Google’s First Production Server

Canon EOS 5D

ƒ/4

24 mm

1/20

400

…with the hair pulled back, revealing a rack of cheap networked PCs, circa 1999.

Each level has a couple of PC boards slammed in there, partially overlapping. This approach reflects a presumption of rapid obsolescence of cheap hardware, which would not need to be repaired. Several of the PCs never worked, and the system design optimized around multiple computer failures.

Larry and Sergey told me long ago that the beta system used Duplo blocks for the chassis because generic brand plastic blocks were not rigid enough.

We held an event at the Computer History Museum yesterday, and I noticed this new item in the collection. It pre-dates the Google Master Plan.

54 responses to “Google’s First Production Server”

jurvetson

Jan 25, 2013 at 1:11 am

Some interesting historical detail from amitp about the racks:

The "hh" rack was in the lobby of B42 for many years, and I guess it’s now gone nomadic. The public can see its cousin, the "jj" rack, at The Computer History Museum.

This is the "hh" rack [below], with machines hh1 through hh80. Originally they were in order, with hh1–4 on the top rack and hh77–80 on the bottom rack. However, looking at the photo, they’ve been shuffled a bit. Not sure why.
"hh" was an early generation Google rack. Originally there was a1–a25 and c1–c4, and then they went through the alphabet, then started using double letters. Back then, machines were individually assigned to projects. I had been assigned hh4, and it treated me well — it was much better behaved than the other machines I had been assigned. They ran out of double letters and switched to two letters, then four (using the datacenter for two of them). As the number of machines grew, Google built systems to automate machine allocation and deallocation, so Googlers no longer grow attached to specific machines as I did to hh4.

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Lenabem-Anna J.

Jul 5, 2013 at 11:58 pm

Excellent!
Please add this wonderful work to: 100 000+ Views

!!!After posting your image, please comment on
ANY 3 photos in the pool using the group’s comment code.!!!

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undanganpernikahan

Aug 3, 2017 at 6:11 pm

historic
contoh undangan pernikahan dan harganya

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awake way

May 20, 2021 at 6:27 am

Thank you very much for the sharing! COOL..
Creative Media

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Google’s First Production Server

54 responses to “Google’s First Production Server”

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