Article

2006-08-07 Science & Technology

NSA Facing Electrical Overload - Cannot Upgrade Computers

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Posted by Anonymoose 2006-08-07 13:30|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Lets wait till it's a crisis and get congress to fund it rather than do it right.

Posted by 49 Pan">49 Pan 2006-08-07 13:36|| 2006-08-07 13:36|| Front Page Top

#2 Well - they are mothballing NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain so -- they have lots of un-interuptable power... move some of the operation there until Fort Meade is fixed.
No question of it being secure!

Posted by 3dc 2006-08-07 13:44|| 2006-08-07 13:44|| Front Page Top

#3 Nah, it is all the bit-torrent sites that people are running there.

Posted by DarthVader 2006-08-07 13:45|| 2006-08-07 13:45|| Front Page Top

#4 The BRAC is also relocation approximately a bazillion jobs to Ft. Meade in the next five years...they better get their grid powered up ASAP.

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2006-08-07 13:46|| 2006-08-07 13:46|| Front Page Top

#5 They can set up a remote site if they want to and run jobs from there. And now that Intel has the new big-boy on the block that takes a lot less power to do a lot more work than anything else out there. Out with the old, in with the new! Don't forget to wipe the hard drives before you auction them off, though!

Posted by gorb 2006-08-07 14:15|| 2006-08-07 14:15|| Front Page Top

#6 You dont wipe secret hard drives.
You crush them and burn them.

Posted by 3dc 2006-08-07 16:58|| 2006-08-07 16:58|| Front Page Top

#7 You send them off to be shreaded and melted down.

Posted by DarthVader 2006-08-07 17:27|| 2006-08-07 17:27|| Front Page Top

#8 NSA is moving some of their operations to a ormer Sony plant in San Antonio.

Posted by Brett 2006-08-07 17:27|| 2006-08-07 17:27|| Front Page Top

#9 They should just move everything next to Hoover Dam.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-08-07 17:50|| 2006-08-07 17:50|| Front Page Top

#10 You dont wipe secret hard drives.
You crush them and burn them.

Donate them for elementary teacher workstations.
Feather + Anvil = KERBOOM!

Posted by 6 2006-08-07 17:55|| 2006-08-07 17:55|| Front Page Top

#11 DeGauss them.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-08-07 17:56|| 2006-08-07 17:56|| Front Page Top

#12 Its not just the harddrives. In a server there are lots of parts that have NVRAM that *can* have info written to it if someone really knows what they are doing. Some of these parts can cost upwards of 20K and the big boys refuse to return them when broken unless the server venders can guarantee the NVRAM is wiped absolutely clean.

Its kind of eye-opening to see the level of secrecy and realize that its probably not simple paranoia. Makes those movies where they use usb thumb drives to get data out of the CIA look niave.

Posted by rjschwarz">rjschwarz 2006-08-07 18:32|| 2006-08-07 18:32|| Front Page Top

#13 Easily solved. Cut all power to Senate and House. Divert to Ft. Meade. Not only will we never miss them, we'll only wonder why we didn't do it sooner.

Posted by SOP35/Rat 2006-08-07 19:07|| 2006-08-07 19:07|| Front Page Top

#14 Turn out tyhe lights and turn off the computer when you leave the room, guys. It's absolutely amazing how much energy that frees up. ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2006-08-07 19:47|| 2006-08-07 19:47|| Front Page Top

#15 You dont wipe secret hard drives.
You crush them and burn them.

As one computer expert said, "The only way to prevent someone from recovering any data off of your hard drive is to remove the the disk and hammer it repeatedly."

Sounds like the NSA needs to import a submarine or carrier reactor to meet its ampacity shortfall.

Posted by Zenster 2006-08-07 20:17|| 2006-08-07 20:17|| Front Page Top

#16 The trend in CPUs, even the new intel big boys, is more power consumption not less. The reason the new intels appear less consumptive is because of multi-cpu comparisons to n-core comparison - not an apple to apple comparison.

But my friends, it is not just the ICs that are burning the juice, it is the cooling for all of these massive heat generators (CPUs, Memory, BIOSes, disks, etc) running ... that is where the real drain is, cooling these massive computing centers.

Posted by bombay">bombay 2006-08-07 20:24|| 2006-08-07 20:24|| Front Page Top

#17 As an interesting sidenote: When installing a Cray II, you first brought in three phase 480VAC and then connected that to another independent electrical generator which was able to provide much more stable power delivery than the utilities could supply. Very finnicky power regulation requirements were needed to ensure peak performance.

Posted by Zenster 2006-08-07 20:38|| 2006-08-07 20:38|| Front Page Top

#18 Yeah, vectors and their supporting equipment are very picky. And boy do they need cooling!

Posted by bombay">bombay 2006-08-07 21:11|| 2006-08-07 21:11|| Front Page Top

#19 I know that with phone equipment, the grid power is rectified and floated on a battery bank. Then that bank is inverted and fed to the phone equipment. That way, power is always stable.

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2006-08-07 22:05|| 2006-08-07 22:05|| Front Page Top

#20 We use active online-ups(es) backed up by generators. None of the switching ups can hang in our environment. Essentialy, all power is fed through the ups(es) which condition it and clean it up.

We have AC aluminum welders and what not, very harsh environment for systems. Have to do all we can for clean and reliable power.

Posted by bombay">bombay 2006-08-07 22:12|| 2006-08-07 22:12|| Front Page Top

23:49 gorb
23:47 trailing wife
23:27 ryuge
22:33 DMFD
22:22 tipper
22:18 Barbara Skolaut
22:12 SteveS
22:12 bombay
22:05 Alaska Paul
21:53 Alaska Paul
21:51 bombay
21:48 BA
21:48 gorb
21:46 Manolo
21:40 DarthVader
21:22 Nimble Spemble
21:20 Snease Shaiting3550
21:14 bombay
21:11 bombay
21:07 Inspector Clueso
21:04 BA
20:58 CrazyFool
20:57 Zenster
20:55 voter