[ih] greener underwater?

[Toerless Eckert]

Fun topic.

There is am established market of data-centers in "normal" shipping
containers including simply airlifting thoe from/to trucks for
transporting from/to target destination and/or maintenance.

I guess if one would build such containers for dropping them just a few meters
underwater in shore regions, then pulling the cable might not be an issue,
and you could have a metro-edge DC in a lot of areas with the highest
prices of real-estate (coastal cities), so going offshore could be more
than just saving cooling.

Hey, if they would put these DC-containers off the shore of our san francisco
bay area beaches, maybe we could get an influx of tourists that prefer water
that you do NOT need to use wet suits to go into!

(Yes i know, marketing hype. lots of gotchas to consider).

Cheers
    Toerless

On Fri, Sep 02, 2022 at 12:27:00PM -0700, touch--- via Internet-history wrote:
> Hi, Dave,
> 
> (With the caveat that I don’t know how “IH” this is, but there’s no need to be that constrictive)…
> 
> > On Sep 2, 2022, at 11:44 AM, Dave Taht via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> > 
> > This piece on a company attempting to build data centers underwater
> > went by today on multiple channels. I can't help but think this idea
> > was long ago developed and deployed by certain governments long ago?
> 
> “Green” IMO depends on:
> 	- where the power comes from
> 	- recyclability of the components (after EOL)
> 
> I don’t think it matters all that much where the heat goes TO as much as how MUCH heat goes there…
> (Yeah, there are kinder ways of dissipating heat than others, but that’s less “green” than “low environmental impact”, which aren’t always aligned).
> 
> > 
> > "The viability of underwater datacenters has already been demonstrated
> > by Microsoft, which has deployed several over the past decade as part
> > of its Project Natick experiment. The most recent was recovered from
> > the seabed off the Scottish Orkney islands in 2020, and contained 12
> > racks with 864 servers. Unlike the Subsea pods, the Project Natick
> > enclosure was filled with nitrogen."
> > 
> > https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/01/subsea_cloud_underwater_datacenter/
> > 
> > But:
> > 
> > "The subsea servers are  immersed in a dielectric coolant, which
> > conducts heat but not electricity. "
> 
> I recall the Cray 2 “fishtank” pioneering this (AFAIR).
> 
> > It does spark a ton of questions, fluid is far less compressible and I
> > would think better than nitrogen,
> 
> Filling with nitrogen reduces oxidation, but I don’t think helps otherwise.
> 
> If the outside pressure is carried into the pods, I would worry about crushing chip enclosures.
> 
> > but dragging fiber
> > and 1MW of power offshore seems the stuff of science fiction…
> 
> Fiber goes transoceanic, so that shouldn’t be a big deal.
> 
> And power cables support offshore islands, so depends on how far offshore, but again, this need not be new.
> 
> > or
> > fantasy... and even cooled to 0C I still imagine moving parts, rather
> > than convection is required….
> 
> Heat pipes have no moving parts, FWIW… 
> 
> Joe
> 
> 
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-- 
---
tte at cs.fau.de