GCPI Blog

Welcome to what I hope to be an interesting and relevant ongoing discussion of how to provide objective energy efficiency information to guide HPC investment decisions. Energy efficiency has certainly risen to the forefront as a key issue – both from a global perspective: data centers in the US consume the equivalent of the output of five large nuclear power stations; and from a local perspective: a large number of the data center people I speak to are running out of power in their facilities or are being asked to foot the substantial bill for their electricity consumption.

There are no real tools available to bring power efficiency into the purchasing process. The nearest thing we have is Wu Chun Feng’s well-known Green500 list, a great ranking of the fastest computers. This list is interesting, and raises the visibility of the issue. However, most large computer systems in the world won't appear on the Top500 list. How can we compare the types of systems that we see in labs, workshops, and machine rooms every day? I believe we need an objective tool to guide the rest of us in our purchase decisions, burning through the “marketing fog” that rolls in from computer vendors. Yes, SiCortex is a computer vendor too…