[Beowulf] Project Natick

[Prentice Bisbal]

On 06/06/2018 09:13 PM, Chris Samuel wrote:
> On Thursday, 7 June 2018 12:34:54 AM AEST Prentice Bisbal wrote:
>
>> Has anybody seen any more details on how the cooling actually occurs withing
>> the capsule?
> There's a bit more here:
>
> https://datacenterfrontier.com/the-watery-edge-microsoft-deploys-undersea-servers-in-scotland/
>
> # A key change from the prototype was in the cooling system, where Naval Group
> # adapted a heat-exchange process commonly used for cooling submarines,
> # piping seawater directly through the radiators on the back of each of the 12
> # server racks and back out into the ocean.
>
>
Also from that article:

> Microsoft says “could herald a new wave of data centers that can be 
> deployed rapidly and inexpensively while increasing data speeds along 
> coastal regions.” The company notes that more than half of the world’s 
> population lives within about 120 miles of the coast.

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that most data centers are withing 
120 miles of the coast, too. Yes, I know some large datacenters are 
being built in the middle of nowhere for cheaper land costs, but I don't 
think those large megacenters for Google, Facebook, and whoever 
represent the majority of data center capacity.

And I'm definitely not an expert on Orkney, but I did work with a guy 
from Scotland, and I'm pretty sure he had stories about how sparsely 
populated Orkney was due to the rugged terrain and inhospitable weather, 
so this test case isn't exactly near a large population center, either.

Prentice