DC power wise, the original reason why they did this is that it's grossly inefficient to have a 42RU worth of 1U servers, each with its own individual 110-240VAC to 12/5VDC power supply in it.
Or the equivalent of that with four-servers-in-2RU type setups, but also with AC to DC power supplies.
They centralized the AC to DC conversion in a single unit in the rack, feeding either 277VAC or 480VAC to each rack, and ran 12VDC to each server. The new system wisely moves from 12VDC to 48VDC (same as most telecom equipment), and probably has basic DC-DC converters in each server unit for 48 to 12VDC conversion.
They've also gone with custom motherboards that entirely eliminate the 5VDC rails which are distributed by 'normal' ATX server power supplies.
Could ocp make a rack that behaves like a blade server?
Construct a server rack that works like a network Patch panel and server power bus? Thus one would just install the server in the rack slot, no more Cables to the server. Bonus award if a robot could slide in the server in the rack.
There are rack designs out there built on this idea, but they are usually pretty specialized. For example, the Cray XC series has racks with built in power, network, and out of band monitoring.
A downside of this kind of thing is that it makes upgrades and maintenance harder, and you often have to do any hardware work on a whole rack at once. Heterogeneous setups get really hard. And it’s usually very vendor specific.
You'd either need a different rack design per particular server or a rack that is overdesigned for 99% of servers plugged into it (e.g. different speeds/counts of network connections). If the thought is the servers will be static for the lifetime of the rack does wiring up a preset rack to a switch really save any time from wiring up preset server designs to a switch?
A rack but that has two power feeds in standardized position for each rack unit. When you slide in the server in the rack, you provide power. It would slide in the power connector provided by the rack. More specifically I mean that the server would get automatically connected to IEC 320 C13 female provided by the rack. The modifications to a standard server would be too standardize the position of two 230V/110V power feeds.
Alternatively, connect the server to a 48DC bus when its racked in providing +48 volt direct current and ground which can be through the server chassis.
Network connectivity should be provided in two standardized positions as well.
Facebook does use it. They design their own hardware, but they are do not manufacture it themselves, they aren't in the hardware manufacturing business. They parter with companies like Quanta to do that.
What does that have to do with an open specification for racks of computers? This is a design that anyone could potentially adopt, and gain from the engineering efforts that those involved in OCP have done.
There's even a marketplace you can purchase Open Rack components through (and you could likely also go more direct to those companies rather than via OCP's marketplace):
https://www.opencompute.org/products
[+] [-] mlthoughts2018|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] walrus01|7 years ago|reply
Or the equivalent of that with four-servers-in-2RU type setups, but also with AC to DC power supplies.
They centralized the AC to DC conversion in a single unit in the rack, feeding either 277VAC or 480VAC to each rack, and ran 12VDC to each server. The new system wisely moves from 12VDC to 48VDC (same as most telecom equipment), and probably has basic DC-DC converters in each server unit for 48 to 12VDC conversion.
They've also gone with custom motherboards that entirely eliminate the 5VDC rails which are distributed by 'normal' ATX server power supplies.
[+] [-] noir_lord|7 years ago|reply
If we could standardise more we can optimise for power efficiency, things like more DC in DCs
[+] [-] meruru|7 years ago|reply
You talk like that's a well-known concept, but as far as I know it has been coined only one year ago in this essay: https://www.gwern.net/Complement
[+] [-] kayhi|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] acd|7 years ago|reply
Construct a server rack that works like a network Patch panel and server power bus? Thus one would just install the server in the rack slot, no more Cables to the server. Bonus award if a robot could slide in the server in the rack.
[+] [-] ajdecon|7 years ago|reply
A downside of this kind of thing is that it makes upgrades and maintenance harder, and you often have to do any hardware work on a whole rack at once. Heterogeneous setups get really hard. And it’s usually very vendor specific.
[+] [-] zamadatix|7 years ago|reply
I think it's probably best kept modular.
[+] [-] acd|7 years ago|reply
Alternatively, connect the server to a 48DC bus when its racked in providing +48 volt direct current and ground which can be through the server chassis.
Network connectivity should be provided in two standardized positions as well.
[+] [-] akhilcacharya|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baybal2|7 years ago|reply
I see them and other dotcoms pouring inordinate amount of money designing own hardware without actually manufacturing or using anything of it.
As I know, facebook still buys very plain OEM servers from Quanta
[+] [-] electrum|7 years ago|reply
Here's an older article that explains the relationship: https://venturebeat.com/2014/01/29/facebook-quanta/
[+] [-] jauer|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dana321|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Twirrim|7 years ago|reply
There's even a marketplace you can purchase Open Rack components through (and you could likely also go more direct to those companies rather than via OCP's marketplace): https://www.opencompute.org/products