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Huge Data Center Looks Like a Circuit Board
1sockchuck writes to share a look at Digital Beijing, the data center for the 2008 Olympics. The huge (1.05 million square feet) building was designed to resemble a circuit board from 2 sides and a barcode from the other 2 ground-viewable sides. Looks like the nighttime view of this monster is going to be pretty impressive.
Unfortunately, they spent so much money building such an enormous and impressive data center that they have nothing left for servers. Therefore, the IT needs for the Olympic games will be served by a single Pentium II PC on the 8th floor. They are expected to have uptime rivaling that of such giants as Amazon.com.
pegged currency FTW
Everyone knows that REAL data centers are dressed up to look like office buildings... perhaps with a conspicuous lack of parking.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
the first image (the artists rendering i assume) where its glowing looks great, it made me think of how I'd visualize the Black Sun looking in Snow Crash's metaverse. it will be impressive if they keep the idea throughout the insides as well.
jaymz
I'm hoping the window washers don't cause a short on the damn thing.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
Does this remind anyone of the Half Life 2 building? Where it was held loosely together with lots of gaps. Very cool nonetheless.
Disclaimer: I am not god.
We may not be created equal
But we can be treated equal.
put together with plenty of lead in the solder, right?
Now all they need are some counterfeit electrolytic caps puking their guts all over the windows for added effect.
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
1.05 million ~ 1,048,576 -> megabyte! Cool!
As quoted in the article "then be used by the Beijing municipal government's data storage and emergency-response command."
Really!? Like...that conjures up all kinds of thoughts in a paranoid mind. That is quite a lot of computing power for a major city to use by itself. (wink wink). Imagine all of the data connections that were once used for sporting news now being utilized for...GTA? Well, Buick and Cadillac sell some serious iron in China as well.
A follow-on story after the games would be quite interesting to read.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class" Oscar Wilde
Minitrue newbuilding doubleplusgood! Goodwise win chinsoc! Telescreen prolefeed doubleplusgood!
And the phrase "resistance is futile, you will be assimilated" isn't exactly unlike the People's Republic of China...
This is Slashdot. Common sense is futile. You will be modded down.
Let's write hundreds of responses decrying supposed oppressiveness of its look and purposes (compared to, say, Pentagon, a symbol of efficient, transparent and peace-loving government).
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Reminds me a lot of the Davis Centre of the University of Waterloo, which was designed to look and feel like being in a computer. there's lots of cool photos on flickr showing it, and a neat panorama of the inside.
01110000 01010111 01101110 00110011 01100100
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!
It's so awesome that I've completely forgotten about China using children to make toys for my children, or that one time, at band camp, they used some Tibetans for target practice. Amazing architecture.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Most datacenters are in nondescript buildings. Why would you want to advertise that this building here is the uber datacenter for the entire olympics? I'd also love to know that in light of the recent earthquake what is the disaster recovery plan and site look like?
Tron was the first thing I thought of looking at the top picture. "I need to contact my user."
If only it were so. In today parlance a megabyte will get you about 900,000 byte or so, due to the decimalization of the measurement and the overhead that modern drives seem to incur. Therefore, this would be advertised and sold as a 1.2 megabyte facility. Customers who complain will be double talked to by the same type of people who become finance and mortgage officers.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
The overhead isnt due to the drive, its due to their filesystem. I knew they shouldnt have gone with CBNealFS.
Didnt they see the poll a while back?
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
It joins these wonderful architectural accomplishments:
http://swedish.wunderground.com/data/wximagenew/p/pjgeraci/188.jpg
http://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/writing/folio/vol2/duck_side.jpg
http://i-eclectica.org/wordpress/wp-content/my images/architecture/architecture2/piano house 1.jpg
http://dvice.com/pics/shoe_building.jpg
http://dvice.com/pics/japan_upsidedown_house.jpg
I'd love working in the building, myself. I can imagine each time I cross over the big gap between the most offset buildings. Each time I did this, I'd need to go up a level to the walkway and cross over a bunch of unused space which will provide more external surface area, thus making cooling more expensive. I'd just love it. People wasting my time on something inefficient is what I live for.
But why a bar code? Why not a bug? Or a CD ROM? Or a finger pressing an ANY key?
[into an empty room, his words echoing off the walls]
Avon: Blake! There's nothing here.
[Blake turns to stare at him. Avon holsters his weapon.]
Avon: There's nothing here.
[Blake turns slowly and falls to his knees. Avon grabs him by the arm and shoulder.]
Avon: [whispers] Nothing!
[Travis laughs out of sight]
Blake: Travis.
Travis: [walks in] You believed it, Blake, like all the other fools before you. "Destroy Control and you destroy the Federation." No.
Blake: [grabs Avon] It was here. Everybody knows it was here.
Travis: Of course. We've never concealed it. On the contrary, we've broadcast the fact. We used it as a challenge to our enemies, we invited them to attack Control.
Blake: It was never here?
Travis: It was moved -- thirty years ago.
Blake: [lets Avon go] To where?
Travis: Even I don't know that. But it's safe and secure and will remain so while those who seek to destroy us believe it's here. You see, it's the great illusion, Blake. You give substance and credibility to an empty room, and the real thing becomes undetectable, virtually invisible. So, where is the real data center? Where's Star One? For that, I'll cite the Shadows' planet killer at the end of Babylon 5: A Call to Arms. But as there's no transcript of it on-line to provide precise quotes, I'll use a scene synopsis: Sheridan notices the center of the lattice is bigger and reinforced: probably the command center. That's their target.
When the time comes to choose your target, be sure to pick the right one. Because you will only get one shot. Galen's words echo in Dureena's head.
"No," she tells Sheridan simply. "If you hit that part you'll fail and your planet will be destroyed." She explains that a thief learns to look where you aren't supposed to look; that the most valuable items are never inside the safe, but next to it. Next to the central point of the lattice is a joint, seemingly the same as others in the structure. "There's nothing special about it," Dureena explains. "Then why is it surrounded by short range weapons? Why are they so determined to protect it?"
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?