ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 144

Column Data centers

In Summer 2013, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) completed the first
round of upgrades for supercomputer Tide (located in
Reston, Virginia) and its Orlando-based backup computer ("Gyre"). These upgrades more than double the
speed of their predecessors, and they now compute
more than 213 TeraFLOPS (or 213 trillion calculations per
second). The previous supercomputer's capacity was 90
TeraFLOPS.
With improved storm-tracking algorithms and physics, the model has displayed up to a 15% improvement
in both track and intensity forecasts, compared to last
year's version of the model. A second planned upgrade is
scheduled for 2015.
Even with today's cutting-edge technology, 100%
accuracy is not a realistic expectation. Forecaster or
observation data still presents a problem in some areas.
However, meteorologists can now predict approximately
90% of large storms, whereas 20 years ago, residents had
very little, if any, warning.

ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard
90.1-2013-Energy Standard for
Buildings Except
Low-Rise Residential Buildings

This 2013 edition
ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2013
(Supersedes ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2010)
Includes ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Addenda listed in Appendix F

Energy Standard
for Buildings
Except Low-Rise
Residential Buildings
(I-P Edition)
See Appendix F for approval dates by the ASHRAE Standards Committee, the ASHRAE Board of Directors, the IES Board of
Directors, and the American National Standards Institute.
This standard is under continuous maintenance by a Standing Standard Project Committee (SSPC) for which the Standards Committee has established a documented program for regular publication of addenda or revisions, including procedures for timely,
documented, consensus action on requests for change to any part of the standard. The change submittal form, instructions, and
deadlines may be obtained in electronic form from the ASHRAE Web site (www.ashrae.org) or in paper form from the Manager
of Standards. The latest edition of an ASHRAE Standard may be purchased from the ASHRAE Web site (www.ashrae.org) or from
ASHRAE Customer Service, 1791 Tullie Circle, NE, Atlanta, GA 30329-2305. E-mail: orders@ashrae.org. Fax: 404-321-5478.
Telephone: 404-636-8400 (worldwide), or toll free 1-800-527-4723 (for orders in US and Canada). For reprint permission, go to
www.ashrae.org/permissions.
© 2013 ASHRAE

includes new features
and more detailed
requirements, as
well as changes
from more than
100 addenda.

ISSN 1041-2336

www.ashrae.org/standard901
www.info.hotims.com/44639-103
144

ASHRAE JouRnAl

ashrae.org

HPCs rely on minimizing the physical footprint
between the computer resources to ensure the networked data being transported to and from the nodes
has the shortest possible distance to travel (or latency
effects). This distance restriction drives a combination
of high CPU concentrations per server, full server rack
utilizations, and closer cabinet placements. The biggest challenge to overcome therefore is the extremely
high density of power and heat flux generated by the
combination of a large load across a relatively small
footprint.
The power and cooling design within an HPC environment is therefore a highly integrated undertaking. It
involves the design of the layout of the HPC computer
hardware such that it can accommodate the necessary
power and cooling infrastructure all within that tightly
constrained physical volume.
Clearly, HPCs represent the leading edge of technology
from a computing throughput perspective. As with any
leading edge technology, it represents a considerable
investment. Therefore, the physical environment necessary to protect that investment and leverage its return
becomes of paramount importance, too.
While interruption to the service is arguably tolerable
from a real-time criticality perspective, the interruption to
power and cooling can result in more than the loss of the
computations and data. Due to the high densities, the loss of
cooling can also result in failures of the HPC hardware itself.
The net result is an increase to the level of resiliency
of the power and cooling equipment and infrastructure such that there are multiple parallel components
and distribution paths to ensure high availability and
complete tolerance to single points of failure within the
systems. Some of these redundancies and parallel paths
also need to be collocated within the already constrained
physical volume.

Closing Comments

Price: $135
(ASHRAE Member: $115)
Available in I-P or SI units

Standard 90.1 2013 qtr page.indd 1

Data Center Requirements

D ecem ber 2013

The world is generating more and more data at an
exponential rate (a phenomenon known as Big Data).
Processing this data, along with the associated analytics
and on-demand need for accessing it, is going to require
more and more powerful computers for all applications.
With more power comes higher density heat loads and
more cooling challenges, particularly with respect to
capacity and distribution.

10/30/2013 9:12:40 AM

ASHRAE Journal - December 2013

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