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Military Data Center In a Suitcase To Get Commercial Release
judgecorp writes: The Mobyl Data Center, designed for the US Department of Defense, puts a data center in a rugged suitcase-sized box, and it will shortly be available commercially. The box includes up to 88 Xeon cores a maximum of 176 GB of RAM, and 2.8 TB of SSD storage with 12TB of hard disk as an option. The system uses credit-card sized MobylPC server units, sealed in epoxy, and rated to survive 300g of shock, but apparently proprietary to the vendor, Arnouse Digital Devices Corp.
Correction. The article got it wrong too. [E3845]
What is a Intel E3845 Xeon processor?
the closest thing I found is Intel® Atom Processor E3845 (Bay Trail)
http://ark.intel.com/products/78475/Intel-Atom-Processor-E3845-2M-Cache-1_91-GHz
The chips themselves (E3845, a very low power-consuming model) only consume 10W each, and it's 88 cores (not processors), each processor having 4 cores, so 22 processors consuming 220W. Assumedly these boards are designed for minimal power consumption and provide only a bare minimum of capabilities. The hard drives are SSD, so minimal power consumption there. There doesn't appear to be any sort of graphics, so no power consumption needed for that. RAM isn't usually a big power consumer. So I don't see any reason to think that the system is going to be consuming vast amounts of power. Maybe about the same total as a high-end gaming PC (but with a *lot* more computing power).
On the other hand, with epoxy-encased hardware, I am quite curious as to how they're handling cooling. I'm guessing that while the boards are embedded in epoxy that the surfaces of the processors aren't? And I'd wager that the processors are linked up to a common heat sink, as it'd make no sense to give each one its own fan. Hmm, if they're all connected to the same big chunk of aluminum or copper running all the way through, then it could double as a structural element. Neat. :)
Beyond all of this, the system is battery powered, so we're not looking at any "surge" at all. It's designed for 8 hours of usage at full power or a week of standby. The difference between the two says to me that they do a lot to power down hardware when it's not in use. Also, that battery alone probably weighs about 10-20kg** - although size-wise it's probably only 5-10 liters**, so it should fit fine.
You know, the more I look at these numbers, the more I think it all pans out. You're talking a big, heavy suitcase, but nonetheless, a suitcase.
** - assuming 8h@250-500W@200Wh/kg@400Wh/L or comparable.
I'll never forget the last thing grandma said to me before she died: "What are you doing in here with that knife?!?"