To calculate the useful amount of work provided by a computer, a special calculation called Recent Average Credit (RAC) is used. This calculation is designed to estimate the number of credits a computer, user, and team will accumulate on an average day. Due to the many variables not taken into account including the inconsistency of host processing, time it takes to validate work units, discrepancies in benchmarks, and possible project down time, the RAC calculation proves to be only a guide. Additionally RAC is independent of computers, users, and teams, meaning they cannot be simply added up. RAC was originally meant to help scientists understand the computational power available to them and to increase competition among users by allowing even new users to quickly move up in rank based on RAC, which should directly reflect how fast work is being processed.
Read more about this topic: BOINC Credit System
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