tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post115144163975968840..comments2024-03-24T10:38:16.997-07:00Comments on Geeking with Greg: Four petabytes in memoryGreg Lindenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09216403000599463072noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1160927430158651532006-10-15T08:50:00.000-07:002006-10-15T08:50:00.000-07:00Barefoot, what makes you think that Google is not ...Barefoot, what makes you think that Google is not using 64-bit boxes?<BR/><BR/>The <A HREF="http://labs.google.com/papers/bigtable.html" REL="nofollow">Google BigTable paper</A> says that Google currently is using machines with "two dual-core Opteron 2 GHz chips". The Opteron is a 64-bit chip.Greg Lindenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09216403000599463072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1160886753659492292006-10-14T21:32:00.000-07:002006-10-14T21:32:00.000-07:00Hmm.. isn't that a bit far-fetched?I don't think t...Hmm.. isn't that a bit far-fetched?<BR/><BR/>I don't think they add computers AND more ram to their systems.<BR/><BR/>In fact it does not even make sense, because a 32-bit-mainboard can't in and case take more than 4GB of ram. This means that to add more ram, they have to exchange the mainboard and cpu too. And this certanly does not make sense, because then you get a new system anyway.<BR/><BR/>So i'm thinking, this is where the 100k new machines per quarter come from: upgrading/replacing old machines, and even if not, you're adding additional 4GB per system that are impossibe to get added.<BR/><BR/>May i say "hype"? ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1151574754825691422006-06-29T02:52:00.000-07:002006-06-29T02:52:00.000-07:00GFS is a major SW win for Google, and not easily o...GFS is a major SW win for Google, and not easily or quickly replicated<BR/><BR/>=> flash disks are going to kill this advantage. With an access time of few micro seconds, it's going to be the perfect hardware between ram and classical hard disk.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1151521518626588262006-06-28T12:05:00.000-07:002006-06-28T12:05:00.000-07:00Actually, while GFS manages disks, it also uses an...Actually, while GFS manages disks, it also uses any available server memory as a large disk cache - well, it is really Linux doing that, but net-net that's it. With locality of reference, they probably get a major benefit.<BR/><BR/>As for MS saying they have a late adopter advantage - isn't it odd that a software company would hang their hat on a hardware advantage? GFS is a major SW win for Google, and not easily or quickly replicated. See more on GFS at http://storagemojo.com/?p=88Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1151520751267524412006-06-28T11:52:00.000-07:002006-06-28T11:52:00.000-07:00Hi, Bernhard. That's a little hard to say.Being a...Hi, Bernhard. That's a little hard to say.<BR/><BR/>Being able to access vast amounts of data orders of magnitude faster allows doing things that couldn't be done before. Analyses that were impossible before because they would take years can now be done in days. Online features that were impossible before because they would have taken minutes to respond can now be launched.<BR/><BR/>On your other point, I don't think this is in opposition to disk-oriented tools. Being able to store vast amounts of memory means you can operate much more quickly over frequently or repeatedly accessed data and data for online features with short access time requirements. Infrequently accessed data is still going to be on disk.Greg Lindenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09216403000599463072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1151503426101005362006-06-28T07:03:00.000-07:002006-06-28T07:03:00.000-07:00Greg, I'm curious, what kind of things are made po...Greg, I'm curious, what kind of things are made possible by this?<BR/><BR/>One might be online link analysis to re-rank the top N results, HITS-style. I guess that Teoma (Ask) probably uses a link network stored in this way to do this for quite some time now.<BR/><BR/>What else?<BR/><BR/>(Isn't it interesting that MapReduce, BigTable and GFS gained so much interest lately, when all of them are very disk-oriented?)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1151471553486964232006-06-27T22:12:00.000-07:002006-06-27T22:12:00.000-07:00Nice post - I agree with the 450k ballpark figure,...Nice post - I agree with the 450k ballpark figure, but I think the memory is a bit lower. See here for <A HREF="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-many-servers-does-google-have.html" REL="nofollow">my estimates and thoughts</A>.<BR/><BR/>RichB: Google would likely use Linux kernels with PAE that would allow there 32bit servers to address up to 12-16GB of RAM without requiring 64bit CPUs...John Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1151447896202002442006-06-27T15:38:00.000-07:002006-06-27T15:38:00.000-07:00I believe Microsoft/MSN/Live were talking a couple...I believe Microsoft/MSN/Live were talking a couple of months ago about why they had a competitive advantage by starting later and having a completely 64bit setup before anyone else. How could Google have 8Gig of RAM if they didn't have 64bit? Were Microsoft wrong?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com