What is BOINC? An introduction to volunteer computing
BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) is open-source software that lets you donate your computer’s idle CPU and graphics-card power to science projects. Einstein@Home searches for gravitational waves and pulsars, Rosetta@home solves protein structures, MilkyWay@home models the structure of the Milky Way and LHC@home simulates particle accelerators.
How does it work?
You install the BOINC client, join a project and sign in with your account. The project sends small pieces of work, your computer calculates them and returns the result. Results are checked against those of other volunteers.
What are credit and RAC?
The measure of the work you have done is called credit (based on how long an operation takes on a standard computer). RAC (Recent Average Credit) is your daily average over the last weeks; it falls when your computer is off and rises when it runs. Total credit is a lifetime counter, RAC is your current speed.
CPID: one number, all projects
A CPID (cross-project ID) is a 32-character identity that ties one person’s accounts on all BOINC projects together; it is derived from your account e-mail and a secret value that is not specific to a project, so it is the same on every project. You find it on the “Your account” page of any project or in the profile address on sites such as BoincStats and Free-DC (cpid=…). This is your account’s CPID; each computer (host) has its own CPID, which Aster does not need. On Aster you type your user name or your CPID; all your projects are found by themselves.
Where to start?
As a BOINC client we recommend Athena’s open-source app Iris; it needs no account. To pick a project, best BOINC projects guide to pick one. Once you have joined, the userid= number in the address of your profile page is your user ID; in Aster you use it to see your ranking and carbon figure.