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Artificial General Intelligence Evolves at Google, Microsoft and Yahoo
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are rushing to build large server farms.
Look at: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/14/business/search.php
That article was posted in June of 2006 and on December 1, 2006 the following job opening was posted:
Apple in North Carolina:
What Internet magic lurks inside Apple’s massive new data center in North Carolina? The company
isn’t saying, even as it confirmed yesterday that the facility will be coming online by the end of the
year. But job postings provide some broad details about the hardware and software that will be
powering the new iDataCenter, much of which is provided by companies other than Apple.
Some quick background: Apple’s data center in Maiden, N.C. is expected to provide the back-end
for a larger move into cloud computing, with most speculation focusing on a shift of iTunes user
libraries from user desktops to online storage. The $1 billion data center will be about 500,000
square feet, nearly five times the size of Apple’s existing 109,000 square foot Newark, Calif. facility.
Apple generated some buzz in the blogosphere yesterday when it confirmed that the facility will be
operational by the end of 2010. “North Carolina is on schedule,” Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said
during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “Everything is going fine. We expect to complete it by
the end of the calendar year and begin to use it.”
Oppenheimer didn’t provide any details about what new technologies may be enabled or supported
by the new facility. But some rough information can be gleaned from job postings for the facility. In
March Apple began hiring for the Maiden facility, which is expected to employ 50 workers upon
completion. Apple currently has 18 positions posted that are based in Maiden, including openings for
support technicians, mechanical technicians, systems administrators and security staff.
Here are some factoids gleaned from Apple’s job postings:
Apple says that its “data center environment consists of MacOS X, IBM/AIX, Linux and SUN/Solaris
systems.”
The Maiden facility will have a “heavy emphasis” on high availability technologies, including IBM’s
HACMP and HAGEO solutions for high-availability clusters, Veritas Cluster Server, and Oracle’s
DataGuard and Real Application Clusters.
Job candidates are also asked to be familiar with storage systems using IBM, NetApp and Data
Domain, and data warehousing systems from Teradata.
Networking positions require a familiarity with Brocade and Qlogic switches.
Facilities positions include no major surprises, requiring expertise in the maintenance and repair of
chillers, cooling towers, heat exchangers, water treatment, pumps, and computer room air
conditioning (CRAC) and air handling (CRAH) units. Applicants are asked to be familiar with building
management systems, wiring of three-phase motors, and cooling systems using chilled water
(meaning Apple won’t be going “chiller-less” to save energy, as Google and Microsoft have done).
Apple’s data center operations are overseen by Olivier Sanche, who previously directed data center
construction projects for eBay, TelecityGroup and AT&T.
Apple's North Carolina data center to go live this spring
by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Feb 23rd 2011 at 4:15PM
The cloud is the future, and the future appears to be arriving this spring, as Apple's North Carolina
data center is finally due to go live, according to reports from today's Apple annual shareholder
meeting. The phrase "in the cloud" refers to data hosted at off-site internet-accessible facilities rather
than stored locally at a specific end-user machine, allowing you to do things like access photos,
videos or music directly over the internet.
No one outside of Apple knows exactly how the North Carolina center will be used, but rumors
abound. Apple Insider writes that the massive facility may support enhanced iTunes and MobileMe
services, perhaps providing the long-awaited iTunes cloud-based streaming so many analysts have
been hoping for.
Other speculated uses of the North Carolina data center include mobile iWork access and paid
remote Time Machine hosting. Whatever it is, we'll likely find out soon after they start flipping
switches in a few months.
Next
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are rushing to build large server farms.
Look at: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/14/business/search.php
That article was posted in June of 2006 and on December 1, 2006 the following job opening was posted:
Apple in North Carolina:
What Internet magic lurks inside Apple’s massive new data center in North Carolina? The company
isn’t saying, even as it confirmed yesterday that the facility will be coming online by the end of the
year. But job postings provide some broad details about the hardware and software that will be
powering the new iDataCenter, much of which is provided by companies other than Apple.
Some quick background: Apple’s data center in Maiden, N.C. is expected to provide the back-end
for a larger move into cloud computing, with most speculation focusing on a shift of iTunes user
libraries from user desktops to online storage. The $1 billion data center will be about 500,000
square feet, nearly five times the size of Apple’s existing 109,000 square foot Newark, Calif. facility.
Apple generated some buzz in the blogosphere yesterday when it confirmed that the facility will be
operational by the end of 2010. “North Carolina is on schedule,” Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said
during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “Everything is going fine. We expect to complete it by
the end of the calendar year and begin to use it.”
Oppenheimer didn’t provide any details about what new technologies may be enabled or supported
by the new facility. But some rough information can be gleaned from job postings for the facility. In
March Apple began hiring for the Maiden facility, which is expected to employ 50 workers upon
completion. Apple currently has 18 positions posted that are based in Maiden, including openings for
support technicians, mechanical technicians, systems administrators and security staff.
