This is a list of distributed computing and grid computing projects. For each project, donors volunteer computing time from personal computers to a specific cause. This donated computing power comes typically from CPUs and GPUs. Folding@home once also harnessed the power of PlayStation 3s. Each project seeks to solve a problem which is difficult or infeasible to tackle using other methods.
While distributed computing functions by dividing a complex problem among diverse and independent computer systems and then combine the result, grid computing works by utilizing a network of large pools of high-powered computing resources. These are typically "umbrella" projects that have a number of sub-projects underneath them, with multiple research areas.
BREIN uses the Semantic Web and multi-agent systems to build simple and reliable grid systems for business, with a focus on engineering and logistics management.
A-Ware is developing a stable, supported, commercially exploitable, high quality technology to give easy access to grid resources.
AssessGrid addresses obstacles to wide adoption of grid technologies by bringing risk management and assessment to this field, enabling use of grid computing in business and society.
Cohesion Platform – A Java-based modular peer-to-peer multi-application desktop grid computing platform for irregularly structured problems developed at the University of Tübingen (Germany)
The European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) – A series of projects funded by the European Commission which links over 70 institutions in 27 European countries to form a multi-science computing grid infrastructure for the European Research Area, letting researchers share computer resources
GridCOMP provides an advanced component platform for an effective invisible grid.
GridECON takes a user-oriented perspective and creates solutions to grid challenges to promote widespread use of grids.
neuGRID develops a new user-friendly grid-based research e-infrastructure enabling the European neuroscience community to perform research needed for the pressing study of degenerative brain diseases, for example, Alzheimer's disease.
OMII-Europe – An EU-funded project established to source key software components that can interoperate across several heterogeneous grid middleware platforms
OurGrid aims to deliver grid technology that can be used today by current users to solve present problems. To achieve this goal, it uses a different trade-off compared to most grid projects: it forfeits supporting arbitrary applications in favor of supporting only bag-of-tasks applications.
ScottNet NCG – A distributed neural computing grid. A private commercial effort in continuous operation since 1995. This system performs a series of functions including data synchronization amongst databases, mainframe systems, and other data repositories. E-commerce transaction processing, automated research and data retrieval, content analysis, web site monitoring, scripted and dynamic user emulation, shipping and fulfillment API integration and management, RSS and NNTP monitoring and analysis, real time security enforcement, and backup/restore functions.
BEinGRID Business Experiments in Grid
Legion – A grid computing platform developed at the University of Virginia
These projects attempt to make large physical computation infrastructures available for researchers to use:
Berkeley NOW Project
Debian Cluster Components
DiaGrid grid computing network centered at Purdue University
Open Science Grid
SARA Computing and Networking Services in Netherlands
XSEDE, formerly Teragrid
