[Beowulf] Interesting google server design

Gus Correa gus at ldeo.columbia.edu
Thu Apr 2 11:23:41 PDT 2009


Bill Broadley wrote:
> Andrew Piskorski wrote:
>> On Wed, Apr 01, 2009 at 04:56:53PM -0700, Bill Broadley wrote:
>>> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html
>> According to that articel, the pictured dual socket server has two
>> hard drives, but from the second photo, although the view is obscured
>> by the UPS battery, it looks like four drives to me, stacked two high.
>> Or if it's really only two drives, what are they sitting on top of?
> 
> I don't see how 4 drives would fit.  I believe the drives are on a L bracket,
> which is about half as wide as the drives.  Note in the enlarged photo you can
> see the motherboard between the drives, looks like they left the IDE traces on
> the motherboard, but without IDE connectors.  Similarly missing are most usb
> ports, IDE connectors, audio in/out, etc.
> 

The SATA disks on the picture are Hitachi Deskstar.
I can't read how large.

Our old cluster had the old IBM Deskstar IC35L020,
which failed more often than other disk brands:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitachi_Deskstar

Did the MTBF get better with Hitachi?

Gus Correa

> Looks like the only thing gigabyte added was the ability to accept 12V from
> the power supply.  Definitely a nice layout for front -> back airflow.  No
> perpendicular dimms or heatsinks.
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