Saving Electricity with Low-Power Processors and Flash Memory
David Andersen, Carnegie Mellon assistant professor of computer science, away from the office.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Intel Labs Pittsburgh (ILP) have combined low-power, embedded processors typically used in netbooks with flash memory to create a server architecture that is fast, but far more energy efficient for data-intensive applications than the systems now used by major Internet services.
An experimental computing cluster based on this so-called Fast Array of Wimpy Nodes (FAWN) architecture was able to handle 10 to 100 times as many queries for the same amount of energy as a conventional, disk-based cluster. The FAWN cluster had 21 nodes, each with a low-cost, low-power off-the-shelf processor and a four-gigabyte compact flash card. At peak utilization, the cluster operates on less energy than a 100-watt light bulb.
The research team, led by David Andersen, Carnegie Mellon assistant professor of computer science, and Michael Kaminsky, senior research scientist at ILP, received a best paper award for its report on FAWN at the Association for Computing Machinery’s annual Symposium on Operating Systems Principles Oct. 12 in Big Sky, Mont. (more…)
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