Facebook launched the Open Compute Project . The project offers for public use tech specs and data about the custom-engineered technology developed for Facebook's first dedicated data center in Prineville, Ore.
The IT hardware industry team is figured out just one way to do large-scale computing affordably and efficiently, with a particular focus on developing solutions that accommodate our limited resources -- both money and people -- and our unwillingness to sacrifice computing power and efficiency," Facebook spokesperson Jonny Thaw told TechNewsWorld.
That sharing of information will be good for companies with mega-data centers such as Facebook, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat.
"In a lot of cases, people with very large data centers, like Yahoo, Facebook and Google, have to get custom-built solutions that meet their needs at a reasonable price point," McGregor told TechNewsWorld.
"Facebook's move is a push to say these large data centers need stuff more suited to their requirements in a more standardized way," he added.
"Given Facebook's needs are likely similar to what most companies will want when it comes to client-focused cloud computing, the result is likely better solutions sooner," noted Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enaderle Group.
"Facebook becomes an excellent lab where you can go and see what is, and what is not, working today," Enderle told TechNewsWorld.
The Open Compute Project servers have a chassis designed to accommodate a custom motherboard and power supply. It doesn't use screws; it uses quick-release components. The motherboard snaps into place in mounting holes, and the chassis has snap-in rails for the hard drives to slide into the drive bay. Facebook uses motherboards from AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC).
The AMD motherboard is a dual AMD Opteron 61 series socket motherboard with 24 DIMM (double inline memory module) slots. The Intel motherboard is a dual Intel Xeon 5500 or 5600 socket motherboard with 18 DIMM slots.
The battery cabinet is a stand-alone independent cabinet that provides backup power at 48V DC nominal to a pair of triplet racks. This replaces the traditional inline UPS system normally used in data centers.
No comments:
Post a Comment