Text Size
- Home
-
News
Advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, other ACM resources, and from around the Web.
- Blogs
- Opinion
-
Browse by Subject
Recent articles from Communications organized into categories that encompass the broad scope of computing.
-
Magazine Archive
-
Careers
Jump-start your career with information on trends, opportunities and jobs – in both industry and academia.
- ACM Resources
-
Subscribe
Receive the benefits of ACM membership with a subscription to its flagship publication, Communications of the ACM.
This Article
ACM TechNews
Ethical Supercomputing
![[article image]](/system/assets/0000/7000/011712_PD_Fujitsu_laptop.large.jpeg?1326898319&1326898319 "Fujitsu laptop")
Socially conscious organizations can turn to a non-profit supercomputing grid service, Charity Engine, for extra compute cycles.
The U.K.-based grid sells computational power to clients, similar to the way a user would rent cloud computing cycles. A volunteer computing grid, Charity Engine offers software for participants to download on their personal computers (PCs) and make them available to the grid service.
Former software developer Mark McAndrew founded Charity Engine in 2011. The organization plans to donate half of its proceeds to select charities, and its current list includes Amnesty International, Medecins Sans Frontieres MSF (Doctors Without Borders) WaterAid, Oxfam, Sightsavers, War on Want, CARE International, ActionAid, and Practical Action.
The other half of the money collected from clients will be randomly distributed to PC donors. Charity Engine is available for applications that are amenable to distribution across a set of loosely coupled computers, as long as the initiative is a socially conscious project.
From HPC Wire
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2012 Information Inc. 
, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
User Comments
(1)The CE grid is open to any commercial and industrial applications, not just those with a humanitarian purpose.
All the profits go to charity anyway, so everything it does has a humanitarian purpose by default.
So long as the work is not unethical (the charities have final say), anyone is welcome to use it.
Typical cost is 1c per average CPU/hr.
Rgds,
Mark McA, CEO
Post a comment...
Tools For Readers
Related ACM Resources
Conferences:
- ISMM 2012: International Symposium on Memory Management - June 15 – 16, 2012; Beijing, China
Courses:
- Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 1 (ICND1) v1.0 - This course is a starting point for learning to support a network, regardless of its size and complexity. It provides the knowledge and skills necessary …
About Communications |
Join ACM 
|
Renew |
Subscribe |
Sign In |
For Authors |
For Advertisers |
Privacy |
Site Map |
Help |
Contact Us |
Mobile Site
Copyright © 2012 by the ACM. All rights reserved.