BOINC
Compute for Science

  • BOINC lets you help cutting-edge science research using your computer. The BOINC app, running on your computer, downloads scientific computing jobs and runs them invisibly in the background. It's easy and safe.

  • About 30 science projects use BOINC. They investigate diseases, study climate change, discover pulsars, and do many other types of scientific research.

  • The BOINC and Science United projects are located at the University of California, Berkeley and are supported by the National Science Foundation.
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START COMPUTING!

To contribute to science areas (biomedicine, physics, astronomy, and so on) use Science United. Your computer will help current and future projects in the areas you choose.

Join Science United

Or download BOINC and choose specific projects. This will let you participate in competitions and systems like Gridcoin.

Download BOINC

News from BOINC Projects

[SRBase] base R42 Megaprime

Uwe-Bergstedt, a member of the team SETI.Germany found a megaprime for base R42.
The prime 13347*42^732816-1 has 1.189.548 digits and entered the T5k PrimePages.

View article · Sun, 8 Nov 2026 22:16:49 +0000


[NFS@home] New Mac sievers

We’ve also rolled out new Mac versions of the 14e, 15e and 16e lattice sievers, built from the current lasieve5 code as a single universal binary. They run natively on Apple Silicon, where they’re about 1.5–1.7 times faster than under Rosetta. To get the native speed, make sure you’re running a current BOINC client. An older Intel-only client will still run the Intel version under Rosetta. The new apps need macOS 10.13 or later on Intel Macs, and macOS 11 or later on Apple Silicon.

View article · Thu, 5 Nov 2026 19:03:28 +0000


[NFS@home] New Windows sievers (and a quick fix for Windows 7 / 8.1)

We’ve rolled out new 64-bit Windows versions of the 14e, 15e and 16e lattice sievers. They’re built from the current lasieve5 code, so Windows machines run better on newer, larger jobs that the old Windows apps couldn’t handle. They’re also quicker. If your CPU supports AVX-512, the app uses it automatically, and on our test machine that was about 1.4–1.6 times faster.

The few of you who still use Windows 7 or 8.1 may need one small update from Microsoft. The new apps need Microsoft’s “Universal C Runtime”. Most machines already have it, but some don’t. If yours doesn’t, NFS@Home tasks will fail right away with an error like:

exit code -1073741515 (0xc0000135)

Check first: if the file C:\Windows\System32\ucrtbase.dll exists, you already have it. If it’s missing, install the update one of these ways:

Windows Update (easiest). Open Windows Update and install the recommended updates. The one you’re after is called “Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows”.

Direct download:
Windows 7 SP1, 64-bit:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51161
Download Windows6.1-KB3118401-x64.msu and run it. Windows 7 needs Service Pack 1 installed first.

Windows 8.1, 64-bit: search the Microsoft Update Catalog:
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB3118401
Download “Update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB3118401)”. It needs the April 2014 update (KB2919355), which almost all 8.1 machines already have.

Windows 8 (not 8.1): Microsoft no longer offers this update for Windows 8. Please upgrade to 8.1 (it’s free).

Restart if Windows asks you to. New tasks should then run normally. Any tasks that already failed will be sent to other computers, so no work is lost.

Thanks for participating, and let us know on the forums if you run into anything!

View article · Thu, 5 Nov 2026 07:53:01 +0000


[Gaia@home] Gaia@home relaunched: a new method for asteroid shapes

Gaia@home is back – with a new scientific goal

The research carried out in Gaia@home so far has reached the limit of what it could deliver, so we have rebuilt the project around a new task: reconstructing the shapes of asteroids from their lightcurves – the way their brightness changes as they rotate.

The new application, SAGE, uses your computers to evolve thousands of shape variants and test which ones best reproduce years of observations. The result is the shape, spin axis and rotation period of an asteroid, together with a map of which parts of its surface are well determined.

What this means for you


    [*]Your account, credit, computers, team and forum posts have been carried over. Nothing to do – your BOINC client will reconnect on its own.
    [*]Old tasks have been retired. If your client shows errors for old Gaia@home tasks, use "Reset project" in the BOINC Manager.
    [*]The new application runs on 64-bit Linux and Windows.
    [*]The website has moved to a new server. Asteroid models will appear in the gallery as they are completed.



Thank you for staying with us all this time. Questions and problem reports are welcome on the forum.

View article · Mon, 2 Nov 2026 07:12:24 +0000


Visit Volunteer Computing News for more

News

Server outage
The server that hosts the BOINC web site, Science United, and BOINC Central, was offline from 3 Sept until today. There was a maintenance issue that arose suddenly, and took much longer than we anticipated. We apologize for the inconvenience. If something like this happens again we'll try to find a substitute server to keep everyone informed.
10 Sep 2026, 7:49:25 UTC · Discuss


BOINC Dashboard available for Linux
BOINC Dashboard is lightweight, self-hosted web dashboard for monitoring a BOINC client running on a local machine, without needing to open BOINC Manager and reconnect every time.
23 Aug 2026, 1:32:10 UTC · Discuss


Willy de Zutter has passed away
We are deeply saddened to learn of Willy's passing; some details are here. Willy was a staunch and tireless supporter of BOINC from its earliest days; he created BAM! and BOINCstats, widely-used account manager and statistics sites. He will be remembered, and missed.
28 Jul 2026, 21:00:01 UTC · Discuss


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