Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090251860 | POWER-EFFICENT DATA CENTER - An illustrative power-efficient data center is described for operating in an uncontrolled environment in one scenario. The data center includes an air moving system that applies unconditioned air to its resource items. The resource items are stripped down to provide a substantially minimum set of components for performing the data center's core functions. Various illustrative techniques for managing a power-efficient data center are also described. | 10-08-2009 |
20090254763 | MANAGEMENT OF POWER-EFFICIENT DATA CENTER - An illustrative power-efficient data center is described for operating in an uncontrolled environment in one scenario. The data center includes an air moving system that applies unconditioned air to resource items. The resource items are stripped down to provide a substantially minimum set of components for performing the data center'core functions. Various illustrative techniques for managing a power-efficient data center are also described. | 10-08-2009 |
20100141039 | HIGH AVAILABILITY, HIGH EFFICIENCY DATA CENTER ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION - Unlike symmetric power feeds for dual-corded server environments, an asymmetrical power system for high availability environments uses an imbalanced power feed system, allowing lower cost implementation and, in some cases, reduced energy loss in the primary power supply path. One asymmetric power feed uses a direct power feed to supply normal operating power and uses a second system to supply back up power via a switched, conditioned, path with UPS and generator. Because the main power delivery is through the direct line, reliability and power loss are improved. | 06-10-2010 |
20100188810 | SELF-CONTAINED AND MODULAR AIR-COOLED CONTAINERIZED SERVER COOLING - A modular server cooling unit user standard dimension modules to build a variety of components for use in cooling a server or server farm. One module may be the module in which the server(s) are mounted. Another module may be an exhaust plenum, drawing air through the server module and exhausting the air to the outside. A third module may be a cooling module through which outside air is drawn, filtered and optionally cooled, for example, using an adiabatic, or water-wash, cooler. Exhaust air may be selectively mixed with air from the cooling module to provide finer control of server temperature and humidity. | 07-29-2010 |
20100223085 | MODULARIZATION OF DATA CENTER FUNCTIONS - In one example, a data center may be built in modular components that may be pre-manufactured and separately deployable. Each modular component may provide functionality such as server capacity, cooling capacity, fire protection, resistance to electrical failure. Some components may be added to the data center by connecting them to the center's utility spine, and others may be added by connecting them to other components. The spine itself may be a modular component, so that spine capacity can be expanded or contracted by adding or removing spine modules. The various components may implement functions that are part of standards for various levels of reliability for data centers. Thus, the reliability level that a data center meets may be increased or decreased to fit the circumstances by adding or removing components. | 09-02-2010 |
20100333105 | PRECOMPUTATION FOR DATA CENTER LOAD BALANCING - Pre-computing a portion of forecasted workloads may enable load-balancing of data center workload, which may ultimately reduce capital and operational costs associated with data centers. Computing tasks performed by the data centers may be analyzed to identify computing tasks that are eligible for pre-computing, and may be performed prior to an actual data request from a user or entity. In some aspects, the pre-computing tasks may be performed during a low-volume workload period prior to a high-volume workload period to reduce peaks that typically occur in data center workloads that do not utilize pre-computation. Statistical modeling methods can be used to make predictions about the tasks that can be expected to maximally contribute to bottlenecks at data centers and to guide the speculative computing. | 12-30-2010 |
20110278928 | WIND-POWERED DATA CENTER - This document describes various techniques for powering a computer data center using a wind-powered generator. The computer data center may include network connected servers that are electrically connected to, and powered by, the wind-powered generator. | 11-17-2011 |
20110296155 | AUTOMATICALLY STARTING SERVERS AT LOW TEMPERATURES - This document describes various techniques for automatically starting servers at low temperatures. A server may be powered on into a heating mode responsive to determining that a temperature of the server is below an operational temperature range. The server may then be restarted when the temperature of the server has increased to a temperature that is within the operational temperature range. | 12-01-2011 |
20110296225 | Resource-Based Adaptive Server Loading - Resource-based adaptive server loading is described. In embodiments, a current load level can be determined for a resource that is utilized by an adaptive server system to process computer-executable instructions that are a dynamic computational demand on the adaptive server system. The current load level is compared with a target load level for the resource to establish a resource load level comparison. The adaptive server system can then be reconfigured, based on the resource load level comparison, to change the current load level on the resource for resource overload protection. | 12-01-2011 |
20110302432 | SUPER CAPACITOR SUPPLEMENTED SERVER POWER - Super capacitor supplemented server power is described. In embodiments, a power system manager is implemented to monitor the capability of one or more power supplies to provide power for a server system. The power system manager can determine that the capability of the power supplies to provide the power is deficient, and then engage one or more super capacitor power modules to provide supplemental power for the server system to mitigate the power deficiency. | 12-08-2011 |
