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How oxide cuts data center power consumption in half

(oxide.computer)
195 points tosh | 3 comments | 21 Nov 24 18:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.662s | source
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unsnap_biceps ◴[21 Nov 24 20:29 UTC] No.42208296[source]▶
> When we started Oxide, the DC bus bar stood as one of the most glaring differences between the rack-scale machines at the hyperscalers and the rack-and-stack servers that the rest of the market was stuck with. That a relatively simple piece of copper was unavailable to commercial buyers

It seems that 0xide was founded in 2019 and Open Compute Project had been specifying dc bus bars for 6 years at that point. People could purchase racks if they wanted, but it seems like, by large, people didn't care enough to go whole hog in on it.

Wonder if the economics have changed or if it's still just neat but won't move the needle.

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1. walrus01 ◴[21 Nov 24 20:36 UTC] No.42208365[source]▶
Things like -48VDC bus bars in the 'telco' world significantly predate the OCP, all the way back to like 1952 in the Bell system.

In general, the telco world concept hasn't changed much. You have AC grid power coming from your local utility into some BIG ASS RECTIFIERS which create -48VDC (and are responsible for charging your BIG ASS BATTERY BANK to float voltage), then various DC fuses/breakers going to distribution of -48VDC bus bars powering the equipment in a CO.

Re: Open Compute, the general concept of what they did was go to a bunch of 1U/2U server power supply manufacturers and get them to make a series of 48VDC-to-12VDC power supplies (which can be 92%+ efficient), and cut out the need for legacy 5VDC feed from power supply into ATX-derived-design x86-64 motherboards.

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2. m463 ◴[23 Nov 24 00:04 UTC] No.42218364[source]▶
I remember seeing an old telephone switching system from the 20's and I think it was 48vdc. Uncertain though.
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3. ttyprintk ◴[23 Nov 24 00:08 UTC] No.42218372[source]▶
Yeah, would have been 48 vdc for line operations, 60 and up AC for the ring.