Which Geographies Use
The Most Server Juice?

Back in February 2007, Jonathan Koomey, with Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, estimated that in 2000, the world’s 14.1 million servers consumed 58.4 billion kilowatt-hours of juice. Six years later, in 2005, he estimated that the 27.3 million servers had consumed 122.9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the year (up 110.4 percent). Obviously, the server base and their power consumption on a worldwide basis was growing faster over those six years, which begged the further question of where this growth was occurring. Upon further investigation, Koomey found that the United States is the power hog that you would expect it to be, and that is based mainly on the large installed base of servers that U.S. data centers, data closets, and spaces under desktops have humming away inside of them. Full story.

From Gaming Cards
To Parallel Computing

Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang made his mark creating graphic cards for video games, without which there would be no high-definition Web video, and no visual kick from battling aliens in the lush digital forests of the Crysis game. Huang is now turning his focus beyond gamers to a host of new customers that will need number-crunching power, such as biologists visualizing molecular structures to find drug target sites. This year Nvidia delivered its Tesla line of muscle-bound computing machines built around graphics processors. "You can see essentially a very high performance cluster the size of a desktop, at the cost of a desktop," says Nvidia board member and Berkeley Lab Director Steve Chu. Full story.

Staff Asked for Patience
During Cafeteria Changes

Cal Dining offers an organic salad bar

Because of the brief turn-around time between switching from Eurest to Cal Dining, just three weeks in fact, food offerings in the cafeteria will be limited. The new service is expected to be fully operational in about two weeks. At that time, a larger menu will be available, including vegetarian and vegan options. Cal Dining will also be expanding the hours of the cafeteria and cafe to include weekend service. Feedback from customers is encouraged to assist in the transition. Those with suggestions or comments can contact manager Victoria Fassano. Starting next week, daily specials will be offered. See the menu section of Today at Berkeley Lab for those items.

Get Paid Back for Weight
Watchers; Meeting Jan. 9

To help improve the health of employees, the Lab's Health Services group will reimburse the cost of attending onsite Weight Watchers classes. Those who attend at least 14 of the 17 weekly classes will have the cost paid back by the Lab ($10.94 per week or $186 for the full session). The Wednesday meetings begin Jan. 16 at noon in Building 26-124. An information meeting will be held this Wednesday, same time and location. To sign up, contact Cathy Wentworth (x5334).

18-Foot-Tall Agave
Puts on Show at Gardens