Quebec Data Center Built In a Silo

1sockchuck writes "A supercomputing center in Quebec has transformed a huge concrete silo into the CLUMEQ Colossus, a data center filled with HPC clusters. The silo, which is 65 feet high with two-foot thick concrete walls, previously housed a Van de Graaf accelerator dating to the 1960s. It was redesigned to house three floors of server cabinets, arranged so cold air can flow from the outside of the facility through the racks and return via an interior 'hot core.' The construction and operation of the unique facility (PDF) are detailed in a presentation from CLUMEQ."

Comments

And you thought your computer was a tower

[davidwr]

Size DOES matter.

Sun's future plans are even bigger

[Anonymous Coward]

Sun spokesperson Dr. C. Forbin announced a second center would be rolling out on the island of Crete after the population has been relocated.

Re:Sun's future plans are even bigger

[tomhudson]

Dumb mods never heard of The Forbin Project or the super-computer called Colossus

Vertical integration

[ewg]

Finally, vertically integrated data centers...

Should have left the missile

[natehoy]

They should have left the missile there and built the computers in to it.

1. Harvest the warhead for nuclear material - onsite power.
2. Instant, one button off-site backup. OK, not with great integrity control, but...

Re:Should have left the missile

[Anonymous Coward]

Just leave them in there. Nothing of value will be lost. It's not like they were ever going to reproduce anyway.

Re:Should have left the missile

[Dahamma]

RTFA (or even just the summary!) This is Quebec. They don't have nuclear missiles.

And we know this for a fact because if they did, they would have already nuked all English-speaking Canadian cities and declared independence years ago.

Re:Should have left the missile

[natehoy]

I found that true in Quebec some years ago, but when I went back more recently I ran into a LOT of people who were happy to speak English, even though I speak French (albeit VERY poorly) and tried.

Me: "Bonjour"
Waitress: "Hello. Can we speak English?"
Me: "You got how bad my French was from 'Bonjour'?"
Waitress: (giggles) "Yes"

I don't know who was laughing harder at that, me, the waitress, or my wife. But the point is that Quebec seems to have gone through a sea change in the last decade or so, and the residents seem much more accepting of Americans speaking English.

Re:But, does it run...

[natehoy]

Nothing runs on poutine. Try this: Eat a bunch of it and try running. Guarantee YOU aren't going to run on it, and you're DESIGNED to convert food into fuel.

Unless, by "run", you mean "collapse and expire due to massive arterial blockage", in which Quebecois is a somewhat more condensed language than I gave it credit for.

Could have some fun with this

[HangingChad]

Back in college the city was putting in a new, very large water tower. We started a rumor that it was actually a nuclear power plant disguised as a water tower and if you called the city, they would claim it was only a water tower.

They got enough calls it made the local paper. And when they tried to explain it was a water tower, "They said you'd say that!" Classic.

A data center in a silo would be almost as good. Looks like a death ray generator to me. Yeah, Canadian death ray. Pew! Pew! Pew! Eh?

Re:proofreading? what's that?

[Korbeau]

Give the slide author a break. He was probably one of those kids who were forbidden **by LAW** to be taught English in school before the 4th Grade.

That's bill 101 and the separatist PQ for you.

Please mod the above down, the first part is entirely false, the rest is simply xenophobic or whatever you wanna call it.

Yes, there is a law that incites non-english immigrant people to choose a french primary school since Quebec primary language is french.

Nobody prevents anyone to learn english, and there are of course english courses in primary school.