20110304211 | Rack-Based Uninterruptible Power Supply - A rack power unit is configured to be inserted into a device rack of a data center. The rack power unit includes one or more power supplies and one or more battery packs. The one or more power supplies are each configured to receive power (e.g., AC power) when the apparatus is in the device rack, and convert the received power to a DC power. The one or more power supplies are further configured to output the DC power to a DC power bus of the device rack. The one or more battery packs are each configured to provide, in response to an interruption in the received power, DC power to the DC power bus of the device rack. | 12-15-2011 |
20110316338 | Hierarchical Power Smoothing - Power is provided to one or more devices in a system that includes a hierarchical power smoothing environment having multiple tiers. In response to a peak in power usage by the one or more devices, power is provided from a first power smoothing component in a first tier of the multiple tiers. Additionally, power is provided to the one or more devices from power smoothing components in each of other tiers of the multiple tiers if the power smoothing component in a next lower tier of the multiple tiers is unable to provide sufficient power for the peak in power usage. If the power smoothing components in the multiple tiers are unable to provide sufficient power for the peak in power usage, then performance of at least one of the one or more devices is reduced in response to the peak in power usage. | 12-29-2011 |
20120055012 | MODULARIZATION OF DATA CENTER FUNCTIONS - In one example, a data center may be built in modular components that may be pre-manufactured and separately deployable. Each modular component may provide functionality such as server capacity, cooling capacity, fire protection, resistance to electrical failure. Some components may be added to the data center by connecting them to the center's utility spine, and others may be added by connecting them to other components. The spine itself may be a modular component, so that spine capacity can be expanded or contracted by adding or removing spine modules. The various components may implement functions that are part of standards for various levels of reliability for data centers. Thus, the reliability level that a data center meets may be increased or decreased to fit the circumstances by adding or removing components. | 03-08-2012 |
20120065788 | MANAGING COMPUTATIONAL WORKLOADS OF COMPUTING APPARATUSES POWERED BY RENEWABLE RESOURCES - A method described herein includes an act of receiving data that is indicative of predicted weather conditions for a particular geographic region, wherein the particular geographic region has an energy generation system therein, and wherein the energy generation system utilizes at least one renewable energy resource to generate electrical power. The method also includes the act of scheduling a computational workload for at least one computer in a data center based at least in part upon the data that is indicative of the predicted weather conditions for the particular geographic region. | 03-15-2012 |
20120098343 | CHASSIS SLOTS ACCEPTING BATTERY MODULES AND OTHER MODULE TYPES - A chassis includes a component interconnect board having multiple multi-function slots coupled thereto. Each of the multi-function slots is configured to accept different types of modules, including a battery module and one or more other types of modules, such as server modules or storage modules. The component interconnect board also includes a power bus coupled to receive external power and route the external power to the multiple multi-function slots. | 04-26-2012 |
20120109705 | DATA CENTER SYSTEM THAT ACCOMMODATES EPISODIC COMPUTATION - A data center system is described which includes multiple data centers powered by multiple power sources, including any combination of renewable power sources and on-grid utility power sources. The data center system also includes a management system for managing execution of computational tasks by moving data components associated with the computational tasks within the data center system, in lieu of, or in addition to, moving power itself. The movement of data components can involve performing pre-computation or delayed computation on data components within any data center, as well as moving data components between data centers. The management system also includes a price determination module for determining prices for performing the computational tasks based on different pricing models. The data center system also includes a “stripped down” architecture to complement its use in the above-summarized data-centric environment. | 05-03-2012 |
20120140404 | CONTROLLING MINIMUM AIR INLET TEMPERATURE USING WASTE HEAT - An electronic device has a ventilation system with an inlet section that receives inlet air that travels past components of the computing device to be cooled and exits at an outlet section. The air carries heat away from the components. A liquid heat transfer system captures heat generated by the components and transfers the captured heat to the inlet section of the ventilation system to warm the inlet air before it travels past the components to be cooled. | 06-07-2012 |
