The fall meeting of AFCOM's Data Center World brought participants from all sectors such government, entertainment and manufacturing to the Orlando World Center Marriott and Convention Center.
Participants listen to the keynote speaker John Patrick outline the future of computing, including ubiquitous Internet and mobile devices to access it. (Photo: Colleen Miller).
David Martinez, distinguished technologist at Sandia National Laboratory, describes the lab's Red Sky supercomputer and its cooling and energy requirements. (Photo: Colleen Miller)
Red Sky, a high performance computer at Sandia National Laboratories, is saving considerable energy (37 percent) over its predecessor, Thunderbird. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, manages Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. There. the Department of Energy uses multiple supercomputers to research energy innovations, such as turning biomass into a usable fuel as an alternative to fossil fuels. Its Red Sky supercomputer uses Glacier doors for rack-based refrigerant cooling.
William Carter, Senior Data Center Architect, Intel, describes server parking, a technique to save energy. (Photo: Colleen Miller)
Intel Corp.'s William Carter elaborated on server parking, or putting servers in a suspended state when they are not under workload, which can lead to considerable energy savings. When small amounts energy savings are multiplied over many servers, the total reduction in power use can be significant. He noted that there has been industry resistance to the practice, but as technology and software evolves it has become a viable practice.