Project Blackbox is new concept developed by Sun Microsystems, which really stretches the word server. Project Blackbox is namely about conquering the problems many companies are struggling with, such as lack of space and power consumption. The solution that Sun has developed is a mobile server hall, which can be transported swiftly while it is also capable of enormous computing power and consume relatively little power. Sun has simply taken a freight container and filled it with servers and other components to make it a self-powered supercomputer which can be lifted onto any regular container truck.
The basic idea was to build a mobile supercomputer as large as possible, but Sun realized it couldn’t be any bigger than a container to be able to be really mobile, thus they built it into a container.
“Project Blackbox starts from the world’s most broadly adopted industry standard, the shipping container, and asks — how can we most efficiently create modular, lights-out datacenters from this base? The answer…with one-hundredth of the initial cost, one-fifth the cost per square foot and with 20 percent more power efficiency, we can deliver an immense multiple of capacity and capability — anywhere on earth.”
Perhaps not only on Earth…
Actually, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of computer halls being housed in large containers. Already in November 2005 we reported that Google has designed a new server prototype, which used a freight container.
The large black containers are expected to be manufactured next year already and the capacity is quite astonishing. A Project Blackbox server can house 250 Sun Fire T1000 servers, which would result in 2000 physical cores capable of handling 8000 instructions at the same time. It is also possible to fill a Blackbox with up to 1.5 Petabyte of storage. More detailed information about Sun’s exciting Project Blackbox can be found at Sun’s website.