20120150550 | Efficiency-of-use techniques - A method for associating an efficiency-of-use-score may include, but is not limited to: associating a physical product with a user account in response to a signal indicating that a user has control of the physical product; generating an efficiency-of-use score based on information associated with how the physical product is used during a period of time that the user has control of the physical product; and associating the efficiency-of-use score with the user account. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150551 | Efficiency of use of a shared product - Systems and methods for determining efficiency-of-use scores related to uses of a product by two or more users may implement operations including, but not limited to: associating a physical product with a first user in response to a signal indicating that the first user has control of the physical product; computing an efficiency-of-use score associated with a use of the physical product by the first user; associating the physical product with a second user in response to a signal indicating that the second user has control of the physical product; and computing an efficiency-of-use score associated with a use of the physical product by the second user. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150552 | Monitoring efficiency and ecological impact associated with a use of a product - Systems and methods for determining efficiency-of-use scores related to uses of a product by two or more users may implement operations including, but not limited to: associating a physical product with a user account associated with a user in response to a signal indicating that the user has control of the physical product; receiving data associated with use of the physical product by the user during a period of time the user has control of the physical product; computing at least one of an efficiency-of-use score and an environmental impact quantification according to the data associated with the use of the physical product by the user over a period of time the user is indicated as having control of the physical product; and publishing at least one of the efficiency-of-use score and the environmental impact quantification. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150703 | User as part of supply chain - A method for determining an ecological impact score may include, but is not limited to: determining an ecological-impact score for acquiring a product, the ecological-impact score generated from at least information that quantifies ecological impact caused by at least a portion of a supply chain used to transport the product; and sending the ecological-impact score to a computing device. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150754 | Lifecycle impact indicators - A system includes, but is not limited to, a physical product associated with a device-readable indicator, the device-readable indicator associated with a first potential-ecological-impact quantification and with a first-disposal-mode identifier describing a first mode of disposing of at least a first portion of the physical product. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150756 | Ecological impact quantification identifiers - Systems and methods for providing ecological impact quantification identifiers may implement operations including, but not limited to: computing an ecological impact quantification associated with manufacturing at least a portion of a product according to product specification data associated with the product; and means for associating a device-readable indicator corresponding to the ecological impact quantification associated with manufacturing at least a portion of a product with a product manufactured at least partially according the product specification data. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150758 | Efficiency of use of a common product - Systems and methods for determining efficiency-of-use scores related to uses of a product by two or more users may implement operations including, but not limited to: computing an efficiency-of-use score associated with a use of a first physical product of a set of products by a first user and an efficiency-of-use score associated with a use of a second physical product of the set of products by a second user; comparing the efficiency-of-use score associated with the use of the first physical product by the first user to the efficiency-of-use score associated with the use of the second physical product by the second user; and providing a notification according to the comparison of an efficiency-of-use score associated with the use of the first product by the first user to an efficiency-of-use score associated with the use of the second product by the second user. | 06-14-2012 |
20120151886 | SELF CLEANING FAN ASSEMBLY - This patent pertains to self-cleaning fan assemblies. One implementation includes electronic components positioned in an enclosure. This implementation also includes a fan assembly that is configured to impart rotational force on air to move the air from outside the enclosure to inside the enclosure and around the electronic components. The fan assembly is further configured to separate contaminants from the air based upon differences in density between the contaminants and the air. | 06-21-2012 |
20120155704 | LOCALIZED WEATHER PREDICTION THROUGH UTILIZATION OF CAMERAS - Described herein are various technologies pertaining to predicting an amount of electrical power that is to be generated by a power system at a future point in time, wherein the power system utilizes a renewable energy resource to generate electrical power. A camera is positioned to capture an image of sky over a geographic region of interest. The image is analyzed to predict an amount of solar radiation that is to be received by the power source at a future point in time. The predicted solar radiation is used to predict an amount of electrical power that will be output by the power system at the future point in time. A computational resource of a data center that is powered by way of the power source is managed as a function of the predicted amount of power. | 06-21-2012 |
