| | 1 | = Introduction to job processing = |
| | 2 | |
| | 3 | Most distributed processing systems let you submit jobs - |
| | 4 | you supply an executable and some input files, |
| | 5 | and the system runs the job on a remote computer and |
| | 6 | gives you the output files when it's done. |
| | 7 | You can do this type of [SingleJob single job submission] in BOINC. |
| | 8 | |
| | 9 | However, BOINC is designed for different types of situation, in particular those where: |
| | 10 | |
| | 11 | * You need to process thousands or millions of jobs, using only a few applications. |
| | 12 | * You want jobs to be '''platform-independent''', i.e. you don't have to specify what kind of computer to use. |
| | 13 | * You want job results to be validated by replication. |
| | 14 | |
| | 15 | To handle these requirements, BOINC defines an architecture |
| | 16 | in which jobs are processed in a pipeline consisting |
| | 17 | of the following programs: |
| | 18 | |
| | 19 | * A '''work generator''' creates jobs. |
| | 20 | * A '''validator''' compares replicated results and selects one of them as 'canonical', or correct. |
| | 21 | * An '''assimilator''' handles validated results, storing them in an archive or database. |
| | 22 | |
| | 23 | Typically these programs are application-specific, |
| | 24 | and you will need to develop them (usually in C++) using |
| | 25 | frameworks supplied by BOINC. |
| | 26 | In some cases you may be able to use sample versions that are part of BOINC. |
