Patent Application
20190173746
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Many jobs that are given to computers can be split into many smaller parts, and each of these parts can be processed in parallel. Likewise, there is much work to be done by computers that is simply repetitions of smaller pieces of work, which can also be handled in parallel. Sometimes the magnitude of this computational work at hand would require an amount of space to house the computers, and an amount of electrical energy, so large that it may not be practical to place all of that hardware at one location. As a solution to this problem, a method is provided for distributing the physical hardware in such a way that no special space for the hardware is needed, and no special electrical infrastructure is required.
In this method, a buyer-seller relationship is utilized to distribute computers to customers as a means of distributing hardware that is installed in the computer. The business of selling the computers is strictly a means of creating a thing. That is, the distribution is just part of the method of creating the distributed network, and requires more than just selling computers. In the context of this method, the seller is the administrator of the network. Since the purpose of the arrangement between buyer and seller, for the administrator, is to distribute the processing hardware, actual purchase may not be necessary. That is, the buyer may actually receive the computer at no cost, or even be paid for their role in the arrangement. Nevertheless, for semantic purposes, we will refer to the two parties as the “administrator” and the “customer.”
Hardware devices, with many parallel processing cores, are installed into standard desktop PCs or laptops. An example of such a device is a GPU (
Multiple instances of individual computers are distributed to customers. In one such instance, upon agreement between the administrator and the customer, the computer (containing the installed processing device) is installed within the customer's home. The computer is powered on, connected to the internet, and all necessary accessories are installed (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc . . . ). The computer's operating system is programmed to have separate user accounts for the administrator and the customer. A person having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that this can also be accomplished by having parallel instances of different operating systems active on the computer. The customer does not have access to make changes to any settings, running programs, or files that are accessed through the administrator's account. Furthermore, a person having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the computers could be installed in the customer's place of business, alternatively to the customer's home, or some combination thereof. Also, a person having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the person who physically installs the computer could also be an agent of the administrator, or the customers themselves. The distinguishing matter is the fact that the source of the computer obtained by the customer is the administrator, and provided by the administrator for the sake of creating the distributed processing network.
Within the administrators account, the administrator will launch software that controls the installed devices and gives it work to be done. The software also communicates with a remote server, over the internet, to retrieve what work is to be done, and reports the results of that work back to said server. A person having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that this server may be administered by the same administrator, and may be administered by a third party. At any given time that the device is doing its work, at the same time, the customer is able to use the other components of the computer, as a person would typically use a computer, with minimal impact by the administrator's processes. That is the vast majority of the resources required to do the administrator's work are within the device, and the shared resources (shared between the administrator and the customer) are only used by the administrator an amount that is negligible to the customer. A person having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that additional software may be run on the computer that allows the administrator to remotely manage the computer over the internet.
The novelty of this method lies in the fact that there is a device installed in the customer's computer, with the customer's expressed approval, that is not there for the use of the customer. Putting hardware in a computer and selling it to someone may seem trivial. However, the additional electrical energy costs to the customer can be substantial, and that would not be a trivial matter to the customer. Furthermore, the aggregate processing power, when all of these devices are working together, could make it one of the largest super-computers every created; a novelty indeed. While any methods in existence would only create something that has already been created. It is important to note that this entire process is done with the full intention that anyone who receives one of these computers is fully aware that there is hardware in the machine that is extraneous to their own purposes for having the computer and that that hardware is there to do work for the party from which they received the computer. This is not an idea for sneaking rouge devices into people's computers.
Many distributed computer processing networks have been created by maliciously installing software into a person's existing computer, or by convincing people to willingly install software on their existing computers. Besides consent, the difference is that the owner of the computer did not receive the computer from the administrator of that processing network. That is, that administrator did not create the network by distributing the hardware. No prior art exists in which a distributed processing network is created by distributing computers that contain hardware dedicated to that processing network to customers' homes and businesses.
Other patents pertaining to distributed processing seek to patent their version of the network itself, rather than the method by which it is physically deployed (U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,553,139, 9,017,398, 7,743,390, 8,263,954) (none of which are deployed to homes/businesses anyways), or claim a network with a centralized processor serving distributed workstations (U.S. Pat. No. 9,017,398), or claim a protocol used for data transfer (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,743,390), or claim a method for software to use in processing (U.S. Pat. No. 12,543,476). Otherwise, the claims are in reference to a parallel processing machines in which the individual processors are in close physical proximity to each other (in the same building), or connected over a local area network, rather than the internet (U.S. Pat. No. 8,480,691). U.S. Pat. No. 9,124,435 does speak to the matter of a task being processed by a client, however the term “distribute” (“distributed” or “distribution”) are used exclusively in reference to how much of a task is processed by the server and how much of it is processed by the client, as that is the matter that it seeks to resolve; which is a very different thing as the tasks at hand in this application are simply not being considered for processing on the server side.
