Data Centers and Power Supply
All search engine companies use giant data centers. The commonly used data center is the commodity x86 server. These data centers work on catalog motherboards. But catalog motherboards are not fully suited to the needs of data centers. Custom motherboards can be a better fit.
Recently, one major search engine company announced it is developing a motherboard design specially made for data centers. These motherboards will be powered by 12v power systems.
But you are going for a custom motherboard, can a custom power supply be far behind? As of now, all data centers use catalog power supplies. But the day is not far when they will be replaced by custom power supplies. This will become essential because the new motherboard will be unlike anything we have ever seen before. Data centers will be forced to use custom power supplies to power these servers.
For instance, the motherboard the internet giant is developing will support two servers. It won’t have many of the parts we see on typical motherboards. This will not only reduce cost, it will also bring down power consumption while increasing reliability.
The company has designed the motherboard for in-house use, as of now. But other companies are developing their own motherboards with similar features. So for the moment, embedded engineers have their hands full.
