Commercial DC

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A number of new start-up companies have recently realized the potential market in distributed computing and are looking to cash in on the success that large projects such as SETI@home have had. These companies attract customers who want to crunch numbers with the power of a parallel supercomputer at a fraction of the cost — using distributed computing. The company provides the servers and the public relations needed to bring in the computer power. Many users download the software, which runs as either a background application or a screensaver, and data is sent back to the company's servers. The company then compiles and forwards all of the results to the client, and pays the user based on how much work his computer did.

commercial companies

Fig. 1: ProcessTree's website, www.processtree.com, has over 50,000 users signed up.

ProcessTree prides itself for being the "first 'for-pay' distributed processing network," although it hasn't officially given payments yet. ("ProcessTree Home Page") ProcessTree does, however, have a volunteer project, the gamma flux nuclear waste project, already underway. ProcessTree and Dcypher, a distributed computing organization, merged and became part of a larger organization, Distributed Science. Each of these companies retains its identity but collaborates together: Distributed Science finds customers who needs the computing, Dcypher makes the software, and ProcessTree attracts users, or "partners," by offering online credit, electronic cash, and more. It seems that ProcessTree has already fulfilled their part: there are over 50,000 partners with 100,000 computers signed up. The collective company anticipates it will work on such projects ranging from rendering three-dimensional animations to calculating scientific models and projections.

Popular Power is another company that quickly started to develop the commercial idea. At the moment, they have software for a non-commercial project that will pit different influenza vaccines against epidemic data. Popular Power includes both commercial and non-commercial projects on their site, letting users choose which project they'd like to help. Popular Power, too, hopes to offer gift certificates or rebates on Internet service provider bills when their site gets underway. Popular Power says they are the "first distributed computing company to release software allowing any business to do work on its platform." (Popular Power: "How it Works")

Parabon Computation's slogan is "Computing Outside the Box." Parabon states matter-of-factly that they will buy individual and business idle computer time and then "bundle it and resell it as supercomputing power for business, science, and medical research." (Parabon Computation: "How It Works") Their software, Pioneer, is already available for Windows computers. They also have a non-profit project in progress —Compute Against Cancer. When Paragon officially starts in the fall, users can opt to accept their payments directly, or donate it to a charity. Porivo Technology, named after Sacajawea's alias, hopes to become a similar guide in what they call a "new frontier." ("Porivo Technologies, Inc.: about us.")

		Porivo Technology's details are a little sketchy at this time, but they may have the most unique "ubiquitous computing" method: their site mentions that they'll be using a Java-based distributed computing technology. Java distributed computing projects aren't often used because Java runs slowly and its capabilities are limited; however, Java can run on all platforms, making it universal. Thus, it will be interesting to see if Porivo manages to indeed create a fast-paced Java-based client. Since the company recently started, Porivo has no beta versions of its software available and has no projects underway yet.
Fig. 2: Will Porivo — www.porivo.com — be able to create a fast-running, Java-based client?

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