Contagion: The Network Spread

How each humble PC is connecting to the network to create a truly powerful Super-Computer

Come to think of it – the network is the computer. And its spread is contagious. Some of you who are reading this would be aware of the SETI project; some of you won’t.

So I would tell you what it is all about.

SETI or Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence is a global effort which tries and analyses the radio signals which are generated in space and looks for patterns which would logically then mean that there exists some kind of communication channel from “Extra Terrestrial Intelligence”. In order to analyze the huge amounts of data collected on a realistic time frame … [whatz the use of analyzing the whole of today’s data 200 years from now… we would have invented the Jetsons’ spaceship by then :)], huge amount of compute power is needed. So who would dole out the dough to buy a huge supercomputer? Well! is there another way?? Yes! .. and that is connecting all the computers in the world which are idle and use their resources … thatz where your humble PC comes in …. SETI @ home attempts to use your computer when you are not using it… to look for aliens :) http://www.seti.org

Now think of all other applications where your humble PC can contribute towards:

· Climateprediction.net: study climate change

· Einstein@home: search for gravitational signals emitted by pulsars

· LHC@home: improve the design of the CERN LHC particle accelerator

· Predictor@home: investigate protein-related diseases

· Rosetta@home: help researchers develop cures for human diseases

· SETI@home: Look for radio evidence of extraterrestrial life

· Cell Computing biomedical research (Japanese; requires nonstandard client software)

· World Community Grid: advance our knowledge of human disease.

Now, do you see how the NETWORK is creating enormous value and helping solve world problems.

But how is idle compute resource used?

Well! there are multiple softwares which are intelligent and which connect to the parent server or the edge server and would use your compute resources when you are not using it. One of them is BOINC – fancy name hahn! And you thought only military guys could come up with cool names … BOINC stands for Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Open Computing … Learn More

THE MATRIX and YOU

Now that you realize what role you are playing in “THE MATRIX”, I rest my case … Next time I am going to talk about the ab initio protein structure prediction problem, and how it is intended to be used to design new chemical catalysts and potential HIV vaccines by arriving at the lowest energy structures.