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Distributed Computing "Advances"

Posted by Hemos on from the yet-more-clock-cycles dept.

Quirk writes "NewScientist is reporting on..."Software to be launched in January will let PC users run as many "distributed computing" projects as they like. The program will let PC users search for aliens, help predict climate change and perform advanced biological research - all at the same time."'It is called the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). BOINC acts like a software platform that can run a number of screen-saver style applications on top of the PC's own operating system.'"

5 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wont we get this in longhorn with... by Moderation+abuser · · Score: 4, Insightful

    NUMA is great for dedicated machines, but general purpose machines lending out RAM to other systems? Get real, you'd be better off with a BFO page space.

    Remote RAM has to be instantly available and it can't go away. Shitty isn't the word for it when we're talking about using general purpose networking kit like gigabit for NUMA. Utterly unusable and waste of time are the best words to describe it. You need SCI, Myrinet or similar to get shitty performance.

    --
    Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
  2. Multiple Projects on the same machine by Seek_1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This really isn't as good as you might think.

    Most distributed computing projects are distributed because they need massive amounts of CPU cycles. Running multiple projects on one machine isn't going to make the projects faster since the same amount of CPU cycles are now being divided up amongst the number of projects that you're running. Infact it'll actually be less because now the machine has to deal with the overhead of switching between project processes.

    On the other hand it might make sense if you were running a CPU-intensive project and a data-intensive project at the same time (ie projects that will maximize separate non-conflicting resources on the same machine..)

    My Folding@Home Team

  3. Distributed Computing OR my time is NOT free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well....the processors in my computers are OWNED by me. I pay the electricity bills to operate them, and YOU want to use my processor time for FREE ?? I dont think so, pony up some cash or keep your distributed clients, thank you.

  4. Re:Double work by jkcity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Double results and checking also helps to capture random errors i would guess as well though, not just cheating.

  5. Java Applet distributed computing by DeepDarkSky · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought a long time ago, why not make distributed computing applications as Java Applets hosted on web servers?

    Pros:
    - Nothing to "install".
    - Cross platform (write it once, run it everywhere, right?)
    - Easy to use (just browse)

    Cons:
    - Speed.
    - Full featured screen saver not possible?
    - uh...speed?