Calibration
From Unofficial BOINC Wiki
[edit] General
Calibration is a process whereby you compare one item against a reference standard to determine by how much do they differ. Ok, that is clear as mud, right? Let us say that you wished to find out it the meter stick in your closet was exactly one meter long. You and your meter stick could travel to France to compare your meter stick against the one they have locked up in a vault (I know, we have other ways to do this, just sit down, being exact here is not important to the concept). Ok, now that is obviously impractical for everyone to go to France to test their meter sticks. So how can we solve this? Well, we can make a hierarchy of standards with the most precise used to calibrate the next tier down. We can do this for several levels and at each level, though the standards are theoretically less precise, they are good enough for practical purposes.
So, Calibration is simply a way to compare one thing to something else that we believe, and confidence in the accuracy of the standard. Ok? In the terms of the BOINC Client Software we use calibration to validate your computer's speed against our known standard of the "Reference Computer" using the Benchmark.
