Owner & Operator (May 2008 - present)
Origins
In May of 2008, Saddle Creek Corporation was performing it's Spring cleaning and sending old computers and other equipment to a recycler. This equipment had either gone far past it's service life and was deemed unfit for service or was not repairable. Remembering a Scientific American article he had read about a supercomputer built from spare PCs at Oak Ridge National Labs in the late 90's, Mr. Shook thought it might be possible to achieve something similar using modern Grid Computing techniques. All the basic parts necessary to build a pool of computers that could be setup to work on public scientific research were available. Saddle Creek Corporation has agreed to supply this endeavor with internet access, a dedicated UPS for clean power and a place to put it all. An old server closet and an unused server rack have been brought back online to support refuse4research.
Mission Statement
refuse4research serves the global research community by partnering with the World Community Grid in order to further their mission, "...to create the world's largest public computing grid to tackle projects that benefit humanity."
The methodology for refuse4research is unique:
Donated 3rd hand and broken computers (i.e., refuse that would have wound up in a land fill) are repaired in order to run the software used to conduct research. Most of the infrastructure used (cables, racks, etc.) is also recycled or recovered. The ultimate goal is to use renewable energy to run recycled equipment, leaving virtually no new carbon footprint.
Equipment List
- 17 PC class computers
- 12 server class computers
- 1 SOHO router
- 2 24-port network switchs
- 1 8-port KVM switch
- 1 KVM/IP remote access device
- 1 8-outlet network controlled power switch
- 3 Server Class UPS units