Download BOINC for Mac - Donate your idle computer time to research (beta). MacUpdate.com

BOINC 7.0.25

Your rating: Now say why...

Donate your idle computer time to research (beta). Free

Add to my Watch List
Email me when discounted

Download Now
5.6 MB
Visit Developer's Site
University of California at Berkeley

BOINC is a program that lets you donate your idle computer time to science projects like SETI@home, Climateprediction.net, Rosetta@home, World Community Grid, and many others.

After installing BOINC on your computer, you can connect it to as many of these projects as you like. Use the idle time on your computer to cure diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars, and do many other types of scientific research. It's safe, secure, and easy.

What's New

Version 7.0.25:

New: Simple GUI now localized and accessible
New: OpenCL Support
New: Improved Virtual Machine Support
New: Improved Client Scheduler

Requirements
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.4 or later

Related Links
Download BOINC (command-line version)

Folding@Home

+3
Free

Help advance science by ...

BOINC User Discussion (Write a Review)

ver. 7.x:

Your rating: Now say why...

Overall:

(3)

sort: smiles | time

+38

bbw7 commented on 10 Apr 2012

I have a couple of possibly stupid questions regarding both this software and the concept in general:

1) Is this mainly meant for computers left on continuously? I have a laptop which I turn off when I am done with it and not going to use it for an extended time. Will this software and or some similar program work in this case? I.e does the scientific number crunching code know when to stop if the computer is shut down?

2) Just how much CPU and RAM is generally used by this or other such programs? Will my fan be spinning up and/or will I notice some sluggishness in my computer when I start using it again?

Couldn't find anything on these topics at the SETI site (or wherever I looked, I forget).

[Version 7.0.25]

1 Reply

+361

Penguirl replied on 12 Apr 2012

1. Basically, yes. You could use it on a PC/Mac that isn't on all the time but the work units have deadlines, submitting them late doesn't help because it will have been assigned to another computer.

2. BOINC runs at the lowest priority and only uses CPU cycles that are not being used by anything else. For all intentional purposes you won't notice a difference in how your Mac responds other than the fans running more as the CPU is generating more heat. However, some projects do use a good bit of RAM and there can be issues if you don't have much installed. Each individual project (SETI, Yoyo, ABC, WCG, SIMAP, etc… have their own hardware requirements.

+49

Springheelmac commented on 02 Apr 2012

Found a handy alternative menubar for Boinc and thought I'd pass along the link:
'brotherbard.com/boinc'

[Version 6.12.35]

1 Reply

+361

Penguirl replied on 12 Apr 2012

Seconded, great app for monitoring your BOINC installation. If you can figure it out you can monitor several Macs from one but I couldn't get it to work. Still better than running BOINCManager to monitor progress.

Winet commented on 23 Sep 2011

Boinc projects is since days not reachable. Is it dead?

[Version 6.12.35]

5 Replies

+361

Penguirl replied on 28 Dec 2011

The listing here is out of date, 6.12.35 is now the recommended version and I believe the last UB version of BOINC.

The Intel only version 7.0.3 is the current beta version which was just recently released.

Winet replied on 28 Dec 2011

Page from boinc is still not reachable. All Links seam to be dead.

+361

Penguirl replied on 28 Dec 2011

All three of the above links work just fine for me. Here is the url for all versions:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php

Hope that helps.

Winet replied on 29 Dec 2011

The host boinc.berkeley.edu can not be resolved from Switzerland. We have used 3 different NS for lookup. This seams to be a NS problem.

+361

Penguirl replied on 29 Dec 2011

Perhaps you could reach it by way of a proxy? Or with Tor?

+361

Penguirl commented on 02 Sep 2011

I'm sticking with 6.10.58 for the time being because all of the 6.12.* versions I tried were not able to keep crunching all the time.

[Version 6.12.35]

-12

+294

alas! commented on 14 Jun 2011

So,If I turn over my computer's idle time for "scientific research" how can I be assured that my computer won't be used for nefarious purposes or messed with in some way?
Anyone at the other end could compromise my security, no? or do a number on my machines OS.
Well, if they were willing to pay me $25 an hour(and not a penny less) to use my computer's idle time I just might go for this program.

[Version 6.12.33]

2 Replies

+25

Emeskai replied on 14 Jun 2011

And if they were to pay you then you wouldn't be "donating" your time...

+361

Penguirl replied on 02 Sep 2011

And that's really no different than any other application on your Mac. If you're paranoid, use the built-in firewall and Little Snitch.

Asking $25/hr to crunch work units is laughable and defeats the whole point of BOINC, which is to work together to better humanity.

