Question by joku: Where can I sell my CPU cycle times?
I have a very powerful computer.
I am looking for a website or something that will pay for my CPU cycles. i.e. I will “sell” my free CPU cycles to them to do their work.
Best answer:
Answer by Terryc
Have you tried a google for
“selling cpu cycles” or “distributed computing” ?
Despite this being talked about for the last 10-20 years, there hasn’t been any system around that has lasted. Usually the pay/renummeration is less that the cost of running the computer 24×365.
The idea came from the mainframe era and received a boost when the internet provided cheap international communications. The idea looked good compared to pruchasing super computers like mega-million $ $ $ Crays, etc.
The killer blow to super computers was when methods were developed to build “super computers” from cheap PC hardware.
What also killed of the idea of distributed computer cycles was cycle theft and hackers. So apart from developing the software to do distributed calculations, the programmers also have to fight pirates and hackers.
There was also the danger of loss of security. Movie animation houses didn’t like the fact that people might be able to leak images and scenes from the upcoming movies. Nuclear contractors didn’t like the fact that their design and structural details might be gleamed from it. Government would dread “terrorists” providing the computers that carried out “security” calculations. The list of problems just kept growing.
So, movie house, research institutes, defence, goverment, etc with a real need for super computers just found it easier to develop their own computer farms.
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