5 ms·
The greenest programming language is no programming language. Maybe we don't need to build so many new apps.
by phendrenad2 3y ago
The greenest programming language is no programming language. Maybe we don't need to build so many new apps.
- bayindirh 3y agoThe user facing apps are the tip of the iceberg in computing. The really power consuming stuff is not on your phone or computer most of the time.
- flohofwoe 3y agoThat would actually be an interesting comparison (and I guess the answer isn't at all obvious): is there more computing power decentralized in billions of mobile phones, computers and game consoles (even washing machines), or centralized in thousands of data centers?
- bayindirh 3y agoAccording to Wikipedia, Google's datacenters use a total of 500MW globally (which is very efficient to be honest). On the other hand, a standard Top10 supercomputer uses around 5MW (a ballpark figure), Assuming that Amazon also uses that amount of power, We're looking at 1250MW of power used by top computing centers around the world. This number is probably higher as we add cloudflare, OVH, and other countless data centers. Bitcoin is not added because, well, we're talking computing. I think ~5W is a good approximation for mean power draw of smartphones. I don't know the duty cycle approximation, so I'll assume that number is 2.5W with 50% duty cycle. This boils down to 500 million smartphones, approximately. Of you think in terms of gaming PCs and consoles, 400W is a good approximation of the fleet. Again, if we think 50% duty cycle (at 200W), we have 1.562.500 PCs. So I think, the data centers spend the same amount of power as the rest of the infrastructure, at best. Again, a bigger sample will again tilt the power towards data centers, I assume.