Exploring mobile devices as Grid resources: Using an x86 virtual machine to run BOINC on an iPhone

The increasing power and number of mobile devices makes them an attractive target for grid computing. To date, most research related to mobile devices and grid computing is focused on the access and use of grid resources. In this paper we propose the use of mobile devices themselves as grid computing nodes. We demonstrate the feasibility of this concept by implementing the BOINC client on an Apple iPhone. Work units are downloaded from a BOINC server and executed on the iPhone via a virtual machine emulating an x86 processor, and results are uploaded to the server. The world of mobile devices brings renewed challenges to the problem of grid client design in the areas of network bandwidth, processor capability, storage, and energy consumption. Using our prototype, we conduct initial studies evaluating performance, energy efficiency, and bandwidth on a cellular device against a more traditional grid computing node.