[Beowulf] Re: bonic projects on a cluster

[David Mathog]

Carsten Aulbert wrote
> Robert G. Brown wrote:
> > What exactly is bonic/boinc?
> 
> First hit with Google:
> 
> http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

I have a nit to pick with them.  Their web site implies (but does not
explicitly state) that giving them access to your wasted computing
resources costs you nothing, that everybody wins and nobody loses.  That
is simply not true and is one reason why some sites ban the installation
of these sorts of programs.  For some rough cost numbers (it was for a
desktop, but the difference does not matter much here) see:

http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/saving_power.html#costs

My point being, with respect to the original poster, letting something
like boinc run on a cluster for outside use could easily end up costing
the cluster's owner many thousands of dollars a year.

Regards,

David Mathog
mathog at caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech