RE: Microsoft to dump it's computers into the sea.
June 8, 2018 at 12:21 pm
(This post was last modified: June 8, 2018 at 12:23 pm by johan.)
(June 6, 2018 at 8:17 pm)Fireball Wrote:(June 6, 2018 at 7:17 pm)johan Wrote: No need for space grade components. Weight won't be a factor like it is with objects bound for space so you can pack lots of extra backup units in there. It won't be Best Buy cheap but you should be able to do it for way less than the cost of space grade. My point was creating computer systems that work reliably hands off for extended periods of time is hardly uncharted territory.
True, to the extent that they have the room for massive redundancy. I still think, like Anomolacaris, why can't they be retrieved? That seems seriously not thought out.
I'm sure they can be retrieved. But there's going to be a cost associated with that. So if you've got to send the boat and divers out every 18 months, its probably not cost effective. However if you design them to be able to deploy and run for 5 or 10 years with no physical maintenance, then you can probably make the costs work out. You deploy them, leave them on the bottom for X years, pull them up, gut them, install new machines and put them back on the bottom for another X years. In the meantime you've saved gobs of money by having no measurable cooling costs. You'd also see savings from not paying any property taxes, not having to maintain any landscaping or parking lots etc.
