BOINC Central: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox software | |||
| name = BOINC Central | |||
| logo = BOINC_central.png | |||
| screenshot = | |||
| caption = | |||
| status = Active | |||
| | | category = Multi-project | ||
| | | compute = CPU | ||
| | | dependencies = BUDA | ||
| | |||
| developer | | developer = [[wikipedia:David P. Anderson|David P. Anderson]], [[wikipedia:University of California, Berkeley|University of California, Berkeley]] Space Sciences Laboratory | ||
| released | | released = {{Start date and age|2021|11|26}} | ||
| | |||
| | | completed = Boolean Chains | ||
| operating system | | discontinued = | ||
| | | repository = | ||
| | |||
| | | programming language = C, C++ | ||
| website | | operating system = Windows, Linux, macOS, Android | ||
| size = ~50 MB | |||
| stats as of = {{Start date and age|2026|02|25}} | |||
| average performance = 5721.89 GigaFLOPS | |||
| active users = 603 | |||
| total users = 953 | |||
| active hosts = 1139 | |||
| total hosts = 2235 | |||
| rac = | |||
| credit per day = | |||
| gpu performance = | |||
| cpu performance = | |||
| website = {{URL|https://boinc.berkeley.edu/central/}} | |||
| license = Open-source software ([[wikipedia:GNU Lesser General Public License|LGPL]]) | |||
}} | }} | ||
[https://boinc.berkeley.edu/central/ '''''BOINC Central'''''] is | [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/central/ '''''BOINC Central'''''] is a BOINC project. A system for '''''[[Wikipedia:Volunteer computing|volunteer computing]]''''', allowing people around the world to donate computing power to science research. | ||
== Overview == | == Overview == | ||
BOINC Central gives scientists access to the power of volunteer computing without having to operate a BOINC server. It was publicly launched on '''26 November 2021'''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://boinc.berkeley.edu/central/ |title=Welcome to BOINC Central |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |date=26 November 2021 |access-date=2026-05-18}}</ref> and is operated by the [[University of California, Berkeley]] BOINC project, under the direction of research scientist [[David P. Anderson]]. | BOINC Central gives scientists access to the power of volunteer computing without having to operate a BOINC server. It was publicly launched on '''26 November 2021'''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://boinc.berkeley.edu/central/ |title=Welcome to BOINC Central |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |date=26 November 2021 |access-date=2026-05-18}}</ref> and is operated by the [[Wikipedia:University of California, Berkeley|University of California, Berkeley]] BOINC project, under the direction of research scientist [[Wikipedia:David P. Anderson|David P. Anderson]]. | ||
[[File:BOINC Manager Screenshot.jpg|thumb|The BOINC platform, which BOINC Central runs on, was originally developed to support SETI@home.]] | [[File:BOINC Manager Screenshot.jpg|thumb|The BOINC platform, which BOINC Central runs on, was originally developed to support SETI@home.|514x514px]] | ||
The project is one of approximately 26 projects listed on BOINC's official roster as of early 2026.<ref name=boinc-wikipedia>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Open_Infrastructure_for_Network_Computing |title=Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing |publisher=Wikipedia |access-date=2026-05-18}}</ref> Unlike other BOINC projects that serve a single research team, BOINC Central acts as a '''shared scientific computing service''' – a central hub where multiple independent scientists can submit workloads without having to build or maintain their own volunteer-computing infrastructure. | The project is one of approximately 26 projects listed on BOINC's official roster as of early 2026.<ref name=boinc-wikipedia>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Open_Infrastructure_for_Network_Computing |title=Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing |publisher=Wikipedia |access-date=2026-05-18}}</ref> Unlike other BOINC projects that serve a single research team, BOINC Central acts as a '''shared scientific computing service''' – a central hub where multiple independent scientists can submit workloads without having to build or maintain their own volunteer-computing infrastructure. | ||
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=== Infrastructure === | === Infrastructure === | ||
* '''BOINC Central is a BOINC project.''' The BOINC team operates its own server and maintains the project's website, so scientists do not have to.<ref name=about/> | * '''BOINC Central is a BOINC project.''' The BOINC team operates its own server and maintains the project's website, so scientists do not have to.<ref name=about/> | ||