+361

Penguirl commented on 26 May 2011

Ran into a glitch with 6.12.26 that caused running BOINC as a service to be flaky. Don't know if 6.12.27 fixes this issue or not, I reverted back to 6.10.58.

If you aren't running BOINC as a service (if you don't know that means you are not) this won't be an issue for you.

[Version 6.12.27]

+361

Penguirl reviewed on 19 May 2011

Gotta say, I like the appearance of the new version. It looks like they've changed fonts, rearranged the columns, and added a Notices tab. There isn't a lot that the user can do to customize the UI but then there isn't much need to. It would be nice if we could access the location settings (home, school, work, and default) from BOINCManager though.

[Version 6.12.26]

+242

Dana Sutton commented on 24 Dec 2009

On my new four-core iMac BOINC sees eight processors, wow, I'm impressed. But in its Messages it reports "no usable GPU's found." Why? The GPU in my computer is certified as Open CL-eligible by Apple, so shouldn't it be available to BOINC? If anybody can explain this, please let me know what's going on.

[Version 6.10.21]

3 Replies

+361

Penguirl replied on 05 Mar 2010

What projects are you running? There are few GPU capable projects on the Mac, SETI being one of them. Team MacNN has a knowledgeable crew who might be able to help you.

http://forums.macnn.com/team-macnn/

+940

Misha replied on 17 May 2011

It is reporting 8 processors because of Hyper Threading, I believe.

Side note: I founded Team MacNN 11 or 12 years ago, but long stopped contributing.

+361

Penguirl replied on 17 May 2011

@Misha You could always rejoin Team MacNN, we'd be glad to have you back!

-1

+361

Penguirl commented on 07 Dec 2009

6.10.21 is running fine on my 2.0 GHz DP G5, 10.4.11 sounds as if you have some other issue at work. The previous version, 6.10.17, would occasionally throw an error message saying I, the admin and only user, didn't have permission to run BOINC Manager but so far I have not encountered this in the current version.

[Version 6.10.21]

1 Reply

+361

Penguirl replied on 17 Dec 2009

Still having permission issues after several days since last boot with v6.10.21.

+49

Springheelmac commented on 01 Nov 2009

Screensaver aspect is now much improved. If a particular project does not have a screensaver attached to it, instead of the usual, "Screensaver not supported with this project" you will get a breakdown of all the projects you are involved with and your stats. It fades in and out with each currently running project.

[Version 6.10.17]

+15

Jrwho had trouble on 01 May 2011

No prevent from sleeping feature? Really?

[Version 6.10.58]

Laurent54 had trouble on 06 Mar 2010

Network communication don't work for me
come back to .21
Network work.
Thank(s

[Version 6.10.36]

Tupring had trouble on 05 Dec 2009

BOINC will no longer launch for me. Just hangs "Application Not Responding" on my G4 and my G5. Both have Tiger and Leopard installed and won't work anymore on either Mac or OS. No version has worked now for several months. I have tried reinstalling several times and also tried removing the settings folder to no avail. I am clueless at to why this no longer works on either Mac.

[Version 6.10.21]

+42

Whiterock had trouble on 20 Sep 2009

Beta seems to install but BOINC Manager gives error message:
BOINC ownership or permissions are not set properly; please reinstall BOINC. (Error code -1037)

uninstalling and reinstalling doesn't fix it.

[Version 6.10.6]

+19

wizzard1 had trouble on 09 Sep 2009

This beta version has issues in the installer. It is supposed to add a hidden group called "boinc_master" to any userid that is part of the admin group. It does not add it but it does add the other hidden "boinc_project". You can not access the software unless it adds you. I have to back to 6.6 of the software. Been using this software for years but I guess the beta still has many bugs in it.

Otherwise use the stable version until all the bugs are worked out.

[Version 6.10.4]

-2

ray16 had trouble on 12 Feb 2007

I've tried all the versions of BOINC, all crashed on launch. had jag, now panther, and still no go. You guys should had never shut down the classic.

I run the last build of 10.3.9

been a member since 2001

[Version 5.8.11]

There are currently no ratings. Write a comment or review now.

Downloads:17,735

Version Downloads:622

Type:Business : Applications

License:Free

Date:09 Apr 2012

Platform:PPC / Intel

Price:Free

Overall (Version 7.x):

Features:

Ease of Use:

Value:

Stability:

Displaying 1-10 of 25

1 2 3

Displaying 1-6 of 6

Please login or create a new
MacUpdate Member account
to use this feature

Watch Lists are available to
MacUpdate Desktop Members
Upgrade Now

Download and auto-install
using MacUpdate Desktop. Save
time moving folders and cleaning-up.

Add/Update Listing About MacUpdate Desktop Career Opportunities RSS Twitter Facebook Advertise Sitemap