A new major SETI project based on project SERENDIP data and 100,000 personal computers

We are now developing an innovative SETI project involving massively parallel computation on desktop computers scattered around the world. The public will be uniquely involved in a real scientific project. Individuals will download a screensaver program that will not only provide the usual attractive graphics when their computer is idle, but will also perform sophisticated analysis of SETI data using the host computer. The data are tapped off Project SERENDIP IV's receiver and SETI survey operating on the 305-m-diameter Arecibo radio telescope. We make a continuous tape-recording of a 2-MHz bandwidth signal centered on the 21-cm H I line. The data on these tapes are then preliminarily screened and parceled out by a server that supplies small chunks of data over the Internet to clients possessing the screen-saver software. After the client computer has automatically analyzed a complete chunk of data a report on the best candidate signals is sent back to the server, whereupon a new chunk of data is sent out. If 50,000-100,000 customers can be achieved, the computing power will be equivalent to a substantial fraction of atypical supercomputer, and the project will cover a volume of parameter space comparable to that of SERENDIP IV.