Computer Remote Support: Help Map the Milky Way

In an earlier blog post, we listed several ways that can put your computer to work while you sleep. Those were mostly housecleaning tasks that would help your PC run faster and more efficiently. But that’s not all your computer can do while you doze at night. Believe it or not, your PC is capable of offering computer for remote support to researchers in need of massive amounts of processing power.

It’s called distributed computing. Distributed systems are made up of several autonomous computers that can communicate with each other in order to achieve a common goal. In other words, distributed computing lets you donate your PC’s processing power via a computer remote support architecture when you’re not using it.

There are several big projects that are harnessing the potential power of computer remote support and distributed computing. Many people who take part in these projects leave their computers on overnight and make their PC’s processor available for use. Here are a few of the most popular:

Folding@Home–Probably the most powerful distributed computer remote support system in the world, the Folding@home project uses “donated” processors to simulate protein folding and misfolding. Better understanding protein folding can lead to advances in fighting diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cystic fibrosis and cancer.

MilkyWay@Home–Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is huge. Creating a useful model of it is a massive undertaking. But you can help take part in a project that aims to do just that by donating computer remote support to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s galaxy-mapping project. Some 24,000 people have already lent their computer remote support to the project.

Seti@Home–SETI is an acronym for the Search For Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. It seeks to find and analyze radio signals that may lead to the discovery of life on another planet. Launched in 1999, SETI@Home is one of the oldest projects that allows people to offer up computer remote support for a large project. While the program has not yet found any extraterrestrial intelligence signals, it has identified some locations that seem to be producing unexplainable radio intensity.

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