Subdividing Long-Running, Variable-Length Analyses Into Short, Fixed-Length BOINC Workunits

We describe a scheme for subdividing long-running, variable-length analyses into short, fixed-length boinc workunits using phylogenetic analyses as an example. Fixed-length workunits decrease variance in analysis runtime, improve overall system throughput, and make boinc a more useful resource for analyses that require a relatively fast turnaround time, such as the phylogenetic analyses submitted by users of the garli web service at molecularevolution.org. Additionally, we explain why these changes will benefit volunteers who contribute their processing power to boinc projects, such as the Lattice boinc Project (boinc.umiacs.umd.edu). Our results, which demonstrate the advantages of relatively short workunits, should be of general interest to anyone who develops and deploys an application on the boinc platform.