CERN is launching the Large Hadron Collider using Data Center Efficiency Strategies

September 10th 2008, CERN turned on the big collider

Reducing Data Center Energy Consumption
A summary of strategies used by CERN, the world’s largest physics laboratory

When CERN scientists fire up the biggest physics experiment in history this week they will embark on a journey that includes powering up the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, to help plumb the mysteries of the universe, including the infamous “Big Bang.” The results of these important experiments will be logged within the "LHC Grid," a global network of 60,000 computers that will analyze what happens when protons are hurled at each other at mind-boggling speed. Success in this $10 billion endeavor would revolutionize our understanding of the universe and could not happen without the latest energy efficient computing technologies from Intel, such as multi-core, dynamic frequency control, virtualization and software optimization.

This white paper outlines the energy-saving strategies developed by CERN openlab and used by CERN, the world’s largest physics laboratory, as it deploys massive new computing resources to support the most powerful particle accelerator ever built. It describes how CERN is increasing the total performance capacity of its 35-year-old data center up to five times by moving from older servers based on single-core processors to newer servers based on the latest 45nm Intel® Xeon® processors, which have four cores per processor and take advantage of Intel’s latest silicon technologies.

Download the white paper >> (pdf, 354 KB)