Every day during the lunch hour, thousands of hard-working individuals leave their computers on at their desk, as they head out for a bite to eat. Most of their computer screens instantly switch to a screensaver after just a minute or two while its processor remains idle, doing nothing but wasting energy until they return from lunch.
Instead of wasting the energy they should consider putting their computer’s energy to good use volunteering its idle time to help cure diseases. If you wonder how that is possible, you should know that thousands of people have already stepped up to help CAS@home do just that.
What is CAS@home?
By using software downloaded to thousands of PCs, CAS@home can easily harness each of their computing resources, during idle times, to assist scientists and researchers perform computer-intensive calculations. By simultaneously combining the computing resources of tens of thousands of computers, CAS@home can provide the researchers a computing power that is equal to a mega super-computer.
How Will Scientists Use the Power of My Computer?
Currently, scientists are working in the research fields of protein structure, nanotechnology, and cancer genomics. They are researching the interactions of proteins’ structures that are essential for comprehending life processes of the most basic molecular level. By grasping the understanding of complex nanotechnology, they use your computer idle time to perform simulations at an atomistic level to comprehend molecular gas diffusion. Their work on cancer genomics provides tremendous insight to cancer cells and their effects on humans.
Getting Involved
Because this application uses the idled downtime of these volunteered PCs, it will not disturb or interrupt the workflow of anyone using their computer at work or home. By installing a simple download (BOINC client 7.0) and following the easy instructions, you can quickly add the CAS@home application to your computer and begin volunteering your PC’s idle downtime to the cause. You can track your project and other stats, see example: http://boinc.thesonntags.com/collatz/show_user.php?userid=41392
