[geeks] Some interesting info on Google servers

[Shannon Hendrix]

On Apr 2, 2009, at 14:09 , Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:

> On Thu, 2 Apr 2009, Cody Swanson wrote:
>
>> From one of the blogs I read, some interesting information on  
>> Google's
>> datacenter tricks. I like the per machine ups systems, it's a  
>> solution
>> that would scale quite well.
>
> Quoth the article:
>
>  "One of the keys to Google's extraordinary efficiency is its use of a
>  custom server with a power supply that integrates a battery,  
> allowing it
>  to function as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The design  
> shifts
>  the UPS and battery backup functions from the data center into the
>  server cabinet"
>
> IBM did that at least thirty years ago.  On some mainframes, it was  
> just
> enough battery to keep memory state, but I believe some smaller AS/ 
> 400s
> had enough battery to keep the system running.

A lot of people besides IBM did it too.

Data General minicomputers and several others had UPS backup for parts  
of the system, usually enough to maintain CPU and memory state, and  
run the diagnostic processor.

-- 
Shannon Hendrix
shannon at widomaker.com