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Google Reveals "Secret" Server Designs
Hugh Pickens writes "Most companies buy servers from the likes of Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM or Sun Microsystems, but Google, which has hundreds of thousands of servers and considers running them part of its core expertise, designs and builds its own. For the first time, Google revealed the hardware at the core of its Internet might at a conference this week about data center efficiency. Google's big surprise: each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power if there's a problem with the main source of electricity. 'This is much cheaper than huge centralized UPS,' says Google server designer Ben Jai. 'Therefore no wasted capacity.' Efficiency is a major financial factor. Large UPSs can reach 92 to 95 percent efficiency, meaning that a large amount of power is squandered. The server-mounted batteries do better, Jai said: 'We were able to measure our actual usage to greater than 99.9 percent efficiency.' Google has patents on the built-in battery design, 'but I think we'd be willing to license them to vendors,' says Urs Hoelzle, Google's vice president of operations. Google has an obsessive focus on energy efficiency. 'Early on, there was an emphasis on the dollar per (search) query,' says Hoelzle. 'We were forced to focus. Revenue per query is very low.'"
Get that man a beer.
We all know the searches are actually being done by a large amount of people in suspended animation, being fed the corpses of the previous people.
The thing about each server having its own battery is a cruel joke.
Indeed. (Stares at laptop).
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
When the weather gets warmer, Google notices is that it's harder to keep servers cool.
Brilliant journalistic work there.
Googles secret is that all there computers have battery.
I think, it is called a laptop.
Derr... minicomputers should say microcomputers. My old brain is failing me. Help! Help! Help! He-- wait. What was I screaming for help for again?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
wouldn't trust them any further than I can throw them
Given the reliability, it's likely that someone has already measured that particular parameter for you. Have you checked the data sheets?
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
I'm working on a solution. If only I can contact Oracle.
Google is basically re-implementing the efficiency that already exists in a laptop.
You have a laptop with >1000 processors, consisting of several times that many cores, with its own built-in gigabit ethernet running on built-in gigabit switches?
I'd hate to sit next to you on an airplane!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I believe the joke was that the distance a DeskStar can be thrown may be published in the data sheets. Being such a common concern and all. :-)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
It's ok, appearently he stores it in his middle finger.
...imagining a Beowulf cluster of these?
Aww - nevermind.
Actually, yes. I just can't remember where I got to play with the B20s.
Ahem... speaking as a user and as one of the aforementioned priests of the Temple, those fuckers still aren't gone. Grrrrr.
As one of the priests, I sincerely wished that the congregation wouldn't return.
--srj/mmv
The power of a thousand cores is no match for my asbestos underpants.
It's ok.
We have a nice table with an integrated NEC 8000 for you to sit at. We even sprung for the sound dampening box for the daisy wheel printer for you.
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
When I first skimmed your post, I saw the words "daisy wheel printer" and my first reaction was, "Put it in the other room! Those fuckers are LOUD!" But it seems you've thought of everything.
And that's what I'm talking about! WWII levels of efficiency. Not this namby, pamby, "I didn't know that slotting DIMMs of different sizes into the motherboard would disable dual-channel access" BS. Somebody give this boy a raise!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Well, I'd hate to be ON that plane.... that system would be a cloud *in* a cloud... until the plane crashed from all the weight it.
Funny... captcha is "kerosene" (which some planes use, IIRC...)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Dude, seriously. Would it have hurt you to read the FIRST *BLEEPING* REPLY
Give him a break. He probably typed that on an IBM 029.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear