Choosing BOINC projects

BOINC is used by many independent volunteer computing projects. Some are based at universities and research labs, others are run by companies and individuals. You can participate in several projects (ensuring that your computer will be kept busy even when one project has no work) and you can control how your computer's resources are divided among these projects.

In deciding whether to participate in a project, read its web site and consider the following questions:

Does it clearly describe its goals, and are these goals important and beneficial?
Do they have any published results? See A list of scientific publications of BOINC projects.
Do you trust it to use proper security practices on its servers?
Who owns the results of the computation? Will they be freely available to the public or will they belong to a for-profit business?

We at BOINC have communicated with the following projects, and we believe that their descriptions (institution and area of research) are accurate. See also a complete list of projects.

Note: if your computer is equipped with a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), you may be able to use it to compute faster.

Project name Mouse over for details; click to visit web site	Project URL	Supported platforms
Mathematics, computing, and games
VTU@home	http://boinc.vgtu.lt/vtuathome/	Linux/x86, Windows, Linux/x64
ABC@home	http://abcathome.com/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Windows, Windows/x64, Mac OS X 64-bit, Linux/x64
Chess960@home	http://www.chess960athome.org/alpha/	Unknown
NFS@home	http://escatter11.fullerton.edu/nfs/	Linux/x86, Windows, Linux/x64
PrimeGrid	http://www.primegrid.com/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Playstation3/Linux, Windows, Windows/x64, Mac OS X 64-bit, Linux/x64, x86_64-pc-solaris
Rectilinear Crossing Number	http://dist.ist.tugraz.at/cape5/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Windows, Windows/x64, Linux/x64
SHA-1 Collision Search Graz	http://boinc.iaik.tugraz.at/sha1_coll_search/	Linux/x86, Windows, Linux/x64
AQUA@home	http://aqua.dwavesys.com/	Mac OS X (multicore), Linux/x86 (NVIDIA GPU), Linux/x86 (multicore), Windows (NVIDIA GPU), Windows (multicore), Windows/x64 (multicore), Mac OS X 64-bit (multicore), Linux/x64 (NVIDIA GPU), Linux/x64 (multicore)
SZTAKI Desktop Grid	http://szdg.lpds.sztaki.hu/szdg/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Windows, windows_intelx86_64, Mac OS X 64-bit
NQueens@home	http://nqueens.ing.udec.cl/	Unknown
Astronomy/Physics/Chemistry
Leiden Classical	http://boinc.gorlaeus.net/	Unknown
uFluids@home	http://www.ufluids.net/	Windows
Quantum Monte Carlo at Home	http://qah.uni-muenster.de/	Linux/x86, Windows, Linux/x64
Spinhenge@home	http://spin.fh-bielefeld.de/	Unknown
Cosmology@Home	http://www.cosmologyathome.org/	Linux/x86, Windows, Linux/x64
Einstein@home	http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), SPARC Solaris 2.7, Windows
Milkyway@home	http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Windows, Windows (NVIDIA GPU), Windows/x64, Mac OS X 64-bit, Linux/x64, Linux/x64 (NVIDIA GPU)
LHC@home	http://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/	Linux/x86, Windows, Windows/x64, Linux/x64
SETI@home	http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), SPARC Solaris, SPARC Solaris 2.7, Windows, Windows (NVIDIA GPU), Linux/x64
Multiple applications
EDGeS@Home	http://home.edges-grid.eu/home/	Linux/x86, Windows, Linux/x64
Ibercivis	http://registro.ibercivis.es/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Windows, Linux/x64
World Community Grid	http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/
Earth Sciences
Climateprediction.net	http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Windows
Biology and Medicine
Docking@Home	http://docking.cis.udel.edu/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), windows_amd64, Windows, Windows/x64, Linux/x64
The Lattice Project	http://boinc.umiacs.umd.edu/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Windows, Windows (NVIDIA GPU)
Superlink@Technion	http://cbl-boinc-server2.cs.technion.ac.il/superlinkattechnion/	Unknown
Malariacontrol.net	http://www.malariacontrol.net/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Windows, Linux/x64
GPUGrid.net	http://www.gpugrid.net/	Playstation3/Linux, Windows (ATI GPU), Windows (NVIDIA GPU), Linux/x64 (NVIDIA GPU)
POEM@HOME	http://boinc.fzk.de/poem/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Windows
SIMAP	http://boinc.bio.wzw.tum.de/boincsimap/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Windows, Windows/x64, Linux/x64
Rosetta@home	http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/	Mac OS X, Linux/x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Windows, Windows/x64, Linux/x64

If you would like to have your project included on this list, please contact us.

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Last modified 12:39 AM UTC, September 07 2009.
Copyright © 2009 University of California. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.