* '''Supported applications.''' Initially BOINC Central supported [[AutoDock Vina]] from the [[Scripps Research Institute]], a widely used open-source program for molecular docking and virtual drug screening.<ref name=about/> It now also accepts any science application packaged using | * '''Supported applications.''' Initially BOINC Central supported [[Wikipedia:AutoDock Vina|AutoDock Vina]] from the [[Wikipedia:Scripps Research Institute|Scripps Research Institute]], a widely used open-source program for molecular docking and virtual drug screening.<ref name=about/> It now also accepts any science application packaged using Docker through the BUDA framework (see below). | ||
* '''Cross-platform executables.''' The team builds application versions for a range of computing platforms: different operating systems, CPU types, and GPU types, so that volunteers' machines can participate regardless of their hardware. | * '''Cross-platform executables.''' The team builds application versions for a range of computing platforms: different operating systems, CPU types, and GPU types, so that volunteers' machines can participate regardless of their hardware. | ||
* '''Web-based job submission.''' Scientists from academic research institutions can submit batches of jobs using a web interface by contacting the BOINC Central team to register.<ref name=about/> | * '''Web-based job submission.''' Scientists from academic research institutions can submit batches of jobs using a web interface by contacting the BOINC Central team to register.<ref name=about/> | ||
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=== Supported Science Applications === | === Supported Science Applications === | ||
* Any application packaged with | * Any application packaged with Docker | ||
* [[AutoDock Vina|AutoDock]] from the Scripps Research Institute | * [[Wikipedia:AutoDock Vina|AutoDock]] from the Scripps Research Institute | ||
== Sub-Projects == | == Sub-Projects == | ||
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=== Cislunar Orbit Stability Analyzer (completed) === | === Cislunar Orbit Stability Analyzer (completed) === | ||
The '''Cislunar Orbit Stability Analyzer''' project studied the stability of orbits in the Earth/Moon system.<ref name=central-news/> The project was led by Lezhe Gao, an astrodynamics researcher at [[wikipedia:Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] specializing in cislunar mechanics. Like Boolean Chains, the project used the BUDA framework to run its computations across the BOINC Central volunteer network.<ref name=central-news/> | |||
==== Results ==== | |||
The project has since been completed, and the research led to a scientific paper that was in peer review as of March 2026.<ref name=central-news/> The BOINC Central team noted that the project, like Boolean Chains, involved solving scaling challenges related to large job batches and multi-gigabyte output file downloads.<ref name=central-news/> | |||
The project | |||
== Technical Infrastructure == | == Technical Infrastructure == | ||
[[File:Cd20.png|thumb|AutoDock Vina is used for molecular docking and virtual drug screening.|330x330px]] | |||
=== AutoDock Vina === | === AutoDock Vina === | ||
[[ | [[Wikipedia:AutoDock Vina|AutoDock Vina]] is an open-source program for molecular docking originally designed by Dr. Oleg Trott at the Molecular Graphics Lab (now the Center for Computational Structural Biology, CCSB) at [[Wikipedia:The Scripps Research Institute|The Scripps Research Institute]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vina.scripps.edu/ |title=AutoDock Vina |publisher=The Scripps Research Institute |access-date=2026-05-18}}</ref> It is one of the most widely used tools in computational drug discovery, allowing researchers to predict how small molecules (potential drug candidates) bind to protein receptors. AutoDock Vina achieves roughly a two-orders-of-magnitude speed increase over earlier versions while improving the accuracy of binding mode predictions, and leverages multithreading across CPU cores.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3041641/ |title=AutoDock Vina: improving the speed and accuracy of docking with a new scoring function, efficient optimization and multithreading |journal=Journal of Computational Chemistry |year=2010 |volume=31 |pages=455–461 |doi=10.1002/jcc.21334}}</ref> | ||
BOINC Central's distributed infrastructure allows researchers to run large virtual screening campaigns – docking thousands of compounds against a protein target – at no cost, using computing power donated by volunteers worldwide. | BOINC Central's distributed infrastructure allows researchers to run large virtual screening campaigns – docking thousands of compounds against a protein target – at no cost, using computing power donated by volunteers worldwide. | ||
=== The BOINC Platform === | === The BOINC Platform === | ||
