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Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

bbc.com

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Re: Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

#181

Post by Steltek »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #24
lokopodium wrote: post #4

Is there a benefit over just putting it in a boat/coastal building and using water (perhaps pumped from some depth) for cooling?

Boats in that part of the world are subject to severe stresses because of the weather. And boats are always moving, even in harbour. Just maintaining a reliable cable connection to a boat is more challenging than connecting to a subsea container. Placing the container on the sea floor avoids almost all of the weather related problems.

Microwave links? How about an oil derrick style thing mounted directly to the seabed so it doesn't move?

There's also plenty of coastline away from major cities. Find enough open space and it becomes feasibly multi-tenant. Add wind/solar and run a cable (or 3).

Re: Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

#182

Post by becomingknown »

Moter8 wrote: post #95
masklinn wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know, the oceans are big, but so is our data. Meh. The biggest data center (ChinaTel's Inner Mongolia Information Park) consumes about 150MWe, assuming all of it becomes waste heat it's basically nothing: a nuclear reactor (each plant has 2~8) releases 2Wt for each We it produces, and they're usually sized between 800 and 1300MWe. Hell, earth averages 160W/m^2 from the sun, oceans cover 360m km^2, so oceans get 1…

Even Greenpeace at least doesn't think that it's a bad idea: "Experimental underwater data centres could be more sustainable if connected to offshore wind power, but Microsoft must focus more on investing in new renewable energy now. [...]" https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35472189

That's kind of a clever idea to promote renewable energy.

Re: Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

#183

Post by rounce »

apk-d wrote: post #136
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sickening click sound that a disk drive makes when it's on the verge of failure is ingrained in my head. I tried putting one of those in the freezer once, and maybe it was a folk remedy, but it worked enough to boot and get my data off!

That must be one of the silliest hacks I've ever heard, right up there with oven-baking electronics to fix loose solder joints. I love it!

As a teen I managed to 'rescue' 1000's of £/$'s worth of graphics cards from eBay listed as spares/repair with this method. I recall this working about half the time; then again at least 3/10 cards from eBay listed as broken worked immediately when plugged in.

Re: Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

#184

Post by Steltek »

fowie wrote: post #9
lokopodium wrote: post #4

Is there a benefit over just putting it in a boat/coastal building and using water (perhaps pumped from some depth) for cooling?

Putting in on/in a boat or near the coast might get you the seawater for cooling, but the project lists a few other big benefits like oxygen-free atmosphere, constant temperatures year-round, and ease of deployment.

A hermetically sealed capsule can be placed on a boat just as easily as a submarine, if not easier due to the pressure difference.

I'll give you the constant temperature but this project is about using the nearly-free ocean to maintain temperature so surely the delta isn't too large here.

I don't see how this is easier than a boat at anchor.

Re: Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

#185

Post by larntz »

pjc50 wrote: post #156
Qworg wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works because of how hard drives work - the heads are extended by slightly heating the bar the heads are connected to. If you're head crashing, you need a little less length, hence freezer.

This isn't quite true, the heads are kept from crashing by air pressure and a crash does irreversible damage. The "clicking" sound is either the heads flicking back and forth as the drive tries to seek, or the central motor trying and failing to start platters spinning which are jammed on the bearing. What freezing the drive may achieve is either un-sticking it from the bearings (see also the "bang drive on edge" tec…

When I worked for a small computer place years and years ago we'd sometimes "tap" a drive as it was spinning up if freezing it didn't work. Tapping it with a screw driver handle rarely worked, but it was always a last ditch effort to save having to send a drive out -- which most people wouldn't pay for anyway.

Re: Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

#186

Post by [deleted] »

icebraining wrote: post #140
mpweiher wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of it is that even problems that are small/unnoticeable at the individual level become big when multiplied by a huge N. For example, I don't think I've ever had a hard drive fail in ~30 years in computing, well without being dropped that is, yet look at the Backblaze reports: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-benchmark-stats-20...

My N is just 10, yet I've had two failures :(

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

#188

Post by _ea1k »

larntz wrote: post #185
pjc50 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't quite true, the heads are kept from crashing by air pressure and a crash does irreversible damage. The "clicking" sound is either the heads flicking back and forth as the drive tries to seek, or the central motor trying and failing to start platters spinning which are jammed on the bearing. What freezing the drive may achieve is either un-sticking it from the bearings (see also the "bang drive on edge" tec…

When I worked for a small computer place years and years ago we'd sometimes "tap" a drive as it was spinning up if freezing it didn't work. Tapping it with a screw driver handle rarely worked, but it was always a last ditch effort to save having to send a drive out -- which most people wouldn't pay for anyway.

I did that with a drive in my computer fairly recently. Although I didn't so much tap it as shake it on startup. It did finally start spinning enough to insure that I had the last few bits of data transferred to a new drive, though. :)

Re: Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

#189

Post by tomxor »

As an aside in the article:

> There has been growing concern that the rapid expansion of the data centre industry could mean an explosion in energy use. But Emma Fryer, who represents the sector at Tech UK, says that fear has been exaggerated.

> "What's happened is we've had the benefit of Moore's Law. The continued advances in processing power have made doom-laden predictions look foolish"

There may be other reasons that energy efficiency will continue to improve, but Moore's law, (More specifically in relation to performance per watt: Dennard Scaling), has long been at an end. Given her position it's fairly ignorant to sight this as a reason for a continued lower proportion of energy consumption growth by now.

Re: Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency

#190

Post by alekratz »

shoo wrote: post #105

# Full fathom six thy server sits; # Of its disks are coral made; # Those are pearls that were its bits # Nothing of it that doth fade # But doth suffer sea-migrations # Into substrate for crustaceans. # Sea-nymphs monitor system vigour: # Hark! HEALTH CHECK: FAILURE -- replacement trigger'd

This is worthy of being put in fortune(6).
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