Advanced Micro Devices on Monday announced its participation with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), HP and Clarkson University in a significant research project that looks at the industry-wide challenge of channeling renewable energy directly to data centers.

Backing from NYSERDA and additional private funding sources are enabling this proposal, developed by AMD engineers in conjunction with Clarkson University, to enter the research phase.  Students will begin experimentation on effectively managing data through a distributed network based on renewable energy. The second phase of the project plans to incorporate hardware elements, including HP’s Performance Optimized Datacenter (POD) based on the AMD Opteron processor, purpose-built for energy efficiency and cloud computing.

“The distributed computing model of the cloud parallels the distributed power-generation model of solar and wind energy. Directing power to data centers from these emerging renewable energy resources without relying on a large-scale, traditional electrical grid is a key challenge. One ultimate goal is the co-location of dynamic energy sources with dynamic computing resources to improve the economics, performance, and environmental benefits of both infrastructures," said Alan Lee, corporate vice president of research and advanced development at AMD.

Because wind and solar-derived energy can be intermittent, this study will also examine critical questions of how to automatically shift a compute load between data centers and maintain reliability.

HP’s POD portfolio includes the industry’s leading energy-efficient, modular data center.  Built on HP Converged Infrastructure, HP POD technology provides clients currently burdened with aging infrastructure, limited space and shrinking budgets the agility needed to rapidly scale and meet increasing capacity demands. According to HP, the newest solution in the HP POD family, the EcoPOD, can offer 95% greater energy efficiency when compared to traditional brick-and-mortar data centers. HP will offer this project its POD expertise in energy-efficient data center design that delivers maximum density with greater serviceability.

AMD Research conducts work on next-generation computing questions in the areas of systems and technologies, network infrastructure and power, among others.  It also collaborates on projects with leading universities, public sector organizations and commercial labs worldwide.

Tags: AMD, HP, Opteron