Facebook open sources its servers and data centers • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#41

Post by wmf » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 8:19 PM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #24

Sorry ARM. Have ARM actually done more than announce that they will be moving into servers? If they have then I missed the announcement. Either way, seems like a fairly stupid dig at ARM, can't really expect companies like Facebook to have moved onto ARM servers this quickly, even if it is the direction they intend to go in.

This "sorry ARM" stuff is mostly just the media's need to turn every story into a horse race. But there is some technical detail here: Facebook said they're not ever willing to use 32-bit and ARM won't have 64-bit for years. Also notice that Facebook's servers are "conventional" 2-socket with lots of DIMM slots, not 1-socket "microservers".

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#42

Post by wmf » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 8:22 PM UTC

swah wrote: post #34

flyt wrote: post #8

Get all the CAD files and other specifications here: http://opencompute.org

Any idea on how much would it cost to produce a small quantity of those boards? At which scale does it starts to make sense to use a custom made motherboard instead of a off-the-shelf PC?

One thing to keep in mind is that one rack holds 90 servers and each battery rack feeds 180 servers, so (at least in Facebook's case) that's the basic unit. If this stuff takes off I would expect someone to produce a smaller 30-slot rack, though.

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#43

Post by steevdave » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 8:29 PM UTC

wmf wrote: post #41

corin_ wrote: post #24

Sorry ARM. Have ARM actually done more than announce that they will be moving into servers? If they have then I missed the announcement. Either way, seems like a fairly stupid dig at ARM, can't really expect companies like Facebook to have moved onto ARM servers this quickly, even if it is the direction they intend to go in.

This "sorry ARM" stuff is mostly just the media's need to turn every story into a horse race. But there is some technical detail here: Facebook said they're not ever willing to use 32-bit and ARM won't have 64-bit for years. Also notice that Facebook's servers are "conventional" 2-socket with lots of DIMM slots, not 1-socket "microservers".

Fwiw, Freescale has a 64bit ppc processor now... Either way though, until you're able to just drop an ARM processor into a "commodity" motherboard, it won't really see widespread use, aside from cell phones, and other mobile devices. There is also the fact that ARM processors all seem to have the graphics card embedded in the chip.

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#44

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 8:40 PM UTC

davidpitkin wrote: post #27

Facebooks attempts at openness make me wonder what they are trying to hide... misdirection?

Each server rack sits atop the shallow grave of a HN commenter who said something bad about Facebook.

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#45

Post by hollerith » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 8:42 PM UTC

flyt wrote: post #37

swah wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any idea on how much would it cost to produce a small quantity of those boards? At which scale does it starts to make sense to use a custom made motherboard instead of a off-the-shelf PC?

HP, Dell and other vendors are already showing off hardware built to the new specifications: http://instagr.am/p/C66FU/

Your link does not support your assertion. It's just a picture without a caption.

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#46

Post by zipdog » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 8:53 PM UTC

joshus wrote: post #18

kragen wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but why does it benefit Facebook's bottom line (and Google's!) to open-source that stuff? Wouldn't they be better off if their competitors had to pay those higher costs? It's not as if they have substantial computation-service providers they're buying from, or data-center-oriented companies they're selling to.

Facebook's core advantage is the social graph, not the infrastructure operation, which is Google's thing. Consequently, Facebook has tight grip on the access of its graph whereas Google keeps the secrets about its search algorithm and server setup. By open-source it, Facebook is not only getting good PR but also undercutting the competitor.

This is a nice benefit of two companies competing asynchronously (each has a different core competency). The open source community gets the non-core competency of both.

Now if only there was a company whose non-core competency was Google-style spelling check ("Did you mean to search for..")

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#47

Post by wmf » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 8:59 PM UTC

hollerith wrote: post #45

flyt wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HP, Dell and other vendors are already showing off hardware built to the new specifications: http://instagr.am/p/C66FU/

Your link does not support your assertion. It's just a picture without a caption.

http://twitter.com/#!/Scobleizer/status/56062315665178624

"Process journalism" at work.

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#48

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 9:02 PM UTC

swah wrote: post #34

flyt wrote: post #8

Get all the CAD files and other specifications here: http://opencompute.org

Any idea on how much would it cost to produce a small quantity of those boards? At which scale does it starts to make sense to use a custom made motherboard instead of a off-the-shelf PC?

[deleted]

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#49

Post by jedsmith » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 9:02 PM UTC

hollerith wrote: post #45

flyt wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HP, Dell and other vendors are already showing off hardware built to the new specifications: http://instagr.am/p/C66FU/

Your link does not support your assertion. It's just a picture without a caption.

With a source fairly prominently displayed at the bottom. Follow along if you absolutely must know more:

    1. Navigate to twitter.com/scobleizer.
    2. Observe first tweet.

http://twitter.com/Scobleizer/status/56062315665178624

That said, I lost all interest in the image due to the dumb focus effect.

Re: Facebook open sources its servers and data centers

#50

Post by wmf » Thu, Apr 07, 2011, 9:07 PM UTC

steevdave wrote: post #43

wmf wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "sorry ARM" stuff is mostly just the media's need to turn every story into a horse race. But there is some technical detail here: Facebook said they're not ever willing to use 32-bit and ARM won't have 64-bit for years. Also notice that Facebook's servers are "conventional" 2-socket with lots of DIMM slots, not 1-socket "microservers".

Fwiw, Freescale has a 64bit ppc processor now... Either way though, until you're able to just drop an ARM processor into a "commodity" motherboard, it won't really see widespread use, aside from cell phones, and other mobile devices. There is also the fact that ARM processors all seem to have the graphics card embedded in the chip.

QorIQ is pretty cool, but for whatever reason there's massive hype about ARM servers and zero about PowerPC. Perhaps this is evidence of an information cascade.

If Facebook is already getting custom Intel and AMD motherboards, ARM motherboards should be no problem. (Note that a major undercurrent of Facebook's announcement is that "custom" is actually cheaper than "commodity" at "Web scale".) ARM server chips (Armada XP and Calxeda) don't have GPUs.