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[https://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/ '''''Yoyo@home'''''] is a '''''[[wikipedia:Volunteer computing|volunteer distributed computing]]''''' project based on the [[wikipedia:Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing|BOINC]] platform. The project is operated by [[wikipedia:Rechenkraft.net|Rechenkraft.net e.V.]], a German non profit organization dedicated to distributed computing and public participation in scientific research.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/ |title=Yoyo@home |publisher=Rechenkraft.net |access-date=2026-05-25}}</ref> | [https://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/ '''''Yoyo@home'''''] is a '''''[[wikipedia:Volunteer computing|volunteer distributed computing]]''''' project based on the [[wikipedia:Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing|BOINC]] platform. The project is operated by [[wikipedia:Rechenkraft.net|Rechenkraft.net e.V.]], a German non profit organization dedicated to distributed computing and public participation in scientific research.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/ |title=Yoyo@home |publisher=Rechenkraft.net |access-date=2026-05-25}}</ref> | ||
Latest revision as of 15:27, 29 May 2026
Yoyo@home is a volunteer distributed computing project based on the BOINC platform. The project is operated by Rechenkraft.net e.V., a German non profit organization dedicated to distributed computing and public participation in scientific research.[1]
Yoyo@home serves as a multi application BOINC platform hosting a variety of scientific and mathematical subprojects. The project is especially known for porting existing standalone distributed computing applications into the BOINC ecosystem using the BOINC Wrapper technology. Through this approach, applications originally designed outside BOINC can benefit from BOINC's scheduling, validation, credit, and volunteer management infrastructure.[2]
The project has hosted workloads in areas including evolutionary biology, number theory, cryptography, combinatorics, optimization, and algebraic computation. Over time, Yoyo@home has become one of the most diverse BOINC projects in terms of application variety.
MediaWiki page
https://www.rechenkraft.net/wiki/Yoyo@home
History
Yoyo@home was launched during the late 2000s as part of the effort by Rechenkraft.net to expand volunteer computing participation beyond traditional academic supercomputing environments. The project was designed to make it easier for independent researchers and small scientific teams to use BOINC without having to develop a complete BOINC native application from scratch.
A major technical feature of the project is its use of the BOINC Wrapper. The wrapper allows external executables to run inside the BOINC client environment while still supporting checkpointing, validation, work distribution, and credit assignment.[3]
Yoyo@home has periodically hosted many different subprojects, some long term and others experimental. These have included:
- Evolution@home
- Optimal Golomb Rulers
- Distributed Rainbow Table Generator
- Muon
- Harmonious Trees
- ECM
- OGR
- Sudoku
- Cruncher OGR
- SR5
- Chess960 analysis
Several applications originated from independent research communities and were adapted for BOINC distribution through Yoyo@home.
Why Yoyo@home?
Yoyo@home was created to provide a flexible volunteer computing environment capable of supporting projects that might otherwise lack the infrastructure or funding required to maintain a standalone distributed computing platform.
Many scientific and mathematical problems require extremely large search spaces or repeated simulations. In some cases, the computational complexity grows exponentially with the input size. Volunteer distributed computing allows these workloads to be divided into smaller tasks and processed in parallel across thousands of participating computers worldwide.
For example, several Yoyo@home applications search for solutions to large combinatorial or number theoretic problems where brute force approaches may require evaluating extremely large sets of candidates:
<math>N \approx k^n</math>
where <math>k</math> represents the branching factor and <math>n</math> the search depth.
The distributed model allows many independent calculations to be processed simultaneously, greatly reducing the effective completion time.
Goal
The primary goal of Yoyo@home is to support scientific and mathematical research by providing computing power contributed voluntarily by the public. The project also aims to preserve and extend older distributed computing applications by integrating them into the BOINC infrastructure.
Yoyo@home focuses particularly on:
- Porting non BOINC applications into BOINC
- Supporting independent scientific research
- Large scale mathematical searches
- Evolutionary and population genetics simulations
- Public participation in science
- Efficient use of idle computing resources
The project additionally serves as a testing environment for experimental BOINC applications and wrapper technologies.
Methods
Yoyo@home distributes computational work units to volunteers running the BOINC client software on their computers. Each work unit contains a small portion of a larger scientific or mathematical calculation. Results are returned to the project servers where they are validated and incorporated into the broader computation.
The project primarily uses CPU based applications and generally emphasizes portability across multiple operating systems.
Several subprojects use exhaustive or semi exhaustive searches involving discrete mathematics and combinatorics. For example, the Optimal Golomb Ruler project investigates rulers where all pairwise distances are unique. A Golomb ruler with marks at positions <math>a_1, a_2, ..., a_n</math> satisfies:
<math>a_i - a_j \neq a_k - a_l</math>
for all distinct pairs.
Other projects study evolutionary dynamics and mutation accumulation using stochastic population models related to Muller's ratchet. In population genetics, mutation accumulation may be approximated through probabilistic simulation models involving mutation rate <math>\mu</math>, selection coefficient <math>s</math>, and population size <math>N</math>.
The project relies on BOINC because volunteer computing provides a cost effective way to perform very large computations without requiring dedicated supercomputers. This model allows researchers with limited funding to access substantial computational resources.
