Google's not-so-very-secret weapon

International Herald Tribune ^ | June 13, 2006 | John Markoff and Saul Hansell

[nickcarraway]

THE DALLES, Oregon 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 as big as two football fields, with twin cooling towers protruding four stories into the sky.

The towers, looming like an information-age nuclear plant, mark the site of what may soon be one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, helping to supply the ever-greater horsepower needed to process billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other Internet services.

And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border - at the intersection of low-cost 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.

Microsoft and Yahoo have announced they are building giant data centers upstream in Washington State, 130 miles to the north. But Google is doing something radically different here. The very need for two cooling towers, each connected to a football field-sized data center, is evidence of its extraordinary ambition.

As imposing as Google's new Oregon data center is, when it opens it will only a piece of a worldwide computing system known as the Googleplex, which is tied together by strands of fiber optic cables. A similar computing center has recently been completed in Atlanta.

"Google has constructed the biggest computer in the world, and it's a hidden asset," said Danny Hillis, a supercomputing pioneer and the cofounder of Applied Minds, a technology consulting firm, referring to the Googleplex.

[george76]

[Suzy Quzy]

Going to The Dalles in a few days...I'll look for it.

[vox_freedom]

From article: But Google is doing something radically different here. The very need for two cooling towers, each connected to a football field-sized data center, is evidence of its extraordinary ambition.

Half of that capacity is just to hold the data from my six Gmail accounts.

[seastay]

Welcome "Hal" 2001 a space odyssey . 5 years late but what do you expect from engineers?

[coconutt2000]

I can see the potential here for a sci-fi story... Google's super computers give rise to artificial intelligences which then try to take over the world...

Except that it turns out there are no AI's, and the reality is that a secret cabal of sinister, power hungry neo-socialists are behind the manipulation of the information in order to gain power. The immense power of the Googleplex being used to crack sophisticated encryption, and to data mine the personal computers of politicians, governments, and private individuals.

[sagar]

Not everything is political... especially a capitalist firm looking for its own self-interests(performance, profits, and long term prospects).

[vox_freedom]

The Google site under construction in The Dalles, Ore. The one-story building at left will probably house thousands of Google servers, requiring the cooling systems at right to prevent overheating. Photo by Melanie Conner for The New York Times

[underbyte]

Live on the water and sooner or later you are gonna get wet.

Stupid lacation IMHO

[grey_whiskers]

Where'a an environmentalist when you need one?

And when do we get to dunk Brin and Page's collective heads?

Cheers!

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

"As imposing as Google's new Oregon data center is, when it opens it will only a piece of a worldwide computing system known as the Googleplex, which is tied together by strands of fiber optic cables."

Did China end up with Global Crossing? - the biggest fiberoptic network in the world?

And this is the same Google which has become cozy with China, yes?

[coconutt2000]

I have a feeling the location might present some problems if it should rain... a lot.

Or if global warming creates an exceptional fast and furious runoff. ;-)

[Libertina]

Thank you, appropriate. They are despicable. But why is everything media so often the lefties? Is there anything outside of talk radio where conservatives reign?

[Libertina]

And why is Oregon selling nice riverfront property so these lefties who cow-tow to commies can have big storage areas? Make then stay inland.

[Libertina]

Well ok ;)

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP

[goodnesswins]

LOL....Libertina....have you ever been to the Dalles? It's NOT a pretty place....BUT, it is close to Hood River, which IS.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Oregon ping?

With the local aluminum smelters shutting down there was a lot of available electricity, plus a huge fiber cable going through town that was mostly dark.

When the project was announced last year, Blue Oregon was giddy about it - figuring Google would import a couple hundred lefties into town and they'd be able to capture that last house seat - and also they might finally be able to get a latte there on a Sunday morning. Ah, something for which to strive.

[Uriah_lost]

Anyone else thinking: "Skynet"?