Bamboo Systems released a whitepaper that analysed the energy used by different types of data centres. They found that an arm server-powered data centre reduces CO2 production by 74 per cent, equivalent to almost half a million barrels of oil.
The whitepaper model calculated the energy used by a medium-sized data centre with 750 racks of conventional 1U servers, assuming the servers comprise about two-thirds of the floor space and that the equipment space accounts for 65 per cent of the total. This translates to a roughly 62,000 square-foot data centre. Knowing server power consumption and the ratios for the various equipment categories, the model uses simple algebra to calculate the energy consumption for each subsystem.
Using the formula, they calculated the amount saved by using energy-efficient Arm servers. Each Arm server required about one-quarter of the electricity of a standard server. The algebra shows an arm data centre uses only 26 per cent as much electricity compared to one based on x86 systems.
“Arm server-powered data centres are more energy-efficient and better for the environment,” Tony Craythorne, CEO of Bamboo Systems, said. “Now, we have the proof in a tangible and logical formula. In addition to the CO2 reduction gains, arm-server powered data centre emissions cuts are valuable in the market for carbon offset trading, generating more than four million dollars annually depending upon the carbon trading requirement.”
The patented Parallel ARM Node Designed Architecture (PANDA) delivers more throughput performance in significantly less rack space than traditional servers. The design delivers up to 75 per cent less energy consumption and 74 per cent less CO2 output at 50 per cent of the cost compared with today’s typical data centre architecture.
