When It’s Too Cold Inside, Switch on the Server for a Blast of Heat

家裡太冷？開伺服器取暖！

By Randall Stross

To satisfy our ever-growing need for computing power, many technology companies have moved their work to data centers with tens of thousands of power-gobbling servers that produce enormous heat. The additional power needed for cooling them – up to half of the power used to run them – is the steep environmental price we have paid to move data to the so-called cloud.
許多科技公司為滿足對運算能力不斷成長的需求，把工作移往備有數萬台伺服器的數據中心，這些伺服器耗電多且產生極大量的熱。為伺服器散熱所需的額外電力，最高可達伺服器運轉電量的一半，這正是我們把資料數據移往所謂雲端，在環境上付出的高昂代價。

Researchers, however, have come up with an intriguing option for that wasted heat: putting it to good use in people’s homes.
不過研究人員已想出有趣的辦法，解決這種熱能浪費：把它拿到人們家裡善加利用。

Two researchers at the University of Virginia and four at Microsoft Research explored this possibility in a paper presented this year at the Usenix Workshop on Hot Topics in Cloud Computing. The paper looks at how the servers – operated by their companies – could be placed inside homes and used as a source of heat. The authors call the concept the “data furnace.”
去年高級計算機系統協會針對雲端運算熱門話題舉行研討會，維吉尼亞大學的兩名研究員及微軟研究院的四名研究員發表了一篇論文，討論上述辦法的可能性。文章中探討了微軟伺服器如何放在一般家庭中當作熱源，作者稱此概念為「數據暖爐」。

If a home has a broadband Internet connection, it can serve as a micro data center. Cabinets filled with servers could be installed where the furnace sits and connected with the existing circulation fan and ductwork.
如果這戶人家可聯上寬頻，就可當作微型數據中心。擺滿伺服器的櫥櫃可放在暖爐的位置，且連上既有的循環扇及通風管。

Each cabinet could have slots for, say, 40 motherboards – each one counting as a server. In the coldest climate, about 110 motherboards could keep a home as warm as a conventional furnace does.
每個櫥櫃約可置放40個主機板，每個主機板可當作一個伺服器。在最冷的天氣，大約110個主機板就能讓一個家庭像有一台傳統暖爐那麼暖。

The rest of the year, the heat would be vented outside, as harmless as a clothes dryer’s.
天氣暖和時，這種熱可排到室外，就跟乾衣機一樣，無害於環境。

According to the researchers’ calculations, a conventional data center must invest about $400 a year to run each server, or about $16,000 for a cabinet filled with 40 of them. Having homes host the machines could reduce the need for a company to build new data centers. The company’s cost to operate the same cabinet in a home would be less than $3,600 a year – and leave a smaller carbon footprint, too. The company’s data center could thus cover the homeowner’s electricity costs for the servers and still come out way ahead financially.
前述研究人員估算，傳統數據中心一年約須投資400美元，才能讓一台伺服器運轉，如果要讓擺滿一櫃子的40台伺服器運轉，一年約需1萬6000美元。如果把這些伺服器移到民宅裡，公司就不必建那麼多新數據中心。讓40台伺服器在家庭中運轉的成本，一年不到3600美元，留下的碳足跡也小些。這麼一來，這家公司的數據中心可以幫忙支付這家人用伺服器的電費，還綽綽有餘。

A data furnace would be best suited for computing tasks that aren’t time-sensitive and can be broken into chunks performed by thousands of machines – say, for scientific research.
數據電爐最適合執行不趕時間，而且可拆成許多小部分，由數以千計的伺服器來共同完成的計算任務，例如，科學研究。

I.B.M. Research-Zurich is designing water-cooled servers whose waste heat can be carried in pipes to nearby buildings. Next year, it plans to demonstrate the technology with SuperMUC, a supercomputer under construction in Munich that will be more powerful than 110,000 PCs.
設在瑞士蘇黎世的美國IBM研究所正在設計水冷式伺服器，它排出的熱氣可由管路輸送到附近的建物中。IBM計畫明年用超級電腦SuperMUC展示這項技術，SuperMUC刻在慕尼黑建構中，功能超過11萬台個人電腦。

Many cities in Europe already have insulated pipes in place for centralized “district heating.” Heat generated by data centers is beginning to be distributed to neighboring homes and commercial buildings – in Helsinki, for example.
歐洲許多城市已有集中式的「地區暖氣」隔熱管路。數據中心產生的熱現在開始分送到這種城市的一般家庭及商業建築，赫爾辛基即為一例。

But for the rest of us, without such pipes nearby, the computing would need to be done under our own roof to put the heat to good use.
然而對附近並無類似管路的我們來說，就得先把電腦打開，才能在自家善用電腦的熱能。

If tech companies with data centers like the economics of home-based data furnaces, they could offer heating for homeowners at an irresistible price: free.
如果擁有數據中心的公司喜歡這套家用數據暖爐經濟學，他們可用令人無法抗拒的價格提供暖氣：完全免費。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/business/data-furnaces-could-bring-heat-to-homes.html

2012-02-28聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 馮克芸譯原文參見紐時週報七版下