Remember that movie "The Andromeda Strain" back in the 70's?
You entered thru an old Country Store, then went down, down, down.
You entered thru an old Country Store, then went down, down, down.
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First Phase of Apple's New Reno, Nevada Data Center Ready to Open
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They're cloning Geniuses in huge vats of amniotic fluid.Remember that movie "The Andromeda Strain" back in the 70's?
You entered thru an old Country Store, then went down, down, down.
Internaut
macrumors 65816
Oh, having spent time in some grim data centres, all I have to say is a pity the poor sod who has to deploy hardware or do network integration testing there. Hopefully, they'll supply working toilets and toilet paper (never a given).
Have you ever been in the desert? Yes it is hot during the day but at night it is very cold.
I took a motorcycle trip to Moab, UT in July. During the day it was about 98 degrees, but at night it got so cold my tent, the ground, my motorcycle, and the picnic table were all covered in frost.
In fact I (stupidly) had a summer tent and summer sleeping bag, so it was a pretty bad night for me. I ended up wearing my motorcycle suit and stuffing all of my clothes inside my sleeping bag with me for extra insulation.
So I imagine in a 24 hour cycle the cooling cost might even out. That combined with free solar electricity.
Probably the location is where there are no earthquake fault lines, no flooding problems, no tornadoes, no hurricanes, low taxes, and fast Internet.
We actually get a lot of earthquakes (#3 in the US, after Alaska and California), but they tend to be smaller, and even the bigger ones don't do much due to the ground composition around here.
Flooding of the Truckee River is a problem once every few decades, but the new tech park they're building in is significantly higher than the river, so there's virtually no chance of it affecting them.
Wildfires are the most significant natural disaster threat, but with that amount of space, they can build an effective fire line. Everything else you mentioned is true, especially the Internet. About half of the country's east-west backhaul fiber goes through Reno, and makes a pit stop at a nondescript 8-story building downtown. (Most of the rest of the fiber goes through Phoenix.)
Reno is not that hot. It's near Lake Tahoe. This is not Vegas weather.
Whoever has to work out there will be able to gamble in Reno and take advantage of Tahoe 24/7. Not a bad deal
Whoever has to work out there will be able to gamble in Reno and take advantage of Tahoe 24/7. Not a bad deal
Apple is building another data center near Bend, OR. I'm not sure if they've broken ground on that one, though. What's inside, just rows and rows of server racks? I wonder how many jobs come with one of these data centers.
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I re-read the book just a few months ago. First time in decades. It's a little dated in placed but still a great thriller.
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Remember that movie "The Andromeda Strain" back in the 70's?
You entered thru an old Country Store, then went down, down, down.
I re-read the book just a few months ago. First time in decades. It's a little dated in placed but still a great thriller.
Apple in the desert
Desert living at its finest.
Reno, btw, is a major warehousing center, due location and (lack of) taxes. It resides close to the California state line, and Tahoe (with a sizable portion of that beautiful alpine lake within Nevada). Geographically Reno is closer to the Bay Area than Los Angeles.
Hopefully that shed is an initial iteration, with future buildings some architectural merit.
Desert living at its finest.
Reno, btw, is a major warehousing center, due location and (lack of) taxes. It resides close to the California state line, and Tahoe (with a sizable portion of that beautiful alpine lake within Nevada). Geographically Reno is closer to the Bay Area than Los Angeles.Hopefully that shed is an initial iteration, with future buildings some architectural merit.
If the architects are smart they will incorporate a form of cooling I have seen on a few homes and warehouses that involves digging 2 shafts that are about 4 foot across (each) down about 60 foot or so, joining them at the bottom and sticking fans on the tops of them, one blowing deep earth temperature air up and the other blowing room air down. Very effective constant temperature all day / all year and very cheap to run.
Who knows what went into the ultimate decision to locate that Data Centre there. A few possibilities that spring to mind:
- Desert land, relatively cheap
- With a yearly average of almost 80% sunshine http://www.climate-zone.com/climate/united-states/nevada/reno/, a good candidate for a solar farm on some of those 345 acres.
- Well east of the SA fault line
- Reasonable labor costs
- Possible tax breaks, etc.....
Desert has nothing to do with temperature and all to do with rainfall. But it does get hot as hell in Reno. But, again, as another user pointed out, evaporative cooling is very efficient in low humidity, however it wastes a ton of water.
Apple looking to expand into product with higher profit margin than the iPhone.
If they dig down below surface level, temperatures do cool down when it is hot outside.
The coldest night on a camping trip I ever endured during Boy Scouts was in Johsua Tree in the middle of the southern CA desert. However, if there is an inversion layer, the heat stays on the ground surface during the evening.