Quebec Data Center Built In a Silo 113
1sockchuck writes "A supercomputing center in Quebec has transformed a huge concrete silo into the CLUMEQ Colossus, a data center filled with HPC clusters. The silo, which is 65 feet high with two-foot thick concrete walls, previously housed a Van de Graaf accelerator dating to the 1960s. It was redesigned to house three floors of server cabinets, arranged so cold air can flow from the outside of the facility through the racks and return via an interior 'hot core.' The construction and operation of the unique facility (PDF) are detailed in a presentation from CLUMEQ."
Maybe not so new (Score:1, Informative)
The article is titled: "Wild New Design: Data Center in A Silo"
Kind of reminds me of a supersized Cray 1 (minus the bowl_of_spaghetti wiring in the middle.)
Re:Sun's future plans are even bigger (Score:5, Informative)
Re:And you thought your computer was a tower (Score:3, Informative)
Well the silo houses just a bit more than half(2700sq.ft) compared to the other location(it's apparently a multi-campus project, the other campus has 5000sq.ft) not sure if that's an academic requirement. As per your comment though, haven't met a computer that didn't fear comparison with an office tower....
Re:But, does it run... (Score:3, Informative)
Nonsense - real poutine [wikipedia.org] is made with french fries fried in oil with at least 100,000 km on it - you WILL have the runs after eating enough of it ...
Seriously, poutine made with fries done in new oil, cooked properly (fry them, take them out, drain, refry so the outside is crip and the inside is cooked), top with curd cheese and poutine sauce is awesome. The only thing better is Italian poutine - poutine with a thick and meaty spaghetti sauce. It does for french fries what a Michigan Hotdog [wikipedia.org] does for "tube steak."
Spice it up with pepper rings and/or crushed chillies. Eat.
Re:proofreading? what's that? (Score:1, Informative)
Give the slide author a break. He was probably one of those kids who were forbidden **by LAW** to be taught English in school before the 4th Grade.
That's bill 101 and the separatist PQ for you.
They're always trying to dumb down the Quebec sheeple so that they can't work outside of Quebec. It's also illegal for parents to send their kids to English schools unless *Both* parents are English. Then can justify closing English school due to lack of enrollment...
It's not informative, it's BS (Score:1, Informative)
There is no law that prevent a child to learn English prior to 4th grade in Quebec. English as a second language was just not part of the curriculum until 4th grade - but for a few years now kids learn French and English starting in grade 1.
And I'll just ignore the rest of your delusive rant as it doesn't even deserve a response.
Re:Could have some fun with this (Score:2, Informative)
A data center in a silo would be almost as good. Looks like a death ray generator to me. Yeah, Canadian death ray. Pew! Pew! Pew! Eh?
That's preposterous... Everyone knows that the Canadian doomsday machine is at the top of the CN Tower [imdb.com].
Re:And you thought your computer was a tower (Score:1, Informative)
It's not THAT big, although it's still very impressive:
http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&ll=46.780896,-71.277843&spn=0.00137,0.003484&z=19
Re:proofreading? what's that? (Score:3, Informative)
Give the slide author a break. He was probably one of those kids who were forbidden **by LAW** to be taught English in school before the 4th Grade.
That's bill 101 and the separatist PQ for you.
Please mod the above down, the first part is entirely false, the rest is simply xenophobic or whatever you wanna call it.
Yes, there is a law that incites non-english immigrant people to choose a french primary school since Quebec primary language is french.
Nobody prevents anyone to learn english, and there are of course english courses in primary school.
Re:Should have left the missile (Score:1, Informative)
I don't see what's different from a decade ago. People that sells something, like the tourism industry and restaurants, always have been used to receive people that speak English only. We in Quebec are like everybody else, we want money from the tourists. The fact that you said "Bonjour" is of course seen as a big plus since it will be seen as a sign of respect.
However, Quebecers themselves expect to be served in French when they enter a restaurant, and they can be insulted if they don't, even if they speak good English. I don't think it's different from 10 years ago either.