SETI@home 3.0 Client Available

The folks at the SETI@home distributed computing project – which takes advantage of idle systems around the world to analyze radio telescope data for possible extraterrestrial signals – has released version 3.0 of the SETI@home client for Macintosh. Version 3.0 still runs as either a screen saver or stand-alone application, and introduces new highly optimized Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithms; the performance improvements offered by the new techniques enables the SETI@home client to attempt two types of pulse detection ("pulses" and "triplets"). Version 3.0 also expands the range of Doppler shift rates examined and tightens its Gaussian curve fitting to reduce the number of false positive reports; the client is also a little pickier about updating its 3D graph, since drawing to the screen can take longer than actually performing the computations. SETI@home 3.0 is a 450K download, and requires a PowerPC-based machine with at least 24 MB of RAM running System 7.5.5 or higher; use of the version 3.0 client will eventually be required to keep participating in the SETI@home project. If you haven’t already, consider joining the TidBITS SETI@home team!