Volunteer your computer to help world fight AIDS
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BY JIM RITTER
The holiday season is a time for giving, but perhaps you are short of funds and don't have time to volunteer.
Here's a way to support worthy causes such as AIDS research without lifting a finger or writing a check.
Volunteer your computer.
A growing number of research projects that require immense computing power are enlisting the help of thousands of personal computers at home and work.Researchers divide up the work and parcel out small tasks over the Internet to volunteers' computers.
When otherwise idle, the computers complete the tasks and send the results back.
The latest such effort is FightAIDS@Home, run on IBM's World Community Grid.
Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute need your help to model AIDS drugs on computers.
1,500 computers added daily
"It's a cheap and easy way to support AIDS research," said David Munar of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.
More than 200,000 computers are participating, and FightAIDS@Home is adding 1,500 computers a day.
Together, the computers have as much power as a world-class supercomputer, able to do more than 20 trillion calculations a second.
IBM says its fast-growing grid eventually could accommodate 10 million PCs and 15 to 20 projects a year.
IBM is considering other possible projects, including bird flu research and an effort to predict tsunamis in Asia.
If you don't like IBM-approved projects, there are plenty of other choices.
About 20 other research projects use software from the University of California at Berkeley, known as BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing).
From pulsars to diseases
These are among the BOINC projects that 600,000 people are running on their computers:
*Climateprediction.net: Studies climate change.
*Einstein@home: Searches for gravitational signals emitted by pulsars.
*Predictor@home: Investigates protein-related diseases.
*SETI@home: Looks for evidence of extraterrestrial life detected by radio telescopes.
*Rosetta@home: Helps researchers develop cures for human diseases.
To volunteer for a BOINC project, visit boinc.berkeley.edu.
IBM uses an advisory committee to decide which research projects to support on its grid. But BOINC is available to all researchers.
"Scientists create their own projects and don't have to get anyone's permission," BOINC director David Anderson said.
Article submitted by: Webshark
Last Update: 12-05-2005
Category: Off Topic Info
The holiday season is a time for giving, but perhaps you are short of funds and don't have time to volunteer.
Here's a way to support worthy causes such as AIDS research without lifting a finger or writing a check.
Volunteer your computer.
A growing number of research projects that require immense computing power are enlisting the help of thousands of personal computers at home and work.Researchers divide up the work and parcel out small tasks over the Internet to volunteers' computers.
When otherwise idle, the computers complete the tasks and send the results back.
The latest such effort is FightAIDS@Home, run on IBM's World Community Grid.
Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute need your help to model AIDS drugs on computers.
1,500 computers added daily
"It's a cheap and easy way to support AIDS research," said David Munar of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.
More than 200,000 computers are participating, and FightAIDS@Home is adding 1,500 computers a day.
Together, the computers have as much power as a world-class supercomputer, able to do more than 20 trillion calculations a second.
IBM says its fast-growing grid eventually could accommodate 10 million PCs and 15 to 20 projects a year.
IBM is considering other possible projects, including bird flu research and an effort to predict tsunamis in Asia.
If you don't like IBM-approved projects, there are plenty of other choices.
About 20 other research projects use software from the University of California at Berkeley, known as BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing).
From pulsars to diseases
These are among the BOINC projects that 600,000 people are running on their computers:
*Climateprediction.net: Studies climate change.
*Einstein@home: Searches for gravitational signals emitted by pulsars.
*Predictor@home: Investigates protein-related diseases.
*SETI@home: Looks for evidence of extraterrestrial life detected by radio telescopes.
*Rosetta@home: Helps researchers develop cures for human diseases.
To volunteer for a BOINC project, visit boinc.berkeley.edu.
IBM uses an advisory committee to decide which research projects to support on its grid. But BOINC is available to all researchers.
"Scientists create their own projects and don't have to get anyone's permission," BOINC director David Anderson said.
Article submitted by: Webshark
Last Update: 12-05-2005
Category: Off Topic Info
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