Jump to content

How will computer centres of the future look like?

New technologies for energy-saving data processing

In 2012, the global share of the information and communication technology (ICT) in the total electricity consumption has reached the five percent threshold. Within ten years the demand has doubled with rising tendency. A considerable share of the consumption is taken up by computer centres. In the future, highly efficient computer technology is required which is energy saving and high-performing at the same time. Scientists at the DFG’s (German Research Foundation) Collaborative Research Centre 912 – Highly Adaptive Energy-Efficient Computing (HAEC) at the Excellence Cluster Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) develop possible solutions. The goal of the research groups is to reduce the energy consumption of large computer platforms, as found in computer centres. The scientists analyse all aspects of large-scale multichip computer platforms. They research energy-efficient, optical and wireless communication between individual chips or boards, which should replace the existing communication via conductor paths. In order to enable optimal energy usage, procedures are developed, whose goal it is to adjust in real-time hardware AND software to the applications and user demands. The long-term research goal is the HAEC-Box, which displays the vision of a high-performance, energy-optimised platform with 100 million computer cores contained in a volume of just one litre.