OrCNet - IEEE Consultants Meeting Notice
Thursday, 23 April 2009
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Server Sky Computation and data centers in orbit Keith Lofstrom, KLIC |
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Large data centers are growing, and soon some will consume 50MW or more of electrical energy. The EPA estimated US data center power consumption in 2006 at 60 billion kilowatt hours, or 1.5% of total US power consumption, and predicts a doubling by 2011. Our efforts as programmers and technologists will continue this exponential growth. This will have huge environmental, social, and economic consequences unless we find alternative ways to power our digital economy.
Server sky is a proposal to use the underutilized capabilities of Oregon companies such as Solar World, Intel, and Triquint to build large dispersed arrays of ultralight solar powered server satellites and launch them into 6000km earth orbit, between the inner and outer Van Allen belts.
A 30 gram server-sat consists of a thinned 12 inch solar cell, with an efficient 2GIPs processor, terabit solid state disk, and microwave transmitter bonded to the edges. Thousands of server-sats position themselves into dozens of dispersed three dimensional arrays (hundreds of meters on a side) using light pressure for thrust and liquid-crystal shutters for trimtab steering. A server-sat array acts as a large phased array antenna, permitting it to steer thousands of communication beams at receiving stations and communities under its position in orbit, handing off communication and control to the server-sat arrays that follow it in orbit.
If each server-sat displaces 100 watts of ground-based electrical generation, cooling, and power conversion, it will pay for itself in electrical savings alone in just a few years. A server-sat will cost more to manufacture than a white-box PC, but it will not need the cases, racks, cabling, power converters, land, buildings, power lines, and other infrastructure needed to build a ground-based server farm. Total resource usage is reduced, and in high volume production the total manufacturing cost may become less than traditional approaches. A server-sat array provides its own communication infrastructure and can reach most of the inhabited globe.
Since server-sat arrays operate outside the biosphere, the environmental impact of power generation and heat disposal is close to zero. Server-sat arrays can grow to practically unlimited size – space is big, and filled with unused solar energy. In time, new launch techniques, and solar cells made from lunar rock, can greatly reduce the environmental and economic costs of manufacturing and launch. There is room for 30 trillion server-sats within a 100 millisecond ping time distance from earth.
Earth can return to what it is good at – green and growing things – while pace can be filled with gray and computing things.
Speaker: Keith Lofstrom
Keith is a 55 year old mixed-signal integrated circuit designer in Beaverton, Oregon. Keith is CEO of SiidTech, which licenses silicon identification technology to semiconductor manufacturers. Keith is also an integrated circuit design consultant. Keith designed crossbar routing chips for Icube Design Systems, which were used by Cisco and others to route much of the internet in the mid 1990s. Keith helped write the IEEE 1149.4 mixed signal scan test standard, and received an award for a related presentation at the International Test Conference.
Keith is webmaster for Orcnet, the Oregon IEEE Consultant's Network. Keith is active in open source and the Portland Linux Unix Group. Keith's server hosts the dirvish disk-to-disk backup program, based on rsync and written in Perl. Keith has a special interest in low power, high efficiency computing.
Keith invented the Launch Loop, a space launch system, in 1982. This speculative space launch system can be built with existing technologies and launch thousands of tons into orbit per day at costs below $1/kg. Not that there is a market for that ... yet. Launch Loop is attracting renewed attention from a new generation of space enthusiasts.
Keith has written for Kluwer Press, various IEEE journals, SysAdmin magazine, Liberty magazine, aerospace journals, and Analog .
Where:
The OrCNet meets at the Beaverton International House of Pancakes (IHOP), located at the intersection of SW 158th & Walker Rd, next to McDonald's and across Walker Rd. from Fred Meyers.
IHOP, 15935 SW Regatta Lane, 503-614-8485.
The IHOP's seating capacity is approximately 35 folks, so come early! Just ask for the Oregon IEEE Consultants' Network meeting, or the OrCNet meeting.
When:
Thursday, April 23, 2009 6:00 PM - (or thereabouts) Eat (optional) and chat.
7:00 PM - Short Meeting
1. Officer Reports & Announcements (brief reports only) 2. Old Business
7:15 PM - Presentation
8:45 PM (Approx) - Adjourn