20120158190 | HOME HEATING SERVER - A server computer may be located at a home or business and may be used for heating the home or business. The server computer may operate a distributed cloud based application and may generate heat in response to application load. The server computer may have an air or water based heat exchanger that may integrate into various heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to use the heat generated by the server. In some embodiments, a thermostat may regulate the application load on the server computer as controlled by a cloud based controller. | 06-21-2012 |
20120168145 | DEICING LOUVERS FOR DATACENTER APPLICATIONS - A datacenter may use heat collected from a heat exchanger at the exhaust portion of a cooling system to heat inlet louvers for an atmospheric intake. The louvers may have fluid passages through which heated fluid may pass and cause the louvers to heat up. The heated louvers may operate during periods of snow, rain, high humidity, or other conditions to eliminate condensation, snow and ice buildup, or other problems. In some embodiments, a liquid may be passed through the louvers, while in other embodiments, heated air or other gas may be passed through conductive paths in the louvers. In a heated air system, holes in the louvers may allow the heated air to enter the incoming airstream to regulate the incoming temperature to the datacenter. | 07-05-2012 |
20120185304 | Disposal mode ecological impact monitoring - Systems, methods, computer-readable storage mediums including computer-readable instructions and/or circuitry for monitoring ecological impact of disposal of a product by a user may implement operations including, but not limited to: determining a disposal mode of at least a portion of a physical product associated with a user; and associating an ecological impact quantification associated with the disposal mode with a user account associated with the user. | 07-19-2012 |
20120324245 | WIRELESS CLOUD-BASED COMPUTING FOR RURAL AND DEVELOPING AREAS - A framework that enables a local computing cloud infrastructure for rural (and third world) populations with the ability to connect into the global cloud. The framework include is a low cost architecture of long distance, wireless based, renewable energy powered, and small datacenter (DC) (referred to as a pico-DC) nodes that can fully operate off-grid, both power-wise and Internet connection-wise at a very low cost. Additionally, the framework includes power management and storage techniques that effectively enable low power and efficient power use. Thus, systems are self-sufficient, low maintenance and weather proof with no need for power or data connections. | 12-20-2012 |
20130086404 | POWER REGULATION OF POWER GRID VIA DATACENTER - One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for regulating an amount of power on a power grid using a datacenter. This allows demand to be more closely brought into alignment with supply. For example, when supply exceeds demand by a predetermined level, the datacenter may increase consumption, causing demand to increase, and when demand exceeds supply and/or comes within a predetermined threshold of supply, the datacenter may decrease consumption, causing demand to decrease. In this way, the datacenter can be utilized as a regulatory tool on the grid. It may be appreciated that given the technology used by and/or operations performed by datacenters, datacenters are uniquely situated to achieve these ends as compared to other (large) energy consumers, such as manufacturing facilities that cannot shift around and/or shut-down operations swiftly. | 04-04-2013 |
20130120941 | MODULAR EQUIPMENT RACK SYSTEM FOR DATA CENTER - Various technologies described herein pertain to racking equipment in a data center. A modular equipment rack system can include an upper track, a lower track, a vertical support, a power and network distribution unit, and a tray. The upper track and the lower track can respectively include incrementally spaced mounting locations at which the vertical support and the power and network distribution unit can be attachable. The tray can be attachable to the vertical support and the power and network distribution unit when the vertical support is attached to the upper track at a first upper mounting location and attached to the lower track at a corresponding first lower mounting location, and the power and network distribution unit is attached to the upper track at a second upper mounting location and attached to the lower track at a corresponding second lower mounting location. | 05-16-2013 |
20130138935 | AUTOMATICALLY STARTING SERVERS AT LOW TEMPERATURES - This document describes various techniques for automatically starting servers at low temperatures. A server may be powered on into a heating mode responsive to determining that a temperature of the server is below an operational temperature range. The server may then be restarted when the temperature of the server has increased to a temperature that is within the operational temperature range. | 05-30-2013 |
20130163185 | DATA CENTER DOCKING STATION AND CARTRIDGE - A data center may be built from docking stations, and from removable and replaceable IT cartridges. In one example, a docking station is built that provides cooling capability, and other support capability, for IT equipment. An IT cartridge is coupled to the docking station, thereby allowing the IT equipment in the cartridge to receive cooling and other support from the docking station, without the cartridge having any cooling infrastructure (or without having a substantial cooling infrastructure). Since IT equipment may have a shorter useful life than cooling equipment (or other non-IT equipment), when the IT equipment has reached the end of its useful life, the IT cartridge can be retired, and replaced with a new IT cartridge, thereby allowing the longer-lived equipment in the docking station to be easily reused with new IT equipment. | 06-27-2013 |
