Comments on: Googles servers revealed

By: thirdwheel

thirdwheel — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:39:24 +0000

>wow..srsly..its a 360 MB with the case ripped away….extra storage added…

Last I checked, a 360 runs on 3-core IBM PowerPC processors, not twin Xeons. GYFS.

By: GCL

GCL — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:44:51 +0000

Yeah right. And the previous comment should be removed as it is a form of spam.

By: netrackindia

netrackindia — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:20:16 +0000

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By: Unknitcorpse

Unknitcorpse — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:06:24 +0000

wow..srsly..its a 360 MB with the case ripped away….extra storage added…

By: TechTips

TechTips — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:10:55 +0000

It’s not seems to be ….. :)

By: GCL

GCL — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:04:28 +0000

@abehman
At which one of us are you addressing? Mine or Sparky?

Of the two mine goes into detail. His goes in depth.

By: abehman

abehman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:43:00 +0000

–almost, but that’s not all they use

By: Sparky

Sparky — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:46:15 +0000

A couple years ago, you could purchase gigabyte Mainboards (8IPXDREL-GG) on ebay (also some geek website) – very minimal; 2x 2.4 xeons, 6x Memory slots (PC-2100), IDE, 2x USB, 1x PCI, onboard video and serial.
These were being solds in the hundreds quantity – I do wonder if it’s possible they decided to sell a heap of ‘old stock’.
These systems wouldnt need much – since all they’re doing is sitting there and collecting data, and listening to instructions from the ‘main’ server. Highly feasible, and cost effective.

By: GCL

GCL — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 05:06:44 +0000

Excuse me!
It’s not a prank. If anything it reflects upon Google’s talents for doing the impossible. According to one Google Engineer I know rather well, all of their hardware is built from off the shelf parts, and is further customized.

But when it exhibits a solid failure, it gets yanked and a new one gets installed.

And that Olivetti 486 job you’re discussing was one of many they built for AT&T at that time AT&T owned them. They ran the ESS or switches that ran the exchanges, they were part of the 3B series of designs.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:30:15 +0000

What cracks me up is the comments in this thread purporting that any of the authors know an iota about server design.

By: Laminar

Laminar — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:14:08 +0000

Maybe someone should grammar-check the articles before they’re posted, too.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:54:03 +0000

People who think this was a prank are severely misguided.

Before google released the photos, it was commonly known that google:

- prefers simple, cheap, commodity hardware
- uses velcro instead of screws
- was doing serious research into 12V systems with embedded battery backup. (iirc there were also hints that they were using this config in production)
- doesn’t replace servers as they fail. its a periodic task where workers pull the failed servers in a center en masse, repair them, and put them back into service
- uses RAM for active datastores, with HD being merely a backup

The pics are /perfectly/ consistent with what was already known.

I can’t wait until pics come out of Google’s 10Gbit custom switches — I bet they look a lot alike…

By: will d.

will d. — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:53:39 +0000

yeah what’s so funny or prankish about cleverly designed servers that google would need to run as effeciently as it does? i originally thought it was a prank on apr 1st until i looked at it more and realized there was nothing funny about it.

By: ikk

ikk — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:17:31 +0000

Back in early 90′s Olivetti had 486 servers with built-in 12V battery. Battery was connected to power supply and functioned as UPS. Olivetti PSU had all normal voltages so it was bit different than this Google variant, but exactly same idea. I saved two of those Olivetti power supplied years ago because they were special, but sadly have lost them since.

By: nubie

nubie — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:20:00 +0000

Haha, if it is an april fools joke then check out the black and white picture of dozens of them in racks.

How are they going to fake that?

It is supposed to be a frame cap from a video, so if you could see the video it would be conclusive.

The hardware photos and specs are enough for me though.