What Put's The Go In Google?

Driver 7 · May 2, 2004, 07:22 PM

"An interesting tidbit coming out of the Google S-1 filing is that they have spent about $250 million on hardware equipment. From there, we can get a few guesses at the magnitude of the Google system. Based on quick back of the envelope calculations, it looks like Google is managing between 45,000 and 80,000 servers. Here's how I arrived at this conclusion:

According to calculations by the IEE, in a paper about the Google cluster, a rack with 88 dual-CPU machines used to cost about $278,000. If you divide the $250 million figure from the S-1 filing by $278,000, you end up with a bit over 899 racks. Assuming that each rack holds 88 machines, you end up with 79,000 machines.

However, one must recognize that equipment is not all CPUs. As a result, you must discount the figure of $250 million to account for routers, firewalls, machines for employees, etc... So let's assume for a minute that only about $200 million is going to the CPUs. That still leaves us with 719 racks or a bit over 63,000 machines.

Even if we discount other equipment to be costing $100 million, we end up with a bit over 47,000 machines on 539 racks.

So how much processing power is that? Well, once again, the Google cluster document provides some interesting tidbits. Per the document, the racks that were used were
88 dual-CPU 2Ghz Intel Xeon servers with 2 Gbytes of RAM and an 80-Gbyte hard disk.

That means that, on the low end, the Google cluster has the following stats:

539 racks
47,432 machines
94,864 CPUs
189,728 Ghz of processing power
94,864 Gb of RAM
3,705 Tb of Hard Drive space

In the middle range of my estimates, the cluster would have:

719 racks
63,262 machines
126,544 CPUs
253,088 Ghz of processing power
126,544 Gb of RAM
4,943 Tb of Hard Drive space

And on the high end of my estimates:

899 racks
79,112 machines
158,224 CPUs
316,448 Ghz of processing power
158,224 Gb of RAM
6,180 Tb of Hard Drive space

Assuming that the 1Ghz chip is going at about a third the gigaflops of a 2Ghz processor (3.3Gflops), we can then guess at the size of the Google supercomputer. Just for the sake of argument, let's go with 1 Gigaflop per processor. This means that the Google supercomputer has about 189 teraflops of power on the low end of my estimates, 253 teraflops on the middle end, and 316 teraflops on the high end. This would easily put it on top of the list of fastest computers in the world.

Any way you slice it, that's a lot of power."

Source: TNL.NET

jsx[ifl] · May 2, 2004, 08:33 PM

thats alot of power wow.

tastyweat · May 2, 2004, 09:25 PM

woah! lotta power for google! that's why the search results come back so fast

- I wonder what kind of connection their servers have to the net.... that must be pretty quick too!

jsx[ifl] · May 2, 2004, 09:33 PM

©2004 Google - Searching 4,285,199,774 web pages

and they come back almost instantly

fireball · May 2, 2004, 09:40 PM

woah

BWX · May 2, 2004, 09:49 PM

Go Google!

iceboy · May 3, 2004, 05:27 AM

what good are these machines without X800XT

**dj_stick** · May 3, 2004, 08:44 AM

very good… they don't need a graphics card

May 2, 2004, 07:22 PM	#1
Driver 7 Discombobulated NVidiot Join Date: May 2003 Location: Vancouver, BC - CANADA Posts: 1,015 Rep Power: 0	What Put's The Go In Google? "An interesting tidbit coming out of the Google S-1 filing is that they have spent about $250 million on hardware equipment. From there, we can get a few guesses at the magnitude of the Google system. Based on quick back of the envelope calculations, it looks like Google is managing between 45,000 and 80,000 servers. Here's how I arrived at this conclusion: According to calculations by the IEE, in a paper about the Google cluster, a rack with 88 dual-CPU machines used to cost about $278,000. If you divide the $250 million figure from the S-1 filing by $278,000, you end up with a bit over 899 racks. Assuming that each rack holds 88 machines, you end up with 79,000 machines. However, one must recognize that equipment is not all CPUs. As a result, you must discount the figure of $250 million to account for routers, firewalls, machines for employees, etc... So let's assume for a minute that only about $200 million is going to the CPUs. That still leaves us with 719 racks or a bit over 63,000 machines. Even if we discount other equipment to be costing $100 million, we end up with a bit over 47,000 machines on 539 racks. So how much processing power is that? Well, once again, the Google cluster document provides some interesting tidbits. Per the document, the racks that were used were 88 dual-CPU 2Ghz Intel Xeon servers with 2 Gbytes of RAM and an 80-Gbyte hard disk. That means that, on the low end, the Google cluster has the following stats: 539 racks 47,432 machines 94,864 CPUs 189,728 Ghz of processing power 94,864 Gb of RAM 3,705 Tb of Hard Drive space In the middle range of my estimates, the cluster would have: 719 racks 63,262 machines 126,544 CPUs 253,088 Ghz of processing power 126,544 Gb of RAM 4,943 Tb of Hard Drive space And on the high end of my estimates: 899 racks 79,112 machines 158,224 CPUs 316,448 Ghz of processing power 158,224 Gb of RAM 6,180 Tb of Hard Drive space Assuming that the 1Ghz chip is going at about a third the gigaflops of a 2Ghz processor (3.3Gflops), we can then guess at the size of the Google supercomputer. Just for the sake of argument, let's go with 1 Gigaflop per processor. This means that the Google supercomputer has about 189 teraflops of power on the low end of my estimates, 253 teraflops on the middle end, and 316 teraflops on the high end. This would easily put it on top of the list of fastest computers in the world. Any way you slice it, that's a lot of power." Source: TNL.NET

May 2, 2004, 08:33 PM	#2
jsx[ifl] DH's Unofficial Hero Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Montreal Posts: 650 Rep Power: 0	thats alot of power wow. __________________ [color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray] [/color][/color] [/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color]

May 2, 2004, 09:25 PM	#3
tastyweat Lurking Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: The void Posts: 4,794 Rep Power: 75 System Specs	woah! lotta power for google! that's why the search results come back so fast - I wonder what kind of connection their servers have to the net.... that must be pretty quick too! __________________

May 2, 2004, 09:33 PM	#4
jsx[ifl] DH's Unofficial Hero Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Montreal Posts: 650 Rep Power: 0	©2004 Google - Searching 4,285,199,774 web pages and they come back almost instantly __________________ [color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray][color=DarkRed][color=Gray] [/color][/color] [/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color][/color]

May 2, 2004, 09:40 PM	#5
fireball HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 2,899 Rep Power: 0	woah __________________ [color=gray][/color]

May 2, 2004, 09:49 PM	#6
BWX unplugged Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: USNY Posts: 19,669 Rep Power: 110 System Specs	Go Google! __________________

May 3, 2004, 05:27 AM	#7
iceboy DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: SG Posts: 185 Rep Power: 0	what good are these machines without X800XT