Google builds 'secret weapon' supercomputer

by **dugoboy** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:41 am

(the power of the internet, it won't go down without a fight) <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/technology/14search.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1150257600&en=4b91d1f7096cf107&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin" target="top">Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks an Expansion of Power</a> <img src="http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/06/14/business/search.600.jpg" style="border:0;"/> THE DALLES, Ore., June 8 — On the banks of the windswept Columbia River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky. ... And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border — at the intersection of cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking — is the backdrop for a multibillion-dollar face-off among Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that will determine dominance in the online world in the years ahead. Even before the Oregon center comes online, Google has lashed together a global network of computers — known in the industry as the Googleplex — that is a singular achievement. "Google has constructed the biggest computer in the world, and it's a hidden asset," said Danny Hillis, a supercomputing pioneer and a founder of Applied Minds, a technology consulting firm, referring to the Googleplex. The design and even the nature of the Google center in this industrial and agricultural outpost 80 miles east of Portland has been a closely guarded corporate secret. "Companies are historically sensitive about where their operational infrastructure is," acknowledged Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president for operations. ... The complex will tap into the region's large surplus of fiber optic networking, a legacy of the dot-com boom. ... Google is known to the world as a search engine, but in many ways it is foremost an effort to build a network of supercomputers, using the latest academic research, that can process more data — faster and cheaper — than its rivals. "Google wants to raise the barriers to entry by competitors by making the baseline service very expensive," said Brian Reid, a former Google executive who is now director of engineering at the Internet Systems Consortium in Redwood City, Calif. The rate at which the Google computing system has grown is as remarkable as its size. In March 2001, when the company was serving about 70 million Web pages daily, it had 8,000 computers, according to a Microsoft researcher granted anonymity to talk about a detailed tour he was given at one of Google's Silicon Valley computing centers. By 2003 the number had grown to 100,000. Today even the closest Google watchers have lost precise count of how big the system is. The best guess is that Google now has more than 450,000 servers spread over at least 25 locations around the world. The company has major operations in Ireland, and a big computing center has recently been completed in Atlanta. Connecting these centers is a high-capacity fiber optic network that the company has assembled over the last few years. ------------------------------------------------------------ this supercomputer is located in The Dalles, oregon. its an interesting place...notable events such as: - The Dalles is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle ("flag stone"), what the French-Canadian employees of the Hudson's Bay Company called the now-inundated Long Narrows of the Columbia River above the present-day city. - The Dalles was the end of the land route of the Oregon Trail. - Construction of The Dalles Dam in 1957 submerged the Long Narrows and Celilo Falls. - In 1984, The Dalles was the scene of a bioterrorist incident launched by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osho-Rajneesh_movement" target="top">Rajneeshee Cult</a>. It was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioterrorism#Modern_Bioterrorist_incidents" target="top">first known bioterrorism attack</a> of the 20th century in the United States. ___________________________________________ "BUSHCO aren't incompetent...they are COMPLICIT." -Me "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act" -George OrwellEdited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=dugoboy@rigorousintuition>dugoboy</A> at: 6/14/06 11:05 am

by **Et in Arcadia ego** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:46 am

Cheer em on, I say. Whether they become a problem in the future or not, Google is one of the only current defenses in the war for Net Neutrality..

by **nomo** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 1:24 pm

Google wants to raise the barriers to entry by competitors by making the baseline service very expensive And this is in defense of the Internet as we know it, how? I'm afraid Google is no longer the cutesy homegrown startup as it once was perceived. It's quickly becoming the foremost player on the net, to the point that if you're not listed on Google, you don't exist. Explain to me how this is a good thing.

by **Et in Arcadia ego** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 1:59 pm

Maybe Google wants to be the AntiChrist, who knows? My point is, let them use their money in the Net Neutrality fight. We'll obviously have to deal with them later, but that's another bridge to cross. Can you imagine what it will be like if it costs Jeff $800 a month to 'rent' his space for RI or costs you $15 per visit to the forum or to read each blog post?

by **Gouda** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 2:07 pm

<img src="http://www.scroogle.org/gifs/jesus5.gif" style="border:0;"/>

Google builds 'secret weapon' supercomputer

Google builds 'secret weapon' supercomputer

Re: Google builds 'secret weapon' supercomputer

Google "defending" the Internet??

Re: Google "defending" the Internet??

Re: Google "defending" the Internet??

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