Here are some factoids gleaned from Apple’s job postings:
Apple says that its “data center environment consists of MacOS X, IBM/AIX, Linux and SUN/Solaris
systems.”
The Maiden facility will have a “heavy emphasis” on high availability technologies, including IBM’s
HACMP and HAGEO solutions for high-availability clusters, Veritas Cluster Server, and Oracle’s
DataGuard and Real Application Clusters.
Job candidates are also asked to be familiar with storage systems using IBM, NetApp and Data
Domain, and data warehousing systems from Teradata.
Networking positions require a familiarity with Brocade and Qlogic switches.
Facilities positions include no major surprises, requiring expertise in the maintenance and repair of
chillers, cooling towers, heat exchangers, water treatment, pumps, and computer room air
conditioning (CRAC) and air handling (CRAH) units. Applicants are asked to be familiar with building
management systems, wiring of three-phase motors, and cooling systems using chilled water
(meaning Apple won’t be going “chiller-less” to save energy, as Google and Microsoft have done).
Apple’s data center operations are overseen by Olivier Sanche, who previously directed data center
construction projects for eBay, TelecityGroup and AT&T.
Apple's North Carolina data center to go live this spring
by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Feb 23rd 2011 at 4:15PM
The cloud is the future, and the future appears to be arriving this spring, as Apple's North Carolina
data center is finally due to go live, according to reports from today's Apple annual shareholder
meeting. The phrase "in the cloud" refers to data hosted at off-site internet-accessible facilities rather
than stored locally at a specific end-user machine, allowing you to do things like access photos,
videos or music directly over the internet.
No one outside of Apple knows exactly how the North Carolina center will be used, but rumors
abound. Apple Insider writes that the massive facility may support enhanced iTunes and MobileMe
services, perhaps providing the long-awaited iTunes cloud-based streaming so many analysts have
been hoping for.
Other speculated uses of the North Carolina data center include mobile iWork access and paid
remote Time Machine hosting. Whatever it is, we'll likely find out soon after they start flipping
switches in a few months.
Next
Concebot for Concepts
A town peeks behind Google's silicon curtain
By John Markoff and Saul Hansell The New York Times
Published: June 14, 2006
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 a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories
into the sky.
The complex, a sprawling information-age factory, heralds a substantial expansion of a worldwide
computing network handling billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other Internet
services.
And odd as it may seem, the arid land along both sides of the Columbia in eastern Oregon and Washington -
at the intersection of cheap 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 said that they are building big data centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy,
Washington. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google is far ahead in the global data-center
race, and the scale of its complex here displays its extraordinary ambition.
Even before the Oregon center comes online, Google has lashed together a global network of computers -
known in the industry as the Googleplex - that is a singular achievement. "Google has constructed the
biggest computer in the world, and it's a hidden asset," said Danny Hillis, a supercomputing pioneer and a
founder of Applied Minds, a technology consulting firm.
The design and even the nature of the Google center in this industrial and agricultural outpost has been a
closely guarded corporate secret. "Companies are historically sensitive about where their operational
infrastructure is," acknowledged Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president for operations.
Behind the curtain of secrecy, the two buildings here - and a third that Google has a permit to build - will
probably house tens of thousands of inexpensive processors and disks, held together with Velcro tape in a
Google practice that allows easy swapping of components. The cooling plants are essential because of the
searing heat produced by so much computing power.
By John Markoff and Saul Hansell The New York Times
Published: June 14, 2006
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 a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories
into the sky.
The complex, a sprawling information-age factory, heralds a substantial expansion of a worldwide
computing network handling billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other Internet
services.
And odd as it may seem, the arid land along both sides of the Columbia in eastern Oregon and Washington -
at the intersection of cheap 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 said that they are building big data centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy,
Washington. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google is far ahead in the global data-center
race, and the scale of its complex here displays its extraordinary ambition.
Even before the Oregon center comes online, Google has lashed together a global network of computers -
known in the industry as the Googleplex - that is a singular achievement. "Google has constructed the
biggest computer in the world, and it's a hidden asset," said Danny Hillis, a supercomputing pioneer and a
founder of Applied Minds, a technology consulting firm.
The design and even the nature of the Google center in this industrial and agricultural outpost has been a
closely guarded corporate secret. "Companies are historically sensitive about where their operational
infrastructure is," acknowledged Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president for operations.
Behind the curtain of secrecy, the two buildings here - and a third that Google has a permit to build - will
probably house tens of thousands of inexpensive processors and disks, held together with Velcro tape in a
Google practice that allows easy swapping of components. The cooling plants are essential because of the
searing heat produced by so much computing power.
Job posting December 1, 2006: IT Field Technician - The Dalles, Google.