
This is what a Google server looks like (2009) - Scott_MacGregor
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html
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ghjklkjh
"Google has patents on the built-in battery design,"

In 1992 we built PCs for a low noise astronomy camera with the PSU replaced by
a 12V car battery to avoid the noise of a switchmode PSU

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pavs
I think the google patent is on their implementation of the battery design not
_All_ implementation of built-in battery design.

~~~
borism
I don't think Google has it's own battery design.

~~~
jemfinch
Why are either of you hypothesizing about publicly available data? Read the
patent application yourself: [http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Se...](http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220080030078%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20080030078&RS=DN/20080030078)
.

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zwetan
this video

Google container data center tour <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRwPSFpLX8I>

provide even more details on the cooling system etc.

and yep that's NOT an april fool

~~~
listic
I have read this article when it first appeared on Hacker News:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=542531> and I was in doubt whether to
believe it or write it all off as April's Fool joke. The design looks
interesting and reasonable, but... who releases serious information on April,1
really?! If they were actually serious, I was sure they would release this a
day later or earlier.

Now, quite some time later, I read this again and I am not convinced by the
article. The comments also do not offer evidence that this is not a joke. Nor
the video that you posted, until the second part. In the first part all it
shows are some containers and industrial machinery; nothing indicates that
there are really servers in those containers or all of this stuff is actually
Google's. Now after the second part I believe that it all was for real, after
all.

I wonder if Google is playing with us on purpose, releasing the information on
April,1. Or Maybe they just don't care a single bit about such things?

~~~
acon
Well, gmail was announced on April, 1, with an unheard of 1 Gig of storage, so
I think Google likes to do this sort of thing on purpose.

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ck2
Fascinating! That's an off-the-shelf SLA (sealed lead acid) battery like many
UPS/alarm systems use, which need replacement at least every 3 years (or much
sooner if they are deeply discharged).

But I would happily pay $2, even $5 more for that feature on a motherboard.

~~~
borism
it seems to be connected directly to PSU?

~~~
slug
From the article, the motherboard only requires one 12V input only, instead of
the usual array of voltages (+-5, +-12, +3.3, etc). Having charging circuitry
to keep the battery operational (trickle charge) and being able to provide
power to the motherboard when mains power fails is mostly straightforward and
cheaper in this case. Not much different from what you would find on a regular
UPS, but removes a few conversion steps - (DC 12V) ->(110/220V AC)-> DC -
improving efficiency and reliability.

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1SockChuck
Yep. This is old news. But more recently other companies have also decided to
implement on-board batteries on their custom servers, most notably Facebook:

[http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/11/27/shoul...](http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/11/27/should-
servers-come-with-batteries/)

And yes, this story was real, despite the April 1 date. I attended the event,
and saw the server. It definitely seemed odd to schedule a technology
unveiling on April 1, but Google apparently launched Gmail on April 1 as well.

~~~
joezydeco
That's getting kind of sad if we have to flat-out stop using the internet on
4/1 from now on because we can't believe a single page that loads.

~~~
ahi
I avoid the net on 4/1. It's like every site is taken over by the "Looks like
someone's got a case of the Mondays" lady.

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hzon
So given the amount of research that Google pump into getting the best
components for the job, are we to take it that all their testing has concluded
Hitachi hard disks are better than the alternatives?

<http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.html>

~~~
Ras_
"Hitachi manufacturers the safest and most reliable hard drives, according to
the Storelab study. Of the more than 200 Hitachi hard drives received, not a
single one had failed due to manufacturing or design errors."

Study: A Look At Hard Drive Reliability In Russia (August 13, 2010)
[http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hdd-reliability-
storelab...](http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hdd-reliability-
storelab,2681.html)

// WD and especially Seagate (Barracuda 7200.11 had major firmware problems)
failed miserably. 500Gb or bigger drives were the worst for all manufacturers.
Samsung was almost as good as Hitachi.

"Storelab notes that read/write head failure is somewhat characteristic for WD
drives. Failures primarily occur as a result of physical impact or overheating
(WD heads can be sensitive at temperatures above 45°C). Western Digital's
construction makes drives particularly vulnerable to shocks and pressure.
Unlike other manufacturers, WD does not secure the hard drive axle with a
separate screw to the drive cover. "

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acgourley
"Google has patents on the built-in battery design, "but I think we'd be
willing to license them to vendors," Hoelzle said."

Can you patent a device you use as part of your business but don't sell? I
don't think you could get away with calling it a business practice, and I
don't think you could get away with protecting a patent on a device you never
try to market.

~~~
dctoedt
> Can you patent a device you use as part of your business but don't sell?

Yes; I can't think of any familiar examples offhand, but it happens a lot. As
a baby lawyer I wrote a patent application for an automatic pizza-making
machine, invented by the owner of a mom-and-pop restaurant, who IIRC never
marketed the machine.

> I don't think you could get away with protecting a patent on a device you
> never try to market.

In the U.S. (and most other industrialized countries AFAIK), the patent laws
don't require a patent owner to market, or even try to market, a patented
invention. If the patent owner was just trying to keep others out so that _no
one_ was using the invention, a court would probably take that into account in
determining (i) whether to grant a injunction against further infringement by
the defendant and (ii) what a reasonable royalty would be for the defendant's
infringement. But that wouldn't affect the validity of the patent itself.

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sajid
A patent, really? My laptop has a battery too.

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chopsueyar
Does anyone know how the Gigabyte mobo outputs 5 volts? Is that a custom
hardware module or part of the mobo?

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jacquesm
That's from 2009, I'm sure they've since switched to different motherboards /
cpus.

~~~
InclinedPlane
I'm sure most of their operations are still running on this hardware.

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quattrofan
Old news

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mjterave
Old article.

~~~
igravious
Well you could have linked to the original discussion :)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=542531>

I think the link may have changed which is why it got past HackerNews's dupe
mechanism.

~~~
kgermino
I believe that the dupe detector only compares against stories in memory, so
old links that haven't been loaded in a while will not be caught.

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prody
Is there an actual reason why you guys don't think it's an April fools prank?
I'm reading thru the comments but couldn't find one :-z

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borneogamer
This April Fool's prank is soooooo old..

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wmf
Talk about not hacker news; this article is from 2009 and the server is from
2005.

~~~
jrockway
Yeah, totally irrelevant. Today's servers are powered by pixie dust and
rainbows instead of batteries and circuit boards. I learned nothing from this
article!

~~~
wmf
I learned from this article _the first time it was posted_ ; I have learned
nothing further from the following N reposts. If we allow "new to you"
articles on the front page it will be filled with old stuff.

~~~
knome
A certain amount of churn is required to continually inform new users. Yes,
too much causes the older users to leave from boredom. To little, however, and
the newer users cannot gain an appropriate grasp of the common knowledge
expected, so references and assumed points will pass them by in conversation.

The other option is the one humans generally end up with. Knowledge barriers
between generations. There would need to be different versions of the site
every year or two so that new users could go through their learning period
uninterrupted, and older users could be secluded to their advanced topics.
This makes it harder for older users to educate newer users, and leads to
rehashing of debates once closed. The older users will peter out over time,
while the newer will waste time spinning wheels they could easily have been
advised were explored and pointless.

Complaints are only needed if there is an excess of redundant articles. The
occasional rediscussion simply keeps ideas alive and flowing.

