Distributed Computing - Cure Cancer, Find ETs

What began as research project in the 90s is now a hobby, and even culture among computer enthusiasts. In reality, searching for prime numbers is pretty useless. There are many more useful applications like researching cancer and looking for a cure, like Stanford University’s Folding@Homeproject (http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/). The effort is currentlybeing spearheaded by students at Stanford, and it boasts the participation of various organizations, including Developer Shed, Inc., the company that produces this magazine.

Another well know project is SETI@home (http://setiathome.ssl.berkely.edu/). SETI, which stands for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is one of the largest research groups exploring the heavens via the use of radio telescopes with the goal of finding intelligent life on other planets. Its stated goal is “to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.” They use distributed computing to help them sift through the large spectrum of radio signals gathered from numerous radio telescopes around the world. 

Regardless of the application, distributed computing is a piece of Internet history, and the possibility of being a part of this history is still open. In this sense, it is reasonable to see why it is fun for people to download, install, and run these programs on as many computers they have access to. Not only is distributed computing a race to find an alien, it is a competition to see who can perform x amount of calculations a day. Distributed computing networks like Folding@Home keep track of individual user statistics. In fact, you can even create and join teams and fold – fold being a term for calculate – together as a team and be ranked. There are forums all over the Internet discussing distributed computing. Do these people have too much time on their hands? No, they are just having a good time discussing a topic of interest like cars or baseball can be to anyone else. Distributed computing is sure to continue to prosper and its impact on the IT sector will be interesting. In the mean time I’m going to save this paper, head to bed, and let my computer find a cure for cancer.

Resources

Attiya, Hagit. Distributed Computing: Fundamentals, Simulations and Advanced Topics. : John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

Coulouris, George. Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design (3^rd Edition). : Addison-Wesley Pub Co., 2000.

 (This article originally appeared in the June 2004 issue of Plug-In).