"Grid Computing"

[Georgelemmons]

I don't know whether any of you have heard of grid computing. It's a process used by many research institutions in place of buying a supercomputer (as those can be prohibitively expensive ;) ).

 

 

 

I personally use BOINC (explained later), and was wondering if anybody else does this type of thing.

 

 

 

 

 

And for the people that dont understand: Grid Computing is just using a whole bunch of home computers to do work rather than using a giant super expensive super computer. You can set the program so it only does work when you're idle from your computer or whatever.

:lol: Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explanation of Grid Computing

 

[hide=Summary of grid computing]1. Your PC gets a set of tasks from the project's scheduling server. The tasks depend on your PC: for example, the server won't give it tasks that requires more RAM than you have. Projects can support several applications, and the server may send you tasks from any of them.

 

2. Your PC downloads executable and input files from the project's data server. If the project releases new versions of its applications, the executable files are downloaded automatically to your PC.

 

3. Your PC runs the application programs, producing output files.

 

4. Your PC uploads the output files to the data server.

 

5. Later (up to several days later, depending on your preferences) your PC reports the completed tasks to the scheduling server, and gets new tasks.[/hide]

 

 

 

There are many different scientific projects that use this system. For example, you can do climate simulations, protein folding experiments, and even detect earthquakes (if you have a macbook). BOINC, run by the University of California, Berkelely, is a popular program to do this. Once you download it, you can choose 1, or multiple, projects to support, and dictate when they can be run (using settings like time of day, cpu usage, and time idle).

 

 

 

Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

 

 

 

(Why can't we hide within hides?)

[mrpez]

i wont pretend like i understand much of what you said, seeing as i am not much of a computer person. what i did understand though, is that there is a lot of data involved.

 

 

 

what kind of computer do you need to run this, and are there many practical uses for day-to-day life?

[Sbrideau]

I'd like to do this, but I don't. I think I should go look if a Canadian university does something like that and help them :).

[Stephen9o3]

I ran SETI@Home for a little while once and also Folding@Home for a little while. And by a little while I mean a couple days. This was years ago too, haven't really bothered since.

 

 

 

And for the people that dont understand: Grid Computing is just using a whole bunch of home computers to do work rather than using a giant super expensive super computer. You can set the program so it only does work when you're idle from your computer or whatever.

[warri0r45]

I remember seeing this system used when the screensaver of the computers involved was up.

 

 

 

It had something to do with protein folding/structure.

[Will H]

Oh yeah, I've heard of that. They do things like finding the next prime number (if you find one with enough digits, you get a huge prize!) and folding proteins for medicines. Never tried it though, because you only really get a chance worth bothering about if you have either a huge network of computers or some really powerful ones. I have neither.

 

It's a good idea though.

[folmer_veeman]

Oh yeah, I've heard of that. They do things like finding the next prime number (if you find one with enough digits, you get a huge prize!) and folding proteins for medicines. Never tried it though, because you only really get a chance worth bothering about if you have either a huge network of computers or some really powerful ones. I have neither.

 

It's a good idea though.

 

 

 

what's the highest prime number atm?

[dsavi]

I used to do Folding@home but stopped, it took up too much RAM that I desperately needed for Photoshop.

[BlueLancer]

Oh yeah, I've heard of that. They do things like finding the next prime number (if you find one with enough digits, you get a huge prize!) and folding proteins for medicines. Never tried it though, because you only really get a chance worth bothering about if you have either a huge network of computers or some really powerful ones. I have neither.

 

It's a good idea though.

 

 

 

what's the highest prime number atm?

 

 

 

With modern software that's available for this purpose.. It doesn't really matter. New ones are being found all the time, and there isn't a final prime number. They can go on practically forever. If you're desperate to know though, check this site.. http://www.bigprimes.net/archive/prime. ... =147121206

 

 

 

I used to do Folding@home but stopped

 

 

 

Maybe that's what I should call my poker sessions from now on... (Non hold'em players wont get the joke :lol: ) Since 90% of the play just involves throwing away trash cards..

[Will H]

Here's one of the programs for finding big primes called GIMPS:

 

http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm

 

And here's the prizes you could get if you get over a certain number of digits:

 

http://www.eff.org/awards/coop

[Faux]

I thought you said girl computing. Girl and computer.... haha

[ember3579]

This looks fairly good in areas with decent internet connections. One question, though. What do we get for our contribution? We have to spend money on electricity and the extra bit on the internet connection for whenever we sign up for this. We should be getting something in return, right?

[Georgelemmons]

This looks fairly good in areas with decent internet connections. One question, though. What do we get for our contribution? We have to spend money on electricity and the extra bit on the internet connection for whenever we sign up for this. We should be getting something in return, right?

 

 

 

A good feeling that you've helped contribute to the advancement of the human race. :

 

 

 

 

And it some cases, like the program mentioned above, cash rewards.

[Will H]

This looks fairly good in areas with decent internet connections. One question, though. What do we get for our contribution? We have to spend money on electricity and the extra bit on the internet connection for whenever we sign up for this. We should be getting something in return, right?

 

 

 

A good feeling that you've helped contribute to the advancement of the human race. :

 

 

 

 

And it some cases, like the program mentioned above, cash rewards.

 

If your computer is lucky enough to produce, say a folding protein which was vital in the research into curing cancer, your name will be remembered by a hell of a lot of people. And you didn't do any of the work, either.

[anonymous1234]

I thought you said girl computing. Girl and computer.... haha

 

metoo :lol:

 

 

 

I don't see why everybody doesn't do this, if it is going to a worthy cause and doesn't affect you at all. I guess I'll see what I want to devote mah internetz to :-k

[folmer_veeman]

This looks fairly good in areas with decent internet connections. One question, though. What do we get for our contribution? We have to spend money on electricity and the extra bit on the internet connection for whenever we sign up for this. We should be getting something in return, right?

 

 

 

A good feeling that you've helped contribute to the advancement of the human race. :

 

 

 

 

And it some cases, like the program mentioned above, cash rewards.

 

If your computer is lucky enough to produce, say a folding protein which was vital in the research into curing cancer, your name will be remembered by a hell of a lot of people. And you didn't do any of the work, either.

 

 

 

been there, done that #-o

 

 

 

i don't really think that the person who will find something vital in the research for curing cancer will be a random person grid computing on his home pc, while he is off to school

[indy500fan]

We've had topics about this before, but not in a long while. I used to do Einstein@Home and we even had a small TIF group. I think it was maybe me and two other people at the most, then they left :D .

 

 

 

I didn't really understand what E@H was doing, I just picked it because of the name. I didn't do Folding@Home because it didn't use the BOINC client and I already had it installed.

 

 

 

There are some that you can run that look for unknown objects in space, and if you find one then you get to name it. I was about to start that, but that's when I decided to just shut off the computer when not in use and save energy instead.

[anonymous1234]

Time to find some new prime numbers :

[folmer_veeman]

but how does it work if i'd want to do it?

[lordkafei]

I have BOINC installed here, but since I started using my computer as a DVR, I don't run it. Maybe I will again if I can find a good cheap dual-core CPU.