The OneMinute Geek:

Sharing computing power

The Problem:

Computer time is expensive. I'm referring to computational horsepower, the raw crunching power researchers need to perform complicated analysis – like testing a structural beam, designing a molecule or studying fluid flow across a surface. As an undergrad at UCSD, we students were each given five minutes of computing time on the super computer (www.sdsc.edu/). Given the speediness of the super computer, five minutes is considered a lot! And expensive, too.

So what do the not-so-well-endowed research organizations do to meet their big demands for pricey computing power?

The Solution:

They ask to borrow your PC. Ever wonder why there are six or so pallbearers? Because a coffin is too heavy for just one person! Computers can work the same way. A single computing task can be shared between several workstations at the same time. In this way, intensive computations can be performed quickly and inexpensively by leveraging the collective computing power of many (average) computers working together.

The World Community Grid (www.worldcommunitygrid.org/) is one such organization that harnesses unused computing power to help solve humanity's pressing scientific problems. They now have some 100,000 participants who have downloaded a little program that detects when their computer is idle. The computer is then given a few quick tasks that it performs and then burps data back to the central computer. By breaking large projects into small pieces and giving those tasks to idle computers worldwide, then time required for analysis is greatly reduced.

You can join The Grid and make your computer available. You can even submit your own research projects!

SETI @ Home (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/) is based on the same concept. It's a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.

Now ET really can phone home!

James Kerr is President/CEO of SuperGeeks, a Hawaii-based computer service and repair company (www.supergeeks.net). Send questions, comments and suggestions to help@supergeeks.net or call 942-0773.