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Site last updated December 18, 2007 (view updates) RSS 2.0
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editor: Kirk Pearson
 


What is Distributed Computing?

Distributed computing is a science which solves a large problem by giving small parts of the problem to many computers to solve and then combining the solutions for the parts into a solution for the problem. Recent distributed computing projects have been designed to use the computers of hundreds of thousands of volunteers all over the world, via the Internet, to look for extra-terrestrial radio signals, to look for prime numbers so large that they have more than ten million digits, and to find more effective drugs to fight cancer and the AIDS virus. These projects are so large, and require so much computing power to solve, that they would be impossible for any one computer or person to solve in a reasonable amount of time.

This site is designed for non-technical people who are interested in learning about, and participating in, public distributed computing projects which apply distributed computing science to solving real-world problems.

Learn more about distributed computing:
ThinkQuest has an excellent educational site which describes distributed computing, its history, and some of the current distributed computing projects in 2000. The site is available in English, Français, and Español.
Read a detailed article about distributed and grid computing by ExtremeTech. The article was written on April 4, 2002.
Read an article about distributed computing by Byte Magazine. The article was written in 1999.
Read a great, detailed overview of distributed computing by American Scientist. The article was written in 1998.

Major Areas of this Site
accessible by the links near the top of each page

Forum A discussion forum for distributed computing ideas and issues, specific projects, teams, etc.
Wiki A user-editable set of translations of this site into other languages, and other user-created content
News and Articles News stories, informational articles, and press releases about public distributed computing companies and projects
Active Projects Information, statistics and links for distributed computing projects that are active right now and that you can participate in
Computing Platforms Information and links for distributed computing platforms (software applications that host one or more active projects)
Upcoming Projects Information and links for distributed computing projects that are in development
Recently Completed Projects Information, statistics, and links for distributed computing projects that have been completed recently
Past Projects Information, statistics, and links for distributed computing projects that have been completed in the past and/or are no longer active
Tools Information and links for tools to support participants in distributed computing projects
Development Platforms Information and links for development platforms that you can use to create a distributed computing project
Conferences Information and links for conferences about distributed computing research and applications
Parody and Fun Sites Information and links for sites that make fun of major distributed computing projects. SETI@home seems to be a popular target :-)
Links Links to other sites which have distributed computing project links
Politics Information and links about political problems around distributed computing projects and users
Teams Links to distributed computing team websites
Books and Journals Books, journals, and other publications about distributed computing science, project development, specific projects, and related subjects
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions about this site and distributed computing projects
 
This site does not cover P2P projects (which are more about file sharing than about distributed computing), private distributed computing projects (projects in which the general public can't participate), or projects that research distributed computing theory (ways to do distributed computing). It also does not cover grid computing: if you are looking for information about grid computing, Grid Café is a good place to start.
Click on the following links to see how this site and distributed computing looked in past years: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000
 
Credits
Thank you to the people listed here and to all of the others who help me keep the information on this site up to date! Burt Altenburg Netherlands, Honza Cholt Czech Republic, Jeff Gilchrist Canada, Randy Jackson U.S.A., Ryan Jackson U.S.A., Clay Johnson U.S.A., Nihang Shah India, Cedric Vonck Belgium
Thank you also to the volunteer translators who make this site available in other languages! equn.com group China, Dori Ben Dov Israel, Andrea Pacini Italy, Nuno Simões Portugal

Questions? Comments? Know of a site or project that isn't listed here? Found a broken or outdated link? Send me email.

visits since February 9, 2004

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