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Mobile computing not for servers

by on24 June 2008

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Google boffin says


Chipmakers
are wasting their time trying to apply power consumption lessons from mobile computing to servers.

Luis Barroso, a Google engineer who closely studies the company's power consumption, said that their trend is to increase efficiency by lowering power consumption. The idea came from mobile computing where power was at a premium. However, Barroso said that the two styles of computing are too different. A datacenter is a different device than the key targets for mobile electronics, laptops and mobile devices.

Barroso said that mobile devices have been improving through better exploitation of the fact that they spend a lot of time dormant, with occasional bursts of activity. But the opposite applies to the activity of Google's servers.  While they spend most of their time doing modest amounts of work, with frenzied moments of peak activity and complete lulls a rarity, Barroso said.

He has urged electronics designers to create products that more gracefully reduce power demands as activity diminishes.

Last modified on 25 June 2008
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