DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING OVERVIEW

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Distributed computing is a technology that utilizes the idle CPU time of millions of home computers to crunch numbers and analyze data for various kinds of scientific research. It is also the common name given to the socially responsible hobby of participating in the use of this technology.

Participants download software that runs in the background while the computer is turned on. The software downloads WORK UNITS from the project's website, your computer processes the work unit (WU) and uploads it to the project servers when it is completed. Users are given credit points for completed work units, and these statistics appear on the project's website and on a number of sites that specialize in tracking them. Users can also join or form teams, and the team statistics are tracked in the same manner.

There is somewhat of a competitive element to the hobby, as users and teams compete to rise in the rankings of top users/teams. This is pretty much just good, clean fun and helps to increase participation in distributed computing. The Guru Mountain DC Team is the team that I "crunch" for... it's a small, new team that emphasizes the contributions to scientific knowledge and advancement that we make, the sense of community and common interest that we share, and our commitment to promoting our hobby. There are advantages to joining both a large team and one like ours. With a big team, the total team contribution is huge, and there is alot of competition among the top ranked teams to stay on top. With a smaller team, you can easily see how your own contribution is helping to move the team up through the rankings, and there's alot of satisfaction in doing well against much larger teams.

There are a number of software platforms that the various DC projects run under. Perhaps the best known is the BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) platform. Dozens of projects use this open source, stable software to manage most of the work involved with connecting home computers to the servers, downloading and uploading work units, etc. in order that the project owners can concentrate on their own specific software that does the WU processing. Users download and install the BOINC software, then attach to one or more of the projects they wish to crunch for. It is a simple process to choose a USERNAME and a PASSWORD to use for all of the projects, and provide a valid e-mail address. NOTE:   To avoid alot of headaches, it is a good idea to use the SAME username, and e-mail address for all of the projects. You can create a user account on each project's website, or you can do it through the BOINC client's BOINC Manager interface.

Other projects, such as Folding@Home do not use the BOINC platform, and you download all the needed software from the project's website. This project, and many others, can run alongside the BOINC software without creating problems, but it's usually a good idea to check around on the numerous DC project forums and see how experienced enthusiasts are doing things. A computer running at 1000MHz and with 512mb of RAM can typically run Folding@Home and BOINC (with several projects attached) with no difficulties. Chances are, you would not need to ever shut down the projects unless you're playing a modern, resource-intensive game.

Most users leave their computers running 24/7 to maximize their contribution to distributed computing and their team's credit ranking. By turning the monitor off and leaving the PC running, it only uses about the same amount of electricity as a 100W lightbulb. The contribution each PC makes to science makes the cost of electricity to run the computers a small price to pay. Most of us can easily offset this by turning off some lights around the house.

I've taken this 24/7 crunching to another level, by building computers whose only function is to crunch for DC projects. We call these computers a "crunch farm", and mine have no mouse, keyboard or monitor hooked to them. They are controlled by one PC on the network that does have these peripherals. In fact, I've even dispensed with the cases... you can view my Texas Cruncher Basket Stack cruncher farm in the PHOTO GALLERY section of this website.

If you are interested in becoming active in the rewarding hobby of Distributed Computing, you can find many links to DC project websites in the DC PROJECTS and RELATED WEB LINKS sections of the Guru Mountain DC Team website, and at the bottom of the pages of this site.

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