San Francisco-based Popular Power embodied the business model behind "distributed computing," usingcomputers' spare processing power to tackle programming jobs. The concept,only recently emerging as a way to make money, has been around for years andwas popularized by the SETI@home project that letpeople use a screensaver to search for radio signals from extraterrestrials.
The wave of start-ups hoped pharmaceutical companies, computer graphicsstudios and others would pay to have their calculations done on thousands ofcomputers across the Internet instead of buying large supercomputers oftheir own. Distributed computing companies would pass along some of thepayments from customers to the people who owned the computers doing thework.
Popular Power had hoped to offer members of its network rebates, coupons ordiscounts to encourage people to donate their processing power. Now, thecompany will continue only with its voluntary, nonprofit projects such assimulating the human response to the influenza virus.
"Popular Power is no longer in business," read a note posted to the PopularPower Web site by co-founders Marc Hedlund and Nelson Minar. "We arecontinuing to run our nonprofit projects and will do so for as long as weare able."
The company laid off all 14 employees and now is selling its assets, Popular Power said in a statement Monday.
The company had raised $1.6 million in an early investment round, but was unable to raise more, Hedlund said in a statement. "We were attempting to raise funding in a notoriously tight venture market," he said.
The company had won seed money but was trying to secure first-roundfinancing.
Other distributed computing companies include United Devices, founded bySETI@home leader David Anderson; Entropia; Parabon Computation; and Applied MetaComputing. In addition, free e-mail and Internet access company Juno Online Services has added a distributed computingcomponent to its business.
Parabon offers its members a $100 daily drawing and a monthly $1,000drawing. The more days a member donates processing power, the better theodds of winning the $1,000, the company said.