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Re: WSJ: Big tech firms seeking power


From: "Alexei Roudnev" <alex () relcom net>
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 01:01:16 -0700


Seen few data centers:
- biggerst cages are about 500 servers, may be you can pack 1,000 servers;
- ok, how many cagses in the medium size building? I''d say, 100 - 200 (may
be less).

So, 1 building can handle 50,000 - 100,000 servers. A very big building, I
guess, can handle 450,000. But what for?
You can put it al together, but how you deliver input data and ship output
data from 450,000 servers?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Loftis" <mloftis () wgops com>
To: "Alex Rubenstein" <alex () nac net>; <nanog () merit edu>
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 3:32 PM
Subject: Re: WSJ: Big tech firms seeking power





--On June 16, 2006 5:24:27 PM -0400 Alex Rubenstein <alex () nac net> wrote:


But wait, there is more. Just a point of comparison -- Oyster Creek
Nuclear Power generation plant, located here on the Jersey Shore,
produces 636 megawatts. You'd take one-tenth of that capacity -- in a
bulding that would sit on a 10 or 20 acre chunk of land. I put this into
the 'unlikely' category. The substation alone to handle stepping 68
mwatts from transmission to 480v would be probably 4 acres. And, 68
megawatts of power at 480 volts 81,888 amps. A typicall 200,000 sq-ft
multi-tenant office building has 1600 amps of service; this would be the
equivalent of 50 buildings.

Having fun yet?

I happen to know that a very large power line project was just finished in
that area :)  (I have family that works for the company that did the job).
It's a huge amount of power that's for sure.  I'm not sure what the exact
route was, nor the endpoint right now, but when I did ask him at the time
it didn't make sense....Now it might.  I'll talk to him again.





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