Distributed computing using the Internet

One main problem in collecting data is that there is so much of it to analyse. Analysing large
amounts of data requires a lot of computer power and this power may not be available
because of the cost.
In many cases this problem can be solved by using distributed computing using the Internet.
Here, instead of using a huge expensive supercomputer to do the job, it could be done using a
few less powerful computers connected together using the Internet but with each working on
the same problem. In many cases computers just sit around not doing much for most of the
time so why not use their processing power?
Some distributed systems ask home users to contribute some of their computing resources.
For example, there is climate change research going on at the moment that requires a huge
amount of data processing. Home users can contribute some of their wasted computer time to
this project.
Advantages of distributed computing
reduces cost because an expensive powerful computer such as a supercomputer is not
needed
can pass work to computers anywhere in the world using the Internet
improved performance as each computer can work on part of the data.
Disadvantage of distributed computing
issues with the security of data spread out on so many different computers.
The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project
The purpose of the SETI project is to search for intelligent life outside the Earth and to do
this a radio telescope like the one shown in the photo is used. Radio telescopes pick up radio
signals from outer space. If the signals were confined to a narrow range of frequencies, then
this would provide evidence of extraterrestrial life.
The problem the project has is that there is a lot of background noise which includes radio
signals from TV stations, radar, satellites and from celestial sources. It is very difficult to
analyse the data from radio telescopes and look for other signals that could indicate
extraterrestrial life.
In order to search for the narrow-bandwidth signals lots of computing power is needed. At
first supercomputers containing parallel processors were used to process the huge amount of
the data from the telescopes. Then someone came up with the idea of using a virtual
supercomputer consisting of a huge number of Internet-connected home computers. The
project was then named SETI@home and it has been running since 1999.
At the time of writing the SETI@home project uses 170,000 active volunteers around the
world and uses 320,000 computers but even with this power they still need more!