本帖最后由 超哥不郁闷 于 2013-8-29 17:44 编辑
Users of Android phones can now help scientists learn about whether or not extraterrestrial life exists by donating unused processing power from their tablets or mobile phones to the Einstein@Home project. 安卓用户现在可以通过贡献他们平板电脑或智能手机的闲置计算能力来帮助科学家们搜寻外星生命,或者为Einstein@Home项目做出贡献。
To do this, Android users would have to download a software called the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing or the BOINC platform. This software will let you contribute unused processing power from your Android devices that will help analyze data for Einstein@Home, a project which aims to find pulsars, black holes and gravitational waves. Your contribution may also feed other researches on IBM’s World Community Grid. 为了做到这一点,安卓用户需要下载一个被称为“伯克利开放式网络计算平台”或“BOINC平台"(Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing,BOINC)的软件。这一软件将会让您贡献出自己安卓设备上的闲置计算资源,并将其用于Einstein@Home的数据分析中(Einstein@Home是一个致力于发现脉冲星,黑洞以及引力波的研究项目)。您同样可以为IBM开发的World Community Grid中各种研究做出贡献。【译注1】WCG 由美国 IBM 公司赞助,是一个比较特殊的“项目”,其本身实际上是一个平台,用户通过加入 WCG 可以选择为其下多个不同研究方向(主要是医药、生物和环境等)的子项目贡献算力。子项目中包括由清华大学主持的项目清水计算(Computing for Clean Water)。
This platform has been around since the late 1990s when it ran on more than one million personal computers. The premise, of course, is to pool as much unused processing power as possible so that researchers can use such power to find extraterrestrial life. 这一平台在上世纪90年代末就已经存在,当时它运行在一百多万台个人电脑上。当然其前提是能够汇集足够多的闲置计算资源,在这一前提下研究者们才能够用这些算力去寻找外星生命。
It initially crunched data for SETI@home project, an open source software platform. The platform was started by David Anderson, a computer science professor at the University of California at Berkeley. One of his grad students in 1995 asked him about the possibility of using the extra juice from the processing power of personal computers around the world in tracking extraterrestrial. BOINC最初是一个用来处理SETI@home项目数据的开源软件平台。这一平台由加州大学伯克利分校的计算机教授戴维•安德森(David Anderson)创立。1995年,他的一名研究生问他:如果利用全球个人计算机的空闲计算能力追踪地外生命,其可行性有多大? And although Anderson wasn’t really interested about extraterrestrial, he began the project to work on pooling the resources of computers around the world and powering a research. The platform’s popularity, however, eventually died down. But with the existence of over half a billion Android phones, Anderson has suddenly become optimistic again to take the project forward. 尽管Anderson对地外生命并不特别感兴趣,但还是启动了这个项目,并且展开了一项研究。遗憾的是,这个平台的影响力,最终还是逐渐减弱了。然而世界上5亿多部安卓手机的存在使得安德森教授突然重拾了继续推进这一项目的信心。
Understandably, this is a lot to ask from Android users. However, the platform won’t take too much of your phone’s battery life since it will only run when your phone is charging. Also, your mobile plan won’t suddenly balloon since the data-crunching will happen only when you are connected to a wireless network. 显然,这对于安卓用户索取得太多了。但是,这一平台并不会使您手机电池的电量大为缩减,因为它只会在您手机充电时运行。同样,您手机的话费也不会在突然间暴涨,因为只有当您使用WIFI时它才会进行互联网数据传输。
And to protect your phone, the software’s developer made the code smart enough to detect when your phone’s temperature is too high. It will automatically shut down. Also, the interface has a lot more graphics than the previous version. 为了保护您的手机,该软件的开发者使它变得足够聪明,以至于能够在您手机温度过高时自动暂停。而且其用户界面也会比PC版的界面多不少图片。
It may be a little weird that Anderson devised this new BOINC platform to juice processing power from Android phones, but he figured out how such devices can contribute to the project since they now have powerful CPUs and processors. 也许你会有点奇怪,安德森怎么会想到设计新的 BOINC 平台,去“榨取(juice)”安卓手机的算力?其实,现代的手机已经装备了强大的CPU和处理器,安德森正是在估算过这类设备对项目的潜在贡献后,才这么做的。
When it comes to iPhones and iPads though, Anderson said it wouldn’t be possible since Apple does not allow the creation of an app within its app store. Also, the BOINC software would need to tap into the processor—something that Apple will surely not allow. And since Apple is highly restrictive, Anderson said it would impede in the whole point of BOINC’s open platform. 当提及iPhone与iPad时,Anderson说那是不可能的,因为苹果公司不允许在它的应用商店里存在这种应用。并且,BOINC 需要通过中断使用处理器(【译注】——其中有些技术,是苹果决不允许的。)正因为苹果公司如此封闭,所以Anderson说这会阻碍BOINC这一开放平台的发展。(【译注】trap 是一种 CPU 设计技术,用户软件通过 trap 指令调用中断服务。)正因为苹果公司如此封闭,所以安德森教授说这会阻碍BOINC这一开放平台的发展。
In a report by Wired, Anderson said he believes the contribution of Android phones alone can help the project get back to its feet. He also has faith that the social tools now being used by smartphones and tablets users will drive the distribution of the software to new heights. And if you ever feel weirded out by this project, maybe knowing that you are helping scientists in their research will put your mind at ease. 在《连线》杂志的一份报告中,安德森教授说他相信仅凭安卓手机的贡献就足以帮助项目重振雄风。他还坚信当今智能手机和平板电脑上的社交工具将会使 BOINC 的下载量达到新高。如果您仍对该项目感到疑惑,那么就请想象一下您在帮助科学家们进行研究的情景吧,也许这样就能让您宽慰一些。
|