Distributed Computing – Mining the Future
Imagine putting a billion piece puzzle together all by yourself . Doing so would take years to do. Scientists today are using technology called Distributed Computing which is also referred to as Grid Computing.
This technology involves scientists, engineers, and programmers working together to setup computer simulations and experiments. The simulations are designed to be fragmented into pieces called work units. These work units are sent out to computers around the world. When a computer is processing a work unit it is termed “Crunching”.
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Each work unit's processing time is averaged at four hours, depending on the project. A computer that accepts work units and processes them has a program called BOINC which is a client that is used by many distributive computing projects.
Within the BOINC client you can attach to a project using the URL of a project's website. The BOINC client is available on many computer operating systems which include Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.
Many Grid Computing projects are focused on medical research into cancer, AIDS, protein folding, and more. Other conduct research into mathematical anomalies, art, technology, physics, and certain aspects of the Internet.
The great advantage of doing experiments and simulations on a computer grid is that it is very efficient. The costs and resources are minimal in a grid because the majority of the process time comes from people all around the world donating unused computer processing time.
Many projects, including those of mathematical research, have yielded great results. A project that finds prime numbers has found very high prime numbers. Why does this matter, you ask? Prime numbers are used in computer security (encryption) from wireless routers to online banking.
At the bottom of this article are links to project websites that use BOINC as their client. I use the World Community Grid projects which are sponsored by IBM and are non-profit. The World Community Grid has sub-projects that do research into AIDS, cancer, and proteins.
One of the most popular medical related project to day is Folding@home, which was founded by Stanford University. Folding@home can be found on the Play-Station 3 and do the processing power of the PS3 it has been claimed that it has processed more than computers in the past year.
If you would like to get started on a BOINC project visit this link.
Other projects, includeing BOINC projects, can be found here.
