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Facebook Putting Batteries On-Board Its Servers
1sockchuck writes "The data center of the future may have no central UPS units, and be filled with servers with on-board batteries. Facebook says it will adopt a new power distribution design that shifts the UPS and battery backup functions from the data center into the cabinet by adding a 12-volt battery to each server power supply, an approach pioneered by Google. Facebook says the move will slash its power bill and save millions in capital expenses on UPS systems and PDUs. Facebook acknowledged that these types of custom designs are limited to large companies, but called on server vendors and data center builders to adapt their offerings to make them available to smaller companies."
Distributed!
Centralized!
Distributed!
Centralized!
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The wiring resistance is constant per meter (for a given cost) and increasing the voltage will reduce the amperage, while the power loss in the wiring is the multiplication of the amp times resistance, so, by increasing the voltage, the reduce the amp which in turn reduce the power loss in the transmission.
Well, you need to take into account the full cost of ownership. Are those servers using 500W of power to run, doing 1/4th of the work of a new server requiring only 300W ? At 10c/kWh, it cost you 1500$ / year to keep them running not including the climatisation, beside the wasted space (4 times more than the newer servers), and you will not be able to sell them at a meaningfull value after too long.
If you have bigger pick up trucks, then you need less of them to carry a set amount of goods and so there is less traffic on a road.
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
Why do you assume that the in-server batteries will be completely ignored but a central UPS will be meticulously maintained?