Systems in Data Centers
Luigi Brochard, Vinod Kamath, Julita Corbalán, Scott Holland, Walter Mittelbach, Michael Ott · 2019
There are different types of IT equipment that serve different functions depending on customer application. This chapter provides an overview of servers, storage arrays, switches and their components. Most servers contain the following major hardware building blocks: processors, memory, chipset, input/output devices, storage, peripherals, voltage regulators, power supplies and cooling systems. The processor, also referred to as the central processing unit, is one of the greatest sources of heat generation within a server. Graphics processing units (GPUs), also called general purpose GPUs in the industry, enable heterogeneous computing when installed into a server. Aside from the basic processing of data and instructions to provide an output result, processors may also have many more features for managing data and power throughout a system. In large data centers, the load on the networking equipment can be substantial, both in terms of port count and data throughput.