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That will teach me to just skim the article (and to instead Ctrl-F Google :) Apparently Microsoft did do some significant innovation compared to Google's 2009

by pedrocr 11y ago

That will teach me to just skim the article (and to instead Ctrl-F Google :) Apparently Microsoft did do some significant innovation compared to Google's 2009 design at least: "The innovation that Microsoft did on this idea was to hack into the switched mode power supply used in its Open Cloud Server machines and put the battery right into the existing circuits. So the battery is not hanging off to one side, as they did in the Google servers from 2009, but is embedded in the power supply without any extra circuit costs. And importantly, the batteries are not in the power path between the electrical source and the server motherboards and components. Rather, they extend the life of the bulk capacitors in the power supply in the event of a power failure in the main feeds."

ajford 11y ago
I Ctrl-F'd. I remember reading the Google article back in 2009. Wondered if they were going to mention it in this MS centric article, and was glad to see they did.
MertsA 11y ago
That's basically how the existing OCP server designs that Facebook contributed worked. The difference would seem to be that the previous OCP design put the battery pack together for adjacent racks at 48V instead of just one battery on each individual server.
cnvogel 11y ago
I think this article is written on purpose to make a small improvement on googles approach from 5 years ago look more impressive than it is. Here's an image of a "google server" from 2009: http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2009/04/leadacid_batteries_and_how_cheap_beat_cool_at_google.html http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2009/04/leadacid_bat... The innovation that google made was to first run the mainboards with +12V only, generating all other rails on the mainboard from this supply (that's why only yellow wires are going from the PSU to the mainboard, as can be seen on the back end). The 12V lead acid battery in the front is connected with the black and red wire to the power-supply (you can see the red and black wire also, on the far end of the picture). So the charger was already integrated into the PSU circuit back then, I'd say. From a topological standpoint, I'd claim that this is pretty much the same thing as the microsoft-datacenter approach -- with the exception of running the powersupply with AC (except DC, as the current article seems to imply). Of course battery technology has improved in the meantime, and using LiIon would be just the smart thing to do now.

by pedrocr 11y ago

ajford 11y ago

I Ctrl-F'd. I remember reading the Google article back in 2009. Wondered if they were going to mention it in this MS centric article, and was glad to see they did.

MertsA 11y ago

That's basically how the existing OCP server designs that Facebook contributed worked. The difference would seem to be that the previous OCP design put the battery pack together for adjacent racks at 48V instead of just one battery on each individual server.

cnvogel 11y ago

I think this article is written on purpose to make a small improvement on googles approach from 5 years ago look more impressive than it is. Here's an image of a "google server" from 2009: http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2009/04/leadacid_batteries_and_how_cheap_beat_cool_at_google.html http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2009/04/leadacid_bat... The innovation that google made was to first run the mainboards with +12V only, generating all other rails on the mainboard from this supply (that's why only yellow wires are going from the PSU to the mainboard, as can be seen on the back end). The 12V lead acid battery in the front is connected with the black and red wire to the power-supply (you can see the red and black wire also, on the far end of the picture). So the charger was already integrated into the PSU circuit back then, I'd say. From a topological standpoint, I'd claim that this is pretty much the same thing as the microsoft-datacenter approach -- with the exception of running the powersupply with AC (except DC, as the current article seems to imply). Of course battery technology has improved in the meantime, and using LiIon would be just the smart thing to do now.