Does there exist a free cluster/grid, where you get CPU cycles in exchange for providing cycles to the grid?

August 2, 2009 5:59 PM

Does there exist a free cluster/grid, where you get CPU cycles in exchange for providing cycles to the grid?

I have come across a reference to Tycoon, which is a software package for operating a grid where people earn credits by donating spare cycles and then can use them to run their own code. That got me thinking about whether there existed a free project that I could join to exchange my free cycles for the usage of the cluster to run my jobs?

There are plenty of the Seti@home type projects that allow you to donate computing credits, but I am clearly looking for computational resources I could use, and I would be happy to pay for with spare cycles. This seems like it would be a very valuable project (many people would be willing to donate a single CPU's worth of credits for a month, in exchange for the use of 30 CPUs in a day), and storage versions of this (Wuala) appear to exist. However, Google doesn't reveal anything useful. Hivemind?

posted by bsdfish to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Well, there's Planet Lab, which is sort of a big overlay network for researchers. It's not a publically-available resource, though, you generally need some affiliation with an academic institution to utilize it.
posted by axiom at 7:35 PM on August 2, 2009

And Planet Lab is for networking research so you can do testing and measurement worldwide. It is more about connectivity than computation.
posted by procrastination at 7:54 PM on August 2, 2009

Don't know of one, although anyone can create another Seti@Home type project within the Boinc framework. I think the general impression is that if you can come up with a compelling project, you should be able to get people to donate the CPU cycles you're seeking without the need for reciprocity to be enforced.

Frankly, we used to run the projects to chew our spare CPU cycles at work -- but as power-stepping processors and virtualization have gone into production, we've stopped because we don't just "burn" that many CPU cycles with idle processes anymore, and running the processors full out all the time strains our power and cooling infrastructure, both of which are our largest costs.
posted by SpecialK at 8:18 PM on August 2, 2009