UMaine and SiCortex: keeping cyclists off the mean streets of New England

On Wednesday this week the University of Maine Computer Science Department is making a point about the energy efficiency of their new box by having it powered by a team of bicyclists from the UMaine Cycling Club. You’ll recall that SiCortex has done this a few times before.

“We at UMaine are focused on responsible computing: achieving more with fewer resources,” said George Markowsky, acting chairman of the UMaine Computer Science Department. “It’s easy to overlook the fact that for every watt of electricity used to run these large computers, up to another watt is required to cool the system. By choosing the most energy-efficient supercomputer available, we are providing state-of-the-art computing to our students and faculty, while minimizing our energy requirements.”

…In most cases, a single processor uses about 100 watts of power, while a processor in a SiCortex machine uses ½ watt of power.