From Nature.com
Alien search merges with other home projects"SETI@home is getting a boost in computer power.
Declan Butler
SETI@home, a downloadable screensaver that lets the public donate their unused computer time to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, switches off today. But it is not going away: it is simply joining forces with similar distributed-computing projects on topics from climate models to cures for diseases. The move should boost the number of users, upping the computing power available to search for messages from alien life.
About a dozen projects are now signed up to a common software system, so that they can pool volunteers' computer time and use it more efficiently (see 'All for one'). As a result, each project should get access to more users, more of the time."
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Scientific progress goes BOINCThe Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) platform will allow SETI@home to evolve, using data beamed directly from different telescopes, including ones in the Southern Hemisphere, and looking at a wider radiofrequency range. "We designed BOINC to let us do the things that we want to do in the future," Anderson says, including rolling out faster and more complex software."
