BOINC, Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, is an open-source software platform that enables distributed computing using volunteered computing resources. You can donate yours after you download and run BOINC client software in your machine. On the opposite side, you can request donation of computing resources by create a BOINC-based computing project. You just need a single Linux server and install the BOINC server software to make use of the computing power equivalent to a cluster with tens of thousands of CPUs for your computationally-intensive tasks.

Scientific research projects that seek volunteered computing resources from participants include those that study climate change, search for gravitational signals emitted by pulsars, look for radio evidence of extraterrestrial life, and help researchers investigate and develop cures for human diseases. IBM’s World Community Grid launched a BOINC-based project in November 2005. (I mentioned World Community Grid in this post.)

I learn BOINC via Steve’s post on his weblog OnHongKongIsle. My thanks.