Recent average credit
To find 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 has proved to be only a guide. Additionally, RAC is independent of computers, users, and teams, meaning their respective data cannot be simply added up.[why?] RAC was originally meant to help scientists understand the computational power available to them. Today, this calculation allows for increased competition among users and teams by allowing even new users to quickly move up in rank based on RAC, which should theoretically reflect how fast work is being processed.