[mythtv-users] Silicondust Makes CableCard Announcement

David Brodbeck gull at gull.us
Sat Jan 9 23:19:19 UTC 2010


On Jan 9, 2010, at 7:43 AM, Brian Wood wrote:
> High power land-based broadcasting is environmentally wrong,  
> inefficient and
> helps nobody but the license holders. If Apple, or anyone else, can  
> promote
> better alternatives they have my support.

I'm not sure Internet content delivery is really any more "green" if  
you consider the infrastructure necessary to support it.  Hundreds of  
data centers full of servers sucking power, plus A/C sucking an equal  
amount of power to pull the heat back out again.  Not to mention the  
cumulative power drain of millions of routers, modems, and STBs that  
are all on 24/7...plus what's necessary to manufacture and install  
miles and miles of glass, copper, and plastic...

The power consumption of even small server farms is pretty  
astounding.  At work we have a single rack of 1U servers.  I've  
calculated that, on average, it pulls about three times as much power  
as my entire apartment, and that's old equipment that isn't all that  
dense.  I've heard new data centers are planning for 15 kW per rack,  
not counting the power necessary for cooling.




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