[NCLUG] Re: "Green" power

[John L. Bass]

For those not aware of global power requirements for distributed 
computing using older CPU techologies compared to new techologies, here 
is a short primer. See 
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats

Notice CPU based solutions in this chart (Windows, Mac's, Linux) 
represent (208+7+23+60)/3273*100 = 9.1% of the TFLOPS for the project, 
but represent (218169+8563+7332+35036)/324579*100 = 82.9% of the systems 
producing the work. Using a rough average, those 
(218169+8563+7332+35036) = 269,100 machines are burning about 54 MW of 
power. That's about 180.6 KW per TFLOP.

In comparison other 91.9% of the work is done by 16.1% of the systems 
that are Cell or GPU based, which renders the contribution by CPU based 
systems relatively insignificant.

If all the computation was done on newer 65nm cell processors in the 
latest PS3's, the entire project would only require about 2.8MW of 
power. Thus using CPU based folding at home clients wastes about 50MW of 
power, assuming that most of those machines are desktops that can be 
turned off, or allowed to drop into low power standby when not used.

Retiring older non-green computers and servers, is a good idea ... but 
do so in a way that keeps the lead out of the land fill.

Now ... how does that extra 50MW of production affect people?

See the following:

    http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html says:

    "Americans living near coal-fired power plants are exposed to higher
    radiation doses than those living near nuclear power plants that
    meet government regulations"

    "Coal is one of the most impure of fuels. Its impurities range from
    trace quantities of many metals, including uranium and thorium, to
    much larger quantities of aluminum and iron to still larger
    quantities of impurities such as sulfur. Products of coal combustion
    include the oxides of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur; carcinogenic and
    mutagenic substances; and recoverable minerals of commercial value,
    including nuclear fuels naturally occurring in coal."

    "The population effective dose equivalent from coal plants is 100
    times that from nuclear plants"


    
http://www.hometownhazards.com/2007/08/cancer-cluster-confirmed-near-coal.html

    
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042002128.html

Whales don't kill very many people, coal power plants do ....

John