Cyberinfrastructure

Cyberinfrastructure has become a buzzword for the infrastructure needed for sophisticated information systems. A recent article that got slashdotted describes one aspect of the infrastructure for a Facebook data center: the power. The data center in Oregon uses half the total power of the county, and expanding it involves working with the power company to add additional capacity to their power grid. Why would the power company put up with that? Because the economic value to the local economy is tens of millions of dollars? In terms of Facebook's value, they are rumored to be filing for an IPO today.

The world's fastest computer are listed in the Top 500. These information systems are at the cutting edge of high performance computing (HPC). The current shape that HPC has taken is a direct consequence of Moore's Law and the basic physics that things heat up faster at higher frequencies. As components on a chip get closer together every 18-24 months, they also used to be running faster. By running faster, they heat up more, but if they're too close together, all that heat doesn't have anywhere to escape to in time. So CPUs don't really get faster any more. One of the future entries at or near the top in the top 500 is not too far from here: Blue Waters is finally getting installed at NCSA in Illinois.