Distributed Computing

Distributed Computing means the distribution of work to many different computers. Since many PCs are usually not working at full capacity, people wanted to take advantage of this computing power and developed DC projects. There are many types of DC projects. These range from the search for extraterrestrials (SETI) to protein deconvolution and Mersenne number calculation.

SETI

The Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence

What is SETI?

With the SETI program the space is searched for radio waves, which can come from an extraterrestrial life form. For this purpose, only a small program is installed on the computer, which searches the data packets (so-called WUs [workunits]) for conspicuous signs. The data packets are recorded by the radio telescope in Arecibo.

Since the amount of data from the radio telescope is so large that no single computer would be able to evaluate it, the amount of data is distributed among many small PCs using distributed computing.

Due to the location of the telescope only the northern hemisphere can be searched. With SETI 2, the southern hemisphere will also be searched.

Since I am very interested in the topic, I could not of course resist the temptation again and have installed the SETI program on my computer. Maybe I will find something. Since the 19.02.2001 I am a member and was allowed to experience also already an innovation. In former times one always had to get additional software to store WUs for a failure in Berkeley temporarily. The new software (BOINC) contains this meanwhile, so that one can have everything from one hand.

As you can see from the statistics, I switched from the old SETI client to the new BOINC client on 24.06.2004. This results in a slightly different statistic, because now it is no longer calculated in WUs, but in credits. These credits are calculated from the used CPU time. However, one is no longer alone for this decisive, but the average value is taken, because the WU is sent to several different computers. This is to prevent misuse of the credtits.

Climate Prediction

In addition to SETI I also installed Climate Prediction on my computer. The reason for another project was that SETI had very strong problems at the beginning and was constantly down. Because of that my computer had nothing to do and that would be a waste if it is bored 😉 So I decided for Climate Prediction. In this project the climate is calculated. Some parameters of the initial situation change and then the result is compared with other calculations. By doing this, it is hoped that you will have a better understanding of the weather.

World Community Grid

The World Community Grid is an umbrella project that allows scientists to submit their projects. The prerequisite for the inclusion of a project is the non-profit status and the publication of the results as public domain.

Current projects include:

  • Computing for Clean Water of Tsinghua Univerity China – Research into novel water filters
  • Computing for Sustainable Water of University of Virginia – Investigate potential influences of various practices on nutrient loading and impact on the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem in the U.S.
  • Discover Dengue Drugs (Phase 2) of Univerity of Texas Medical Branch (Galvestone/USA) – Drug against Flavi virus
  • Drug Search for Leishmanaisis of University of Antioquia (Medellín / Colombia) – Identification of potential molecular candidates for treatment of leishmaniasis.
  • FightAIDS@Home Project of Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla / California) – Drug against AIDS
  • GO Fight Against Malaria of Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla / California) – Drug against malaria
  • Help Conquer Cancer of Ontario Cancer Institute – Cancer Research
  • Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy (Phase 2) of “Pierre et Marie Curie” University (Paris) – Drug against muscular dystrophy
  • Help Fight Childhood Cancer of Chiba University (Japan) – Development of drugs against neuoblastoma
  • Human Proteome Folding (Phase 2) of New York Univerity – Structure prediction of human proteins
  • Say No to Schistosoma of Infórium University, Belo Horizonte, Brasilien – Identification of potential agents for the treatment of schistosomiasis.
  • The Clean Energy Project (Phase 2) of Harvard University – Finding new materials for solar cells and energy storage

The following projects are finished projects:

  • AfricanClimate@Home of University of Cape Town – Climate models for Africa – Finished July 2008
  • Genome Comparsion of Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (Rio de Janeiro) – Protein database comparison – Finished July 2007
  • Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy (Phase 1) of “Pierre et Marie Curie” University (Paris) – Drug against  muscular dystrophy – Finished June 2007
  • Help Defeat Cancer of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers Univerity and UMDNJ – Improving cancer diagnostics – Finihsed April 2007
  • Human Proteome Folding (Phase 1) of New York Univerity – Structure prediction of human proteins – Finished July 2006
  • Nutrittious Rice for the World of University of Washington – Rice yield improvement – Finished April 2010
  • The Clean Energy Project (Phase 1) of Harvard University – Finding new materials for solar cells and energy storage – Finished

Statistics

My statistics:

In the Boinc statistics you can find current statistics from my DC projects.

On 11.11.2010 it was then so far. More than 1.000.000 points were generated for all BOINC together

On 18.02.2012 were it then so far. More than 5.000.000 points were generated for all BOINC together

Below is a last screenshot of my old SETI statistics. The graphic was generated on the homepage of my team.

In the old SETI there were so-called milestones as a small reward. If you reached these milestones, you could download a certificate. I could also reach some of the certificates. Unfortunately I didn’t reach the 5,000 milestone.

Last but not least two screenshots of SETI Hide. This tool I used to save the WUs at the old SETI between. A nice feature in it was that it saved the data of all processed WUs, so you had a small computer statistic.