ITWire

"Yet with World Community Grid's free computing power, augmented by cloud computing, the project is estimated to complete in 2 years what would have taken 22 years to run on a regular scientific cluster," added Aspuru-Guzik.

The reference to "cloud computing" about IBM's role in the project. The company will install the World Community Grid software on an internal cloud so that it can contribute resources to the solar project when the hardware is not being fully utilised.

The company plans to give its cloud computing clients the option of participating in World Community Grid projects.

"IBM believes that this important new study powered by World Community Grid could provide the planet with a smarter solution to the problem of low cost solar technology," Stanley Litow, IBM's vice president of corporate citizenship and corporate affairs, and president of the IBM International Foundation.

IBM previously donated the hardware, software, and technical services used to build the World Community Grid's infrastructure, and also provides hosting, maintenance and support for the effort.

The World Community Grid uses the open-source BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) software for distributed computing developed at the University of California Berkeley.

BOINC is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, as well as other related operating systems such as Solaris and FreeBSD.