Home PCs harnessed to solve global problems
IBM and top scientific research organizations are joining forces in a humanitarian effort to tap the unused power of millions of computers and help solve complex social problems.
The World Community Grid will seek to tap the vast underutilized power of computers belonging to individuals and businesses worldwide and channel it into selected medical and environmental research programs.
Volunteers will be asked to download a program to their computers that runs when the machine is idle and reaches out to request data to contribute to ongoing research projects.
Organizers say the Grid can help unlock genetic codes that underlie diseases like AIDS and HIV, Alzheimer's or cancer, improve forecasting of natural disasters and aid studies to protect the world's food and water supply.
The massive volunteer project will be unveiled on Tuesday by Sam Palmisano, CEO of International Business Machines Corp., the world's largest computer company, along with United Nations officials, researchers from the Mayo Clinic, Oxford University and South Africa, and others.
