Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has joined forces with Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) to build what it claims is the world's first solar-powered supercomputer, dubbed Hikari.
HPE said that the computer is currently being used to calculate biology applications' in a bid to help solve the Zika virus crisis.
HPE claimed that it teamed with TAAC, as well as the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and NTT Facilities to ensure that Hikari did not require the huge amount of energy that traditional supercomputers usually require.
Nic Dube, chief technologist for high-performance computing at HPE suggested that Hikari is built using solar panels which are wired directly to the computer, meaning that it runs "on free energy, in the most efficient and sustainable way".
Traditional supercomputers produce a huge amount of heat, and the companies decided to use the Apollo 8000 warm water cooling system, which eliminates the need for Computer Room Air Handlers (CRAH). HPE claimed that this reduced the amount of cooling energy that would normally be required.
Dube explained that during the day, energy produced by the solar system feeds straight into the computer, while at night, when the photovoltaic array does not create energy, the Apollo system switched to an AC-based grid.
The supercomputer runs on about 200,000 watts of DC power, and its other components include DC battery systems, DC air-conditioning, DC lighting, DC supply and solar panels.
HPE claimed that since the Hikari team launched the measurement phase at the end of August, more than 30% of the total power used by supercomputer was supplied by renewable energy sources.
Dan Stanzione, executive director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center has called on other companies to switch from using AC power to DC power in servers, adding that HPE had embraced the idea of investigating and exploring alternative technologies.
"Without their partnership, we could never have built one of the world's greenest supercomputers," he said.
Picture Credit: HPE
-
SecurityHQ names Aaron Hambleton as product and services chiefNews Industry veteran will lead product and service innovation across the provider's cybersecurity portfolio
-
Cisco teams up with DSIT to drive digital skills adoptionNews Partnership supports the government's TechFirst program to provide one million secondary school students with access to digital learning experiences
-
Intel confirms Altera purchase: What happens next?Analysis The acquisition will enable Intel to integrate Altera's FPGA products to meet customers' IoT and data centre needs
-
ARM unveils mbed OS for Internet of ThingsNews Free OS could help developers speed up IoT products and devices, it is hoped
-
AMD buys into cloud server market with SeaMicroNews The acquisition of SeaMicro will give the chip manufacturer a clear entrance into the cloud.
-
SAP splashes £2.18bn on SuccessFactorsNews The firm boosts their business software with the inclusion of Human Capital Management.
-
AMD launches 16-core chips for cloudy goodnessNews The 16-core chips should benefit cloud users looking for scalability and efficiency.
-
Fujitsu returns to UK supercomputingNews The HPC Wales project gets a boost as Fujitsu signs up to provide the initiative's distributed grid.
-
SETI boosted by nVidia CUDA techNews Nvidia's latest CUDA powered graphics chips helping hunt aliens - in real-life rather than in games.
-
Q&A: HP Labs’ Prith BanerjeeIn-depth The director of HP Labs is looking to sharpen the focus of his researchers in the hopes of creating products, not just papers.