Yoyo@home has also contributed to preserving distributed computing projects that might otherwise disappear due to lack of infrastructure support.
Subprojects
Evolution@home
Evolution@home is one of the best known Yoyo@home applications. It simulates evolutionary processes and mutation accumulation in biological populations. Research has focused on Muller's ratchet, a process describing the irreversible accumulation of deleterious mutations in finite asexual populations.
The expected accumulation of mutations can be studied using stochastic simulation techniques and probabilistic models involving mutation rates and selective pressure.
Optimal Golomb Rulers
The Optimal Golomb Rulers application searches for minimal Golomb rulers using distributed exhaustive search techniques. A Golomb ruler is considered optimal when no shorter ruler exists for the same number of marks.
The search complexity increases rapidly as the number of marks increases, making volunteer computing useful for narrowing the solution space.
Muon
The Muon application investigated calculations related to muon capture systems and neutrino factory research. The project assisted with simulations connected to accelerator physics and beam transport studies.
Harmonious Trees
Harmonious Trees explored graph theoretic problems related to harmonious labeling of trees. The application used parallelized tree search methods distributed across volunteer computers.
Distributed Rainbow Table Generator
This application generated rainbow tables used in cryptographic research and password recovery analysis. The project demonstrated BOINC's suitability for large scale cryptographic precomputation workloads.
Volunteer computing
Like other BOINC projects, Yoyo@home depends on volunteers donating unused processing power from personal computers. Participants install the BOINC client and attach to the project server to download computational tasks.
Volunteer computing projects such as Yoyo@home allow scientific institutions and independent researchers to access aggregate computational performance comparable to large clusters or supercomputers. The combined throughput of distributed systems may be expressed as:
<math>P_{total} = \sum_{i=1}^{n} P_i</math>
where <math>P_i</math> represents the computational performance contributed by each participating host.
The BOINC infrastructure additionally provides redundancy and result validation by sending identical work units to multiple hosts.
Project team / Sponsors
The Yoyo@home project has been maintained by volunteers associated with Rechenkraft.net.
Known contributors include:
- yoyo , project administrator
- Rebirther , graphics and logos
- scsimodo , compiling and testing the macOS version
- Cody , enhancements and testing for the Windows version
- Dotsch , compiling and testing on Linux 64, Solaris, PlayStation 3, FreeBSD, and AIX
- Alderan , OpenGL screensaver development
The project is sponsored and hosted by Rechenkraft.net e.V..
Scientific results
Yoyo@home computations have contributed to published research in evolutionary biology, combinatorics, graph theory, cryptography, and number theory.
The project has been especially notable for supporting studies related to Muller's ratchet and extinction dynamics in small populations. Other computations have contributed to searches for solutions of high degree Diophantine equations and graph theoretic labeling problems. Some Yoyo@home subprojects have also served as case studies in volunteer computing scalability and distributed search efficiency.
Some Yoyo@home subprojects have also served as case studies in volunteer computing scalability and distributed search efficiency.
Scientific publications
Yoyo@home (Evolution@home)
- Waxman, D. and L. Loewe. A stochastic model for a single click of Muller's ratchet. Journal of Theoretical Biology (2010). doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.03.014}
- Loewe, Laurence and Asher D Cutter. On the potential for extinction by Muller's Ratchet in Caenorhabditis elegans. BMC Evolutionary Biology (2008). doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-125}
- Loewe, Laurence and Dunja K Lamatsch. Quantifying the threat of extinction from Muller's ratchet in the diploid Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa). BMC Evolutionary Biology (2008). doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-88}
- Loewe, Laurence. Evolution@home: observations on participant choice, work unit variation and low-effort global computing. Software: Practice and Experience (2007). doi:10.1002/spe.806}
- Loewe, Laurence. Quantifying the genomic decay paradox due to Muller's ratchet in human mitochondrial DNA. Genetical Research (2006). doi:10.1017/S0016672306008123}
- Loewe, Laurence. Evolution@home: Global computing quantifies evolution due to Muller's ratchet. BMC Bioinformatics (2005). doi:10.1186/1471-2105-6-S3-P18}
Yoyo@home (Harmonious Trees)
- Fang, Wenjie and Uwe Beckert. Parallel Tree Search in Volunteer Computing: a Case Study. Journal of Grid Computing (2018). doi:10.1007/s10723-017-9411-5}
Yoyo@home (Muon)
- Brooks, S. Muon capture schemes for the neutrino factory. (2010).
Yoyo@home (ORG)
- Gerbicz, Robert, Jean Charles Meyrignac and Uwe Beckert. All solutions of the Diophantine equation <math>a^6+b^6=c^6+d^6+e^6+f^6+g^6</math> for <math>a,b,c,d,e,f,g < 250000</math> found with a distributed BOINC project. (2011). doi:10.48550/arXiv.1108.0462}
See also
External links
References
- ↑ Yoyo@home. Rechenkraft.net. Retrieved 2026-05-25}.
- ↑ BOINC Wrapper Application. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 2026-05-25}.
- ↑ BOINC official website. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 2026-05-25}.