I wrote my first computer programs in Burroughs Extended Algol in 1976 and have worked in IT ever since. Favorite operating systems are the MCP on Burroughs mainframes and Digital's VMS on VAX and Alpha hardware.
We've had a computer system at home since 1987 and our children are quite familiar with VMS and Windows systems. That ratio has changed somewhat, to the point that the humans are now outnumbered by the computers (not even counting the pc's...)
SETI@HOME runs on two Digital Alpha computers. One is a Digital Server 3000 (5/400) under Tru64 V5.0. The other is a Digital Server 5305 (5/533) and runs VMS V7.3. The latter system is about as fast as an AMD Athlon 2000 XP in processing a SETI Work Unit.
Apparently BOINC is not going to support the Alpha/VMS platform so that'll be the end for my efforts.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
The problem is simple: how does one process an enormous amount of data? The solution is brilliant: use the excess processor power that is wasted day by day!
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.
