Science Application
From Unofficial BOINC Wiki
[edit] General
Also known as a BOINC Application as a generic type of application that will run on the BOINC Client Software.
A modular section of code that performs one specific scientific process. In the case of the BOINC Client Software this is a "chunk" of code that is going to perform one specific item of scientific processing. We call this "chunk" of code a Science Application.
A Science Application is a modular software component that performs one type of scientific research. Each Project that you join has a software component that performs processes on the data downloaded to your computer. The data that results from this processing is then returned to the Project and new data is downloaded.
With the BOINC Client Software we have an architecture that supports an infinite number of possible science applications. Each of these modules plug into the architecture of support services provided by the BOINC Client Software. We are just trying to give you a simple and clear term to understand that is representative of the behavior of some of the software components.
So, a Science Application is an application program that actually does the science for a particular Project. This program will be "hosted" by the BOINC Client Software. The BOINC Client Software allows support for as many different science projects as you may wish to support with your "Idle" CPU Time.
Each BOINC Powered Project that you join has a software component that performs various processes on the data that is sent (downloaded) to your computer in what we call a Work Unit (the actual data is in a file called a Work Unit Data File). The data that results from this processing is then returned to the Project as a "Result" and a Result Data File; and more new work may be requested by the BOINC Manager.
With the BOINC Client Software we have a structure that supports an infinite number of possible Science Applications. Each of these Science Applications plug into the structure of support services provided by the BOINC Client Software. We are just trying to give you a simple and clear term to understand that is representative of the behavior of some of the software components.
So, a Science Application is an application program that actually does the science for a particular BOINC Powered Project. This is a program that will supported by the BOINC Client Software. The BOINC Client Software allows for support for as many different science projects as you may wish to support with your "Idle" CPU Time.
If a Project creates an update to the Science Application the BOINC Client Software will download the updated Science Application and any support files (such as the "pdb" file) required as part of the automatic update feature.
Note: The automatic updating only occurs for the Science Applications. The BOINC Daemon and BOINC Manager have to be updated using a manual installation / update.
[edit] Synonyms
- Project's Science Application
