ARM Demos Bicycle-Powered Server (Video)

We've never doubted ARM's claims regarding the low power requirements of its processors but, for those who have, the company provided a treat during the Red Hat Summit.

Currently, high-power RISC and x86 processors are the main types of chips being used by supercomputers, servers, data centers and most other high-performance computers on the planet.

ARM has had enough of being relegated to the phone and tablet market though. In fact, some servers based on its architecture already exist.

HP, the greatest provider of PCs worldwide, has such systems. Out of them, the most relevant are those made by Calxeda.

Granted, last month, HP put ARM second and revealed some Centerton-based servers, which implied that ARM's move beyond the borders of the mobile market was being stalled.

The demonstration during the Red Hat Summit might be giving the company second thoughts though, or at least remove any concerns about ARM servers not being a promising venture.

After all, it isn't every day that people get to see a server running on only the energy provided by a bicycle.

There were some special devices involved of course, but that didn't really take away from the significance of the demonstration.

A Pedal-a-Watt stationary bike power generator, a 35Ah battery, a 400 watt inverter and a UPS allowed Jon Masters to run 32 ARM cores just by pedaling his road bike.

Of course, the demo doesn't actually mean ARM hopes to make all servers portable and pedal-powered, but it still has worth as proof of concept.

If nothing else, it gives more credence to the vision of a world where machinery can generate its own power through motion. That's quite a jump from barely managing to provide energy for a small light bulb to act as a front or back light during the night.



Via: ARM Demos Bicycle-Powered Server (Video)