Distributed Computing – the SETI@home project

Eddie Young, Network Support Officer     e.young@ukoln.ac.uk     (UKOLN)   Pete Cliff, Research Officer     p.d.cliff@ukoln.ac.uk     (UKOLN)

Ariadne 2001
(ReLIS:doi:doiari:y:2001:i:27:p:6)

Abstract:

There are many problems that require the large scale number crunching capablilities of supercomputers. For instance calculating Pi to the nth level of precision, attempting to crack the latest encryption algorithm, mapping the human genome, or analysing radio waves from space. For some applications, a Supercomputer might not be enough; nor can every project can afford one. However, but with a little bit of clever software engineering applied to the Internet, there is a solution. Even if you spent a lot of your time active at work and your PC is constantly trying to keep up, there will be moments when you stop for coffee, pop out for a sandwich, or whatever where your computer does nothing. Multiply all this processor idle time by the number of computers in use today and you have a lot of processing power simply going to waste. One facet of "distributed computing" is the harnessing of this unused processor time to do useful work. By utilizing this idle time projects can clock up years of processing time in days. The growth of the power of these types of applications can be directly related to the growth of the Internet.

Note: Eddie Young and Pete Cliff look at a particularly successful example of a distributed solution to a very large number crunching problem.
Month: 23-March-2001
Year: 2001

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