Building & Design

Energy efficient computing isn’t just about the equipment you buy, it’s also about how a computing system is set up and what it does.

A new three-year project at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) aims to test the energy efficiency of a computing system under real-world conditions using a new instrument.

The GreenLight instrument will use sensors in a controlled data centre environment to collect information about humidity levels in the room and the energy consumption of the computing equipment.

The project, which is receiving $2 million from the National Science Foundation and $600,000 funds the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and the university’s Administrative Computing and Telecommunications (ACT) group, will compare the energy consumed during different operations.

The researchers hope that the data will be useful in finding ways to minimise the power needed to run computers, to find novel cooling sources and develop software that optimises the power use strategies for different computing processes.

“[Project GreenLight] will produce energy consumption data to help make informed choices about energy-efficient IT infrastructure,” says UCSD chancellor Marye Anne Fox.

With rising energy costs, the power consumption of IT infrastructure is a major issue for businesses and research organisations. But for every dollar spent on power, another is required for cooling, according to UCSD. Over three years, this is equivalent to double the cost of the hardware itself.

“If we are going to continue to allow ourselves the benefits of advances in computing, we need to understand power and cooling requirements much better,” says Thomas A. DeFanti, principal investigator of the GreenLight project.

“We expect that this new approach will re-define the fundamentals of computer systems engineering and accelerate adoption of a transformative concept for the computer industry – green cyberinfrastructure,” adds Larry Smarr, co-principal investigator on GreenLight.

The IT industry is developing strategies for major corporate data centres, but many organisations, including universities, have a complex network of existing ad hoc computing facilities.

This research could benefit those organisations by providing comparative data and tools for improving the energy efficiency of such computing systems.

For further information:
www.ucsd.edu/portal/site/ucsd