Google power

[Fred Bloggs]

Are they going to move to Iceland into those geothermal powered server farms I read about then? CO2 friendly power there.

[TimberWolf]

An old article about Google and the possibility of their employing solid state drives, which may have come to nothing

Sources have told Digitimes that Google plans to test out SSD storage in an effort to lower power consumption at its vast data centers. The ad broker-cum-search engine will turn to Intel for the SSD gear.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05...el_google_ssd/

[Ravello]

I'm sure I remember reading an article a couple of years ago around the fact that Google are actually expert at keeping their 'leccy bills down... The article focussed on the fact that each individual server had it's own onboard cooling which removed the necessity for placing them in a temperature-controlled server room.

I'll see if I can find it...

[TimberWolf]

Just you - opens in FF 3.5.9 fine here

3.6.3 here.

[ctdctd]

My FF browser tab hangs when trying to open that PDF document. Is it just me? I appear to be able to open other PDF pages ok. Works ok in IE though.

Just you - opens in FF 3.5.9 fine here

[TimberWolf]

This is why they're able to produce such interesting analyses as this one about HDD failure rates (PDF Alert) from 2007. They use the same HDDs as we do, but have hundreds of thousands - by now, possibly millions - of them

My FF browser tab hangs when trying to open that PDF document. Is it just me? I appear to be able to open other PDF pages ok. Works ok in IE though.

[Pondlife]

You've got to hand it to AtW, other people pay the electricity bill for all his crawlers

Tis true.

Although I wonder how many would be so happy to do so if it were a major corporation. I also wonder if I am breaking the T&Cs of my 'home' broadband connection.

Still, every little helps.

[DiscoStu]

Majestic runs on fluffy lambs and little chicks?

You've got to hand it to AtW, other people pay the electricity bill for all his crawlers

[Pogle]

Google use bog-standard kit: cheap motherboards, components, HDDs, and so forth. When something breaks down they don't even bother replacing it until the next time they have a clear-out. However, they link them all together to form massive grids of computing power that automatically cope with and route around such failures.

This is why they're able to produce such interesting analyses as this one about HDD failure rates (PDF Alert) from 2007. They use the same HDDs as we do, but have hundreds of thousands - by now, possibly millions - of them

Why does that thought make me go all tingly

[NickFitz]

1Kw did seem an enormous figure but I assumed Google must be using super duper googly servers.

Google use bog-standard kit: cheap motherboards, components, HDDs, and so forth. When something breaks down they don't even bother replacing it until the next time they have a clear-out. However, they link them all together to form massive grids of computing power that automatically cope with and route around such failures.

This is why they're able to produce such interesting analyses as this one about HDD failure rates (PDF Alert) from 2007. They use the same HDDs as we do, but have hundreds of thousands - by now, possibly millions - of them

[vetran]

Majestic runs on fluffy lambs and little chicks?

[NickFitz]

Fatal flaw in their calculations: Google doesn't just do search. What about GMail, Docs, YouTube, Translate, Maps, and all the rest?

[xoggoth]

1Kw did seem an enormous figure but I assumed Google must be using super duper googly servers.

[Sockpuppet]

Each server drawing 1 kilowatt?

I though google used standard desktop PCs as they were cheaper than massive servers for what they wanted? Which would draw maybe 400 watts at peak.

[xoggoth]

every hour Google's engine burns through 1 million kilowatt-hours. Google serves up approximately 10 million search results per hour, so one search has the same energy cost as turning on a 100-watt light bulb for an hour.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ty-secret.html

bleedin' eck!