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Buying Computing by the Computon

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the close-relative-of-the-bogon dept.

theodp writes "Seeking to emulate the pricing models utilities use to charge customers for kilowatt-hours of electricity based on the ebb and flow of power demand, HP Researchers have come up with a new unit-of-computing metric, the Computon, which is not to be confused with the 'Power Unit' and 'Service Unit' pricing metrics from Sun and IBM. California, here we come!"

4 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. I like my servers like I like my music by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I like to own them!!!

    so basicly what HP is saying is that depending on how hard I work the servers will effect some monthly payment I make to them.

    so, does this lower the cost of service contracts becasue companies that push their servers harder require more service than those who have low or moderate useage?

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    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    1. Re:I like my servers like I like my music by EndlessNameless · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I like to own them!!!

      RTFA. This applies to customers who outsource their IT to HP. If you actually own the hardware then this article doesn't directly affect you.

      so, does this lower the cost of service contracts becasue companies that push their servers harder require more service than those who have low or moderate useage?

      In theory, yes. However, this wouldn't be the first time that a company used obsfucation as a sly means of increasing its revenues.

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      According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
  2. FLOP? by Vagary · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What's wrong with the good old flop? Or even simply instructions (of BogoMIP fame) or cycles? When you're dealing with the volume that grids (which is what this story is really about) will produce, you don't need a precise metric. And thanks to the Halting Problem, you'll be forced to buy the "computons" in even lots or risk losing computation time while transactions wait to clear.

    The important thing here is that HP is putting forward the idea of computation as a commodity. I just wish some researchers could have published a journal article instead of letting the marketing dept. get their greasy paws all over it.

  3. Re:Compare with computron by Vagary · · Score: 4, Interesting

    IANAP, but I wouldn't call the proposed correspondence between negentropy and information (as defined by Shannon) "pseudo-science". It's precisely this sort of cross-disciplinary metaphor which is so highly valued within Mathematics.

    Liquid things do have higher levels of entropy than solid things. And computers do get hot because they're determining where electrons are and then forgetting that information (to use Norrestranders' (in The User Illusion) way of putting things).* If you could constrain the molecules in an object, it would be colder. The factory comment, though, is part of a strawman argument.

    * I seem to recall reading something on /. years ago about computing that recycles the contents of registers to lower waste heat. Am I on drugs?