Google demanding Intel's hottest chips?
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When purchasing server processors directly from Intel, Google has insisted on a guarantee that the chips can operate at temperatures five degrees centigrade higher than their standard qualification, according to a former Google employee. This allowed the search giant to maintain higher temperatures within its data centers, the ex-employee says, and save millions of dollars each year in cooling costs.
If the chips failed prematurely at these higher temperatures, the former Googler says, Intel was obliged to replace them at no extra charge.
Intel denies this was ever the case. "This is NOT true," a company spokesman said in an email. Google declined to comment on its relationship with Intel. "Google invests heavily in technical facilities and has dozens of facilities around the world with many computers," reads a statement from the company. "However, we don't disclose details about our infrastructure or supplier relationships."
The ex-Google employee learned of this Intel pact a little more than a year ago, during a Google "Tech Talk" open to anyone at the company. The talk was given by a Google thermal dynamics engineer, part of a small team - perhaps no larger than two people - that oversees heat issues inside the company's data centers.
According to the same ex-employee, it is now the norm for Google to construct its data centers by piecing together intermodal shipping containers pre-packed with servers and cooling equipment. In 2003, Google filed for a patent on this sort of modular data center, and the patent was granted last October.
This modular setup - known internally as Project Will Power - allows Google to construct the building blocks for each data center at a central location and then ship them around the world as needed. Robert X Cringely first leaked word of Google's modular data center work in 2005, claiming the project began after representatives of the Internet Archive pitched the idea to Google co-founder Larry Page.
Heat Saves
It's no secret that Google builds its own data centers - and many of the servers within. It's long been said that after the top server vendors, the ad broker consumes more processors and hard disks than anyone else in the world - and Intel freely acknowledges that it provides at least some of the chips.
Intel also customizes power saving motherboards for Google - a service not afforded other customers. But our source tells us that any motherboard pact is separate from the companies' high temperature chip agreement.
If Google can leverage an extra five degrees centigrade from Intel, it can save a few penguins - and some serious cash. According to Data Center Knowledge, Google runs at least 36 data centers across the globe, and several more are under construction. One of the newer sites, in The Dalles, Oregon, includes three data center buildings, each measuring 68,680 square feet.
According to Mark Monroe, Sun Microsystems' director of sustainable computing, data center managers can save 4 per cent in energy costs for every degree (Fahrenheit) they raise the thermostat. If you run your data center at a higher temp, you use less power and spend less money on the equipment needed to cool it down.
But if you raise the thermostat, you may void your hardware warranties. "The hardware manufacturer will usually have a temperature range," says Rich Miller, editor of Data Center Knowledge. "If the equipment is running outside of the range, the manufacturer might be inclined to challenge any sort of returns or credits. That's the thinking across the industry."
Next page: Google cranks the thermostat
COMMENTS
Shooting themselves in the foot
All Intel has to do is provide a spec spread where towards the upper thresholds for any given clock frequency, those parts have a higher voltage spec. Voila, a mere 5C higher is attainable even in worst case. All Google has done is fail to see the science in what it requires to meet their spec and how it would ultimiately effect the parts offered under this agreement (if it is true at all, frankly it seems foolish because the CPU is not the most heat vulnerable part in a server if your plan is to allow ambient temp to rise).
Unless they're overclocking, it is rather trivial to slap a stock heatsink on and have it stay cool enough with 80F ambient temps. At stock speeds most of Intel's products would stay cool enough even at 90F ambient unless these servers were ill designed, with especially bad airflow.
Paris, because even if she doesn't know what the "C" in 5C stands for, she understands pushing the limits.
@Various misconceptions
Frank: There's a difference for the local wildlife. Increasing the ambient temperature in the region by 1C could easily cause the local unique <x> to die out. Yes, a lot of the heat does end up in the sea, but not all within 300yds of the shore.
AC: Total power in = total power out, yes. However, the power lost through "normal means" rather than aircon is dependant on the temperature of the datacentre as much as anything else - therefore you can use "passive" cooling for a lot more if the place is warmer. To put it bluntly, you may be able to just use cooling fins and a water supply instead of needing aircon if you can run 20C hotter than ambient.
AC2: Running them hotter decreases the MAXIMUM, not the "real", speed. Clock your new CPU to 1GHz, and warm it up - it'll stay at 1GHz until it breaks.
This isn't rocket science people! (Despite the icon)
outside air mixing
all else being equal, it wouldn't matter whether you ran the servers at 20C or 25C, you'd still be getting rid of the same heat!
if the building were sealed perfectly insulated so no heat entered or left the building through its walls, floor and ceiling, then only the air-con removes the waste heat.
however, if the outside air temp is cooler than the inside, you don't need coolers, just suck cold outside air in (clean to keep dirt out), and blow out the hot! You can do this in more northern latitudes where air temp is cooler, and so if Google can run their computer rooms at 25C instead of 20, they can make better use of "economisers".
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