20130190936 | DATA PLANT - A RAW MATERIAL POWERED DATA GENERATOR - A “data plant” accepts power-generation-capable raw materials and outputs processed data. The processed data can be delivered to consumers more efficiently than other forms of power transfer, including power transfer through electricity, steam, physical motion, and the like. Consequently, data plants can be located where power-generation-capable raw materials can be obtained inexpensively, for free, or where power-generation-capable raw materials are waste products for which the operator of the data plants can be compensated for processing. Self-powered data plants need not even be continuously fed with power-generation-capable raw materials and, if such data plants receive and output data via wireless communications, the self-powered data plants can require no physical connection or attachment at all. For example, a single piece of silicon comprising a silicon solar cell that generates electrical power and silicon circuitry that consumes it to perform data processing can be a silicon self-powered data plant. | 07-25-2013 |
20130333405 | WATER CONDENSATE CAPTURE FROM DATACENTER POWER GENERATION - Water condensate is captured from the exhaust of a generator utilized to provide power to a data center, and the captured water is then utilized for data center purposes such as adiabatic cooling. The exhaust of electrical power generators is passed through a condenser to obtain water condensate from such exhaust. The water condensate is stored in water storage units and is utilized to provide supplemental cooling to the data center. Sporadic usage of water can enable the water storage to be refilled between uses, since water condensate can be obtained from exhaust almost continuously. The level of water is monitored and the level of processing performed by the data center is adjusted to avoid emptying such water storage units. Historical climatological data is utilized to estimate the water required. Additionally, short and long-range weather forecasts can be optionally taken into account. | 12-19-2013 |
20140036452 | MODULAR EQUIPMENT RACK SYSTEM FOR DATA CENTER - Various technologies described herein pertain to racking equipment in a data center. A modular equipment rack system can include an upper track, a lower track, a vertical support, a power and network distribution unit, and a tray. The upper track and the lower track can respectively include incrementally spaced mounting locations at which the vertical support and the power and network distribution unit can be attachable. The tray can be attachable to the vertical support and the power and network distribution unit when the vertical support is attached to the upper track at a first upper mounting location and attached to the lower track at a corresponding first lower mounting location, and the power and network distribution unit is attached to the upper track at a second upper mounting location and attached to the lower track at a corresponding second lower mounting location. | 02-06-2014 |
20140096837 | GAS SUPPLY SHOCK ABSORBER FOR DATACENTER POWER GENERATION - Gas supply pressure spikes are absorbed and leveled-out by a gas supply shock absorber comprising gas storage, which is charged during positive pressure spikes and utilized during negative pressure spikes. The gas supply shock absorber also comprises pressure sensing and regulating valves, which direct positive pressure spikes to the gas storage and draw gas from storage during negative pressure spikes. A backflow preventer limits shock absorption to co-located equipment, but gas supply shock absorbers operate in aggregate to create additional demand during positive pressure spikes and reduced demand during negative pressure spikes. If the gas storage has sufficient gas, a co-located data center utilizes such gas for increased electrical power generation during increased processing activity, which can be requested or generated. Conversely, if the gas storage has insufficient gas, and a negative pressure spike occurs, the data center throttles down or offloads processing. | 04-10-2014 |
20140365402 | DATA CENTER SYSTEM THAT ACCOMMODATES EPISODIC COMPUTATION - A data center system is described which includes multiple data centers powered by multiple power sources, including any combination of renewable power sources and on-grid utility power sources. The data center system also includes a management system for managing execution of computational tasks by moving data components associated with the computational tasks within the data center system, in lieu of, or in addition to, moving power itself. The movement of data components can involve performing pre-computation or delayed computation on data components within any data center, as well as moving data components between data centers. The management system also includes a price determination module for determining prices for performing the computational tasks based on different pricing models. The data center system also includes a “stripped down” architecture to complement its use in the above-summarized data-centric environment. | 12-11-2014 |
20140372772 | ON-CHIP INTEGRATED PROCESSING AND POWER GENERATION - A self-powered processing device comprises both a processing device and a power generator that are physically, electrically, and thermally coupled to one another. The power generator can be a fuel cell that can be manufactured from materials that can also support processing circuitry, such as silicon-based materials. A thermal coupling between the power generator and the processing device can include a thermoelectric either generating electrical power from the temperature differential or consuming electrical power to generate a temperature differential. A computing device with self-powered processing devices also includes energy storage devices to store excess energy produced by the self-powered processing device and provide it back during times of need. The self-powered processing device comprises either a wireless or wired network connection, the latter being connectable to a slot on a backplane that can aggregate multiple self-powered processing devices and provide fuel delivery paths for them. | 12-18-2014 |