow, but what is a distributed computer project?

[LynxMukka]

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=dis...ient=firefox-a

Basically to use one example for its use, a large research organisation has a goal to find cures for some of the world's most dangerous diseases such as HIV. To do this, they need to use different types of Proteins, unfortunately though they don't know every type of protein. This is where distributed computing comes in, rather than calculate all the different types of proteins on a supercomputer, they have the ability to distribute small calculation tasks to other computers around the world if the user is willing. This ultimately provides a much higher computing power than can be achieved on a supercomputer.

By helping in such projects, you are essentially helping in the progress of humanity, depending on which projects you chose to help out.

[U.S.S. Hyperion]

I use BOINC for quite some time now. I never had any problems at all.

More information can be found here:

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ab...utingBasics.do

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ab...viewAboutUs.do

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_computing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_computing


The main idea behind it is the fact that most of the time our computers are on, only a fraction of their power is used. When your browse the net, watch videos or write a response to this topic, all those mighty Ghz of yours do basically nothing... idling bored in the patient wait for a decent job. There is no task besides high end games and video editing that requires a majority of your calculation power.

Open the task manager and watch what process has the highest usage. It will be something called "System Idle Process". That doesnt sound very usefull and it certainly isnt. It makes your CPU fly circles for the sake of it. All unused CPU power goes into that, doing nothing at all.

While modern CPU reduce their power consumption when not under high load, it is still rather inefficient. For a example take my aged dual core. It normally runs at 2.4 Ghz and powers down to 1.6 when not under full load. That still makes 3.2 Ghz of available calculation power. Although I have several programms running currently including MSN, Firefox, Media Player, Anti Virus Scanner, Firewall... Daemon Tools, Everest and many more... my CPU idles at 2 - 4 % load. 4 % of 3.2 Ghz = 128 Mhz of really needed calculation power. Even if you now take other factors into account, you will likely agree that there is no more than 250 Mhz required for the currently running processes. Now, although I only need those I have 3.20 Ghz running.... that makes 2.95 Ghz totally wasted. The power used to create those 2.95 Ghz is wasted too.

So instead of wasting all those raw calculation power for nothing, why not give it something usefull to do? Instead of making nearly 3 billion calculations going into the void every second, you can give them something meaningfull to do.

For example you can join Word Community Grid at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/

You can select several projects there that have all one thing in common: They benefit humanity as a whole, not some large company because all results are made public free of charge. You can for example help to fight Aids or to conquer chancer... all that in the time your computer is running anway.

The Wikipedia Article mentioned some disadvantages that I can assure you are not as much of a problem as it might first look:

1. Power consumption: The increase in power consumptions is only very minor. That is because of the above fact that your comp even when in "energy saving" slow CPU mode is still running several times faster than is required for the day to day tasks. So if you use those 2.95 Ghz from above to run "FightAids@Home", you basically have no increase at all. Of course in reality, due to the more complex nature of the research application. it will require a bit more power than the senseless idle task. But it will be very minor. Somebody made a calculation a few years ago that the additional costs of electricity used by having BOINC running in the background is as small as having one additional lightning for the room you spent the majority of your evening in. In other words... insignificant.

2. Decreased performance: I will be brief in this. It doesnt happen. Period. You wont notice any difference at all after installing BOINC and running a project. The only visible thing will be an increased CPU usage. One that doesnt reflect in less performance for you. Only in the rare cases of very heavy video editing or games that really need the last of your comp, you will notice a minor reduction of speed. It is quite simple to avoid that. If you know, you start a heavy game now, shutting it down is a mere 2 clicks away. For most games however, that isnt necessary at all. Exception is only when you are generally low on RAM as the science application by nature consumes some of it.

3. System getting hotter than it should:
BOINC is programmed to use only 60 % of your idle CPU cycles. That usually means that your Laptop will get somewhat warmer, while your desktop will hardly react. If that should be still to hot for you, you can select any percentage you want. Exception: If you system is on the verge of overheating anyway, you shouldnt run BOINC, nor any other high load application until you have repaired/upgraded your cooling. Notice that all CPUs have some kind of thermal trottling, so the risk of burning your CPU is very still low. For perfect temperature control, you can download this free Software.

Speaking of Laptops, there is a function in BOINC that when enabled, will stop all research calculations when you a running on batteries. They will continue when you are back to the power grid. You can order BOINC to run at specific times only, whenever you want.

4. BOINC is Open Source Software by the Berkeley University.
Word Community Grid is maintained by IBM
There are no known security risk to date because of runing the software, nor has their ever been one.
The research applications require only small files to download and to upload. You shouldnt be on dial up perhaps, but anything else will work just fine without you even noticing.

So give your powerful CPU something usefull to do today!

[Trav]

Currently running Rosetta@home, but I'm already part of a team and I doubt I would change.

[Jon Thomas]

Well because I just got this new computer I have been thinking about Installing Seti@home So I would be interested