Projects and applications

A project is an organization (e.g., an academic research project) that uses BOINC to get computing power. Projects are independent; each one manages its own applications, databases and servers, and is not affected by the status of other projects.

The components of a project are shown below.

The server side of a project consists of two parts:

• A project back end part that generates computation input files, and handles the output of computations, in a way that depends on the particular application.
• A BOINC server complex that handles data distribution and collection.

• A scheduling server that communicates with participant hosts.
• A relational database storing information about work, results, and participants.
• C and scripting-language interfaces for communication with the project back end.
• Web interfaces for participants and developers.

Input and output files are distributed by data servers, which are HTTP servers able to handle uploads. These servers need not be owned or operated by the project. A project might, for example, recruit other organizations to donate network bandwidth by hosting data servers; data could be moved on tape between the project back end and the data servers.

Applications and platforms

A project can operate one or more applications. Versions of an application are compiled for various platforms (Windows/Intel, Linux/Intel, MacOS/PPC, etc.). The BOINC core client is available for many platforms; a project can compile an application for any or all of these.