Google Joins Facebook's Open Compute Project (arstechnica.com)

judgecorp writes: Google has elected to open up some of its data center designs, which it has -- until now -- kept to itself. Google has joined the Open Compute Project, which was set up by Facebook to share low-cost, no-frills data center hardware specifications. Google will donate a specification for a rack that it designed for its own data centers. Google's first contribution will be "a new rack specification that includes 48V power distribution and a new form factor to allow OCP racks to fit into our data centers," the company said. "We kicked off the development of 48V rack power distribution in 2010, as we found it was at least 30 percent more energy-efficient and more cost-effective in supporting these higher-performance systems." The company said it hopes to help others "adopt this next generation power architecture, and realize the same power efficiency and cost benefits as Google." Google hasn't submitted a proposed specification to the OCP yet, but the company is working with Facebook to get that done.

Comments

weasel words

[Gravis Zero]

Google's first contribution will be "a new rack specification that includes 48V power distribution and a new form factor to allow OCP racks to fit into our data centers,"

they aren't going to "allow OCP racks to fit into [their] data centers," they are trying to make OCP adopt their design.

just sayin'

Power supplies?

[glitch!]

Okay, I am interested in 48v (nominal) feeds. Where can I buy a decently priced PC power supply? If Google is buying them left and right, they should be easily available and cheap, right?

Re:Power supplies?

[4wdloop]

With LED lighting it could be more possible. However, a microwave, hair dryer or iron would draw a ~20A current (~1kW power). And this requires a thick wires. Gone are electric heaters, ovens and AC etc. Smallest household hookup is 2x100A @ 110V about 15kW peak power which equivalent 48V DC would require >300A, gauge 0000, 0.46" wire in diameter.

Telco has been here before

[satsuke]

Telecom equipment has been using these 48vdc power systems for decades.

That industry certainly hasn't had the same goals in mind as far as efficiency or getting the kind of density that Google et al would need, but the designs should have a lot in common regarding physical plant designs.

e.g. in the telco space, N+1 (need +1) or better is pretty standard, with the distributed nature of Google and other large compute clusters being (likely) more tolerant of a given node or blade server failing without impact on the whole.

I still feel uneasy about the name

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Is anyone else a little scared that OCP is now something real and that it's computer-related on top of that?