Glossary
Revision as of 03:17, 6 June 2009; view current revision
←Older revision | Newer revision→
edit

This glossary is here to help you understand any terms which may be un familiar to you or unclear.

Something missing or needs a change? Insert a term to add or corrections to help keep this list as accurate and up to date as possible. Thank you and we hope this is helpful.

Defalt Format
    • Term - Define or link to definition

Contents

TERMS

A-G

  • Account Manager - This is the term used to discribe the unifying features and abilities of using one profile to manage invovlement in projects powered by BOIINC.
  • BOINC - The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. This is the program that makes volunteer computing so easy to do. LINKS: BOINC Homepage, Wikipedia Article (EN)
  • BOINC Core Client - This is what the BOINC Manager connect to. This is what handles all the communications with the BOINC Servers for the BOINC Projects.

  • <u>BOINC Manager</u> - This is the visual thing you see and interact with on your computer. This is also known in computer terms as the BOINC Graphical User Interface (GUI).
  • BOINC Project - This is the term given to volunteer computing projects which are powered and use the BOINC program. As seen in the projects tab.
  • BOINC Servers - These are specialized computers which send your computer workunits, host the project webpages, as well as help the scientists sift through and otherwise handle the data which your computer receives and sends regarding BOINC. LINKS: Wikipedia Article (General Server Term) (EN)
  • CPU - Central Processing Unit. This is the brains of your computer, it enables programs to run. LINKS: Wikipedia Article (EN)
  • Distributed Computing - defined best at Wikipedia LINKS: Wikipedia Article (EN)
  • Encryption - The act of converting information into something unreadable without the propor key to convert the information back to the original message. LINKS: Wikipedia Article (EN)
  • GPGPU - General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit This is the use of the graphics processing unit for running computations normally done on the CPU. In recent years the GPU has proven to be a very powerful tool in some applications providing multiple times the abilities of the CPU though this varies from program to program as to how well it performs in comparison to the CPU. LINKS: Wikipedia Article
  • GPU - Graphics Processing Unit This is often found on the "video card" in your computer and other electronic devices which ahve displays. LINKS: Wikipedia Article (EN)
  • GridRepublic - See the About GridRepublic Page here.

H-M

  • 'Hard Drive - This is the piece of hardware which enables a ocmputer to store information for the long term. This uses a spinning platter with magnetic information on it. Currently this technology is being replace by Solid State Drives in laptops. LINKS': Wikipedia Article (EN)

N-S

  • Sandbox - This is a term used in computer security where a program is only given limited access to certain resources for it to run and modify as to help to keep your comptuer safer. LINKS: Wikipedia Article (EN)
  • 'Solid State Drive - This is a more modern technology for computer storage which is starting be offered more in laptops to reduce power consumption and moving parts. This technology is taking the place of hard drives with spinning magnetic platters as are used in most computers today. LINKS': Wikipedia Article (EN)

T-Z

  • Workunit - These are the piece of data which your computer helps process in volunteer computing. These are downloaded to your computer processed and returned to the BOINC Servers. These can be a single piece or small portion of a larger dataset or an entire experiment which has to be run in slight variation a million times. What a workunit is depends on the project and what work is being done and how they decided to split up the experiment(s).

Retrieved from "http://www.gridrepublic.org/joomla/components/com_mambowiki/index.php/Glossary"