Changes between Version 5 and Version 6 of BoincOverview

Timestamp:

Sep 16, 2018, 2:12:33 PM (6 years ago)

Author:

davea

Comment:

--

BoincOverview

@@ -6 +6 @@
 rather than low turnaround time of individual jobs.
 It also offers low-level mechanisms for distributed data storage.
+BOINC has a client/server architecture:
+the '''server''' distributes jobs,
+while the '''client''' runs on worker nodes, which execute jobs.
 
-BOINC has a client/server architecture.
-The '''server''' distributes jobs.
-The '''client''' runs on worker nodes, which execute jobs.
+BOINC can be used in two ways, depending on where the worker nodes come from:
 
-BOINC was originally designed for '''volunteer computing''',
-where the worker nodes are consumer devices (desktop and laptop computers,
-tables, smartphones) volunteered by their owners.
-It addresses the various challenges inherent in this environment
-(heterogeneity, host churn and unreliability, scale, security, and so on).
+ * In '''volunteer computing''',
+  the worker nodes are consumer devices (desktop and laptop computers,
+  tablets, smartphones) volunteered by their owners.
+  BOINC addresses the various challenges inherent in this environment
+  (heterogeneity, host churn and unreliability, scale, security, and so on).
+ There are a number of volunteer-computing '''BOINC projects'''
+ such as SETI@home, LHC@home, IBM World Community Grid, and so on.
+ The BOINC client can be "attached" to one or many of these;
+ it processes jobs for the projects to which it is attached.
 
-There are a number of volunteer-computing '''BOINC projects'''
-such as SETI@home, LHC@home, IBM World Community Grid, and so on.
-The BOINC client can be "attached" to one or many of these;
-it processes jobs for the projects to which it is attached.
+ * BOINC can also be used for '''in-house computing''' within an organization (e.g. a company).
+  In this case case the worker nodes are
+  cluster nodes or other organizational computers,
+  and they are attached to the organization's server.
 
-BOINC can also be used for '''in-house computing''' within an organization (e.g. a company).
-In this case case the worker nodes are
-cluster nodes or other organizational computers,
-and they are attached to the organization's server.
+BOINC can run all existing HTC applications,
+including those that use GPUs and/or multiple CPU cores.
+It can use virtual machines to run existing Linux applications on Windows and Mac worker nodes.
+
+BOINC provides mechanisms for job submission and control, designed for performance at scale.
+However, it can also be used as a back end for existing
+job-submission systems such as HTCondor; details are [GridIntegration here].
 
 BOINC is distributed under the LGPL v3 open-source license.
@@ -35 +43 @@
 To compute using BOINC, you'll need to set up a BOINC server
 and configure your applications to run under BOINC.
-Instructions for doing this are [ProjectMain here].
+Technical documentation is [ProjectMain here].
 
 If you're doing in-house computing,