Google Search one 100 watt bulb power consumption of 1 hour

"Search Engine" is the word really wonderful. Engine is the engine, you want it started, obviously can not do without energy or power, this is true, the network search millions of computers need to be completed in coordination. Through networking, they are placed in the warehouse into a single computer system. As with any system, the system can not violate the laws of thermodynamics, it will consume energy.

First law of thermodynamics that the work needs to consume energy, such as promotion of small silicon electronics such work as well. The second law states that no engine is perfect. In other words, the input of some energy as heat will eventually disappear.

A successful search results page, need to have these two conditions are clear and orderly. To provide the ideal results, the server group will be too busy to mess. Thermal motion of silicon atoms stirs the air behind the computer CPU support and its heating elements. In order to drive the heat out of computer fans and air-conditioned warehouse, we need to consume more energy. No matter what search, eventually comes down to the same work process: moving atoms and then cooled. All of these steps require consumption of energy.

Let us to Google, for example, to see how much energy consumption of the whole process takes. According to U.S. IT research firm Gart-ner estimates that Google data center with nearly 1 million servers, each server consumes about 1,000 watts per hour of electricity. In other words, Google's search engine consumes 1 million kilowatts hour of electricity. The search engine produces per hour, nearly 10 million search results; the energy consumption of each search can work a 100-watt bulb for one hour!

This result, many people have not heard of. In the United States, Americans conducted 1.5 searches per day. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that data center energy consumption in the United States, the proportion accounted for 1.5%. If the Americans carried out hundreds of searches per day, this ratio will happen to? If the world's 6 billion people use search services, in turn consume much energy?

We have all heard the view: cloud computing will be the future of information architecture. But the future awaits us, may be a huge "carbon dioxide cloud."