14 Aug
2012
14 Aug
'12
11:15 p.m.
On 14 Aug 2012 at 7:55, Lee Courtney wrote:
Re. noise in the data center - yes they could be loud.
When I was in
college in the mid-1970s I worked as the weekend operator for an IBM
370/155 and DEC-2050. There was a lot of fan noise. Not so much you
couldn't hold a conversation, but you did have to yell to be around
across the machine room. The only piece of equipment we had that had
significant noise reduction was the IBM printer (1403?). The
interesting thing about noise in the machine room is how quiet it is
when everything is turned off.?
In Sunnyvale, when all the construction outfits were tearing up
orchards and fields and pouring concrete tilt-ups, power failures
were frequent. SVLOPS didn't have a backup generator, so when the
power went out, it was just the emergency lighting and the groaning
of both the people trying to get work done and the CEs (for the work
they'd have to do when power came back up). Otherwise, yes, deathly,
eerily silent. It generally took the better part of several hours to
get the systems back up. They were not tolerant of power outages.
I was reminded of this today, when a tree fell across a line coming
out of the substation up the road. When the power was restored,
everything came back up with scarcely a hiccup.
Times have certainly changed...
--Chuck