Moving SETI@home to BOINC

[Guru]

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<h1>Moving SETI@home to BOINC</h1>
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<p>
We will soon release a new version of SETI@home,
based on <a href=http://boinc.berkeley.edu>BOINC</a>,
a general-purpose platform for distributed
computing projects like SETI@home.
Eventually other distributed computing projects
(like Folding@home and ClimatePrediction.net) will also use BOINC,
and you'll be able to share your computer time
among projects of your choosing.

<p>
BOINC makes it possible for us to release new
versions of SETI@home without requiring
you to download and install new software.
It will also let us do new analyses of the SETI@home data,
looking for other types of radio signals
(such as short pulses from evaporating black holes).

<p>
Switching to SETI@home/BOINC will be easy:
</ul>
<li> Create an account using the SETI@home web site.
This will give you an account ID, sent by email.
<b>Note: accounts will created automatically
for all current SETI@home users (see below)</b>.
<li> Download and install the BOINC client program
when it becomes available.
<li> Uninstall SETI@home.
<li> When you first run the BOINC client, enter your SETI@home account ID.
</ul>

<h3>Stages of the transition</h3>

We don't have an exact timetable yet,
but the transition will be staged as follows:
<ol>
<li>
We will make a snapshot of SETI@home user information
(accounts, teams, profiles)
and will use it to initialize the SETI@home/BOINC database.
We will then launch the SETI@home/BOINC project.
<li>
Over the next month or so we will send email to all SETI@home users,
giving them their new account IDs
and recommending that they switch to BOINC.
During this period you can continue to run the current SETI@home,
and your results will be recorded and used.
New SETI@home accounts and team changes can be made,
but will not be carried over to BOINC.

<li>
We will turn off the current SETI@home server.
At this point you will need to switch to SETI@home/BOINC.
</ol>

<h3>What will happen to my workunit totals?</h3>
<p>
BOINC keeps track of your computer's work
in terms of actual computation, not workunits.
This is necessary because BOINC projects may have
workunits of many different "sizes".
Because of this change, all SETI@home/BOINC accounts
will start with zero credit.
<p>
However, the workunit totals from the current SETI@home
will be recorded in our database,
and a section of our web site will show the final totals.

<h3>What will happen with SETI@home teams?</h3>
<p>
All current SETI@home teams, and their membership,
will be copied over to SETI@home/BOINC.
The work totals for teams will also start from zero.

<h3>What will happen with programs like SETIQueue and SETI Monitor?</h3>
<p>
These programs (which have been very useful with SETI@home Classic)
won't work with SETI@home/BOINC.
Their main function (buffering multiple work units)
is provided by BOINC itself, which allows you to
specify how much work your computer should get each time it
contacts the server.

<h3>Will the format of input and output files change?</h3>
<p>
Yes.
Programs which display information about the signals found in SETI@home
work units will need to be modified to support the new (XML) data formats
used by SETI@home/BOINC.
Authors of such programs are encouraged to contact
the SETI@home team for sample input and output files.

[High_Jumbllama]

This may finally get me to jump ship from Distributed Folding.

[J1NG]

Well, they better have something ready for the Opteron systems out there () or I won't be touching it.

J1NG

[GNEP]

Re: Moving SETI@home to BOINC

Originally posted by Guru
Eventually other distributed computing projects (like Folding@home and ClimatePrediction.net) will also use BOINC

Glad to see its getting the exposure and is seen as a "big" distributed project....