BOINC (pronounced {{IPAc-en|b|ɔɪ|ŋ|k}}, rhyming with "oink") is an open-source middleware system for volunteer computing developed at the [[Wikipedia:UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory|UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory]]. As of 2021 it brought together 34,236 active participants employing 136,341 active computers worldwide, processing on average 20.164 [[Wikipedia:PetaFLOPS|PetaFLOPS]] daily.<ref name=boinc-wikipedia/> It supports applications across medicine, molecular biology, mathematics, linguistics, climatology, environmental science, and astrophysics. BOINC Central is listed among the projects available to the Android BOINC mobile client.<ref name=boinc-wikipedia/> | |||
BOINC (pronounced {{IPAc-en|b|ɔɪ|ŋ|k}}, rhyming with "oink") is an open-source middleware system for volunteer computing developed at the [[UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory]]. As of 2021 it brought together 34,236 active participants employing 136,341 active computers worldwide, processing on average 20.164 [[ | |||
== Researchers == | == Researchers == | ||
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[[wikipedia:David_P._Anderson|'''''David P. Anderson''''']]. Operated by [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/ '''''B'''erkeley '''O'''pen '''I'''nfrastructure for '''N'''etwork '''C'''omputing''] | [[wikipedia:David_P._Anderson|'''''David P. Anderson''''']]. Operated by [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/ '''''B'''erkeley '''O'''pen '''I'''nfrastructure for '''N'''etwork '''C'''omputing''] | ||
David P. Anderson is an American research scientist at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory and an adjunct professor of computer science at the [[Wikipedia:University of Houston|University of Houston]]. He received a BA in mathematics from [[Wikipedia:Wesleyan University|Wesleyan University]] and MS and PhD degrees in mathematics and computer science from the [[Wikipedia:University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin–Madison]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_P._Anderson |title=David P. Anderson |encyclopedia=Wikipedia |access-date=2026-05-18}}</ref> | |||
Anderson has been a pioneer of volunteer computing since the mid-1990s. He co-created [[SETI@home]] in 1995 and in 2002 founded the BOINC project, which became the world's leading platform for volunteer computing, funded by the [[National Science Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_P._Anderson |title=David P. Anderson – Wikipedia |access-date=2026-05-18}}</ref> BOINC Central is one of his most recent initiatives to make volunteer computing accessible without technical barriers. | Anderson has been a pioneer of volunteer computing since the mid-1990s. He co-created [[Wikipedia:SETI@home|SETI@home]] in 1995 and in 2002 founded the BOINC project, which became the world's leading platform for volunteer computing, funded by the [[Wikipedia:National Science Foundation|National Science Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_P._Anderson |title=David P. Anderson – Wikipedia |access-date=2026-05-18}}</ref> BOINC Central is one of his most recent initiatives to make volunteer computing accessible without technical barriers. | ||
The project is operated by and funded through the | The project is operated by and funded through the University of California, Berkeley BOINC project. BOINC itself is supported by the National Science Foundation. | ||
== How to Participate == | == How to Participate == | ||
[[File:BOINC logo.png|right|frameless|150x150px]] | |||
Volunteers can contribute computing power by: | Volunteers can contribute computing power by: | ||
# Downloading and installing the [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/ BOINC client] | # Downloading and installing the [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/ BOINC client] | ||
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== See Also == | == See Also == | ||
* [[Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing]] | * [[wikipedia:Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing]] | ||
* [[Volunteer computing]] | * [[wikipedia:Volunteer computing|Volunteer computing]] | ||
* [[AutoDock Vina]] | * [[wikipedia:AutoDock VinaAutoDock Vina]] | ||
* [[David P. Anderson]] | * [[wikipedia:David P. Anderson|David P. Anderson]] | ||
* [[SETI@home]] | * [[SETI@home]] | ||
* [[Einstein@Home]] | * [[Einstein@Home]] | ||
* [[Rosetta@home]] | * [[Rosetta@home]] | ||
* [[World Community Grid]] | * [[World Community Grid]] | ||
== External Links == | == External Links == | ||
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* [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/anderson/ David P. Anderson's homepage] | * [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/anderson/ David P. Anderson's homepage] | ||
* [https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/wiki/BUDA-overview BUDA framework documentation] | * [https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/wiki/BUDA-overview BUDA framework documentation] | ||
== References == | |||
{{Reflist}} | |||
[[Category:Volunteer computing]] | [[Category:Volunteer computing]] | ||