wiki:DesktopGrid

Version 6 (modified by davea, 16 years ago) (diff)

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Grid computing with BOINC

Grid versus volunteer computing

Grid computing is a form of distributed computing in which an organization (such as a business) uses its existing computers to handle its own long-running computational tasks. This differs from volunteer computing in several ways:

  • The computing resources can be trusted; i.e. one can assume that the PCs don't return results that are intentionally wrong, and that they don't falsify credit. Hence there is typically no need for replication.
  • There is no need for screensaver graphics; in fact it may be desirable to have the computation be completely invisible and out of the control of the PC user.
  • Client deployment is typically automated.

BOINC as a grid computing platform

Although it was originally designed for volunteer computing, BOINC works very well for grid computing. The steps in creating a grid are:

To ensure that outside hosts can't participate in your project or access its files, configure your firewall to prevent HTTP access to your BOINC server.

For more information on grid computing using BOINC, and some useful pre-compiled software, visit Desktopgrid.hu.