siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/997391
By Chris Sherman March 25, 2002 Google is harnessing the collective computing power of its users to help model complex proteins, a project that could lead to the development of cures for Alzheimer's, cancer, AIDS and other diseases. The project, called Google Compute, lets select Google Toolbar users allow their unused computing time to be contributed to the nonprofit Folding@home project at Stanford University. The goal of Folding@home is to model the fundamental processes of life itself -- the geometric structure of proteins. Google Compute is an example of distributed computing, a process that speeds up work on very large problems by dividing the work among many computers. Each individual computer downloads a small portion of a problem, computes results, sends these back to the main computers that manage the project, fetches another problem set, and so on. Google itself is one of the largest distributed computing systems ever created, using more than 10,000 computers to power its search engine. The company is contributing its knowledge of distributed computing to assist the Folding@Home project, and plans to participate in other distributed computing programs in the future. Google Compute is designed to be completely unobtrusive and non-invasive. It only works when your computer is idle, and won't affect your computer in any way. There's an "on/off" toggle that gives complete control over when the program is run. Why would you want to participate in this project? Apart from the obvious satisfaction gained from helping contribute to some important scientific research, you can also check out "stats" that show how much you computer has contributed relative to other "Team Google" participants. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google is rolling out the program starting today, but it's only going to be made available to about 500 hundred Toolbar users at first, according to Google spokesperson Nate Tyler. If the program is successful, it will be made available to all Google Toolbar users at some point in the future. Stay tuned: We'll let you know as soon as the project is released to the entire Google community and you too can participate in the efforts to cure the world's ills. |
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