At first I was concerned that there would be so much humidity inside of the capsule from the condensation caused by the temperature difference between the outside and the inside, but I see they've addressed that by replacing the atmosphere with Nitrogen.
I wonder if they've considered an inert fluid to immerse the computers in? If you can use something like Fluorinert, or even high-grade mineral oil, you might be able to make the vessel not required to withstand crush forces as high since the fluid in the capsule can be at the same pressures.
I do love this idea because they can start putting data centers along of submarine cables. One in the middle of the Atlantic, between London and NYC would be great for HFT traders.
I wouldn't be surprised if the NSA wouldn't love something like this too. A whole data center on cross-oceanic cables would provide a lot of infrastructure they can use to analyze traffic in real-time.
> At first I was concerned that there would be so much humidity inside of the capsule from the condensation caused by the temperature difference between the outside and the inside, but I see they've addressed that by replacing the atmosphere with Nitrogen.
Whatever reason they have for using nitrogen (making the thing fireproof is one reason), avoiding condensation isn't it. You could do that just by using dry air and packing a little silica gel. It's not like you're going to introduce more moisture over time into a sealed system.
I'm not sure what nitrogen has to do with humidity. I don't think anything. If humidity was the problem there are other ways to deal with it (the water doesn't come from nowhere, and once it's gone, you won't get any condensation anymore).
Sounds like (pressurized) nitrogen had more to do with increasing the air density for heat transfer. But I still don't know why they chose nitrogen.
Yeah I'm not sure what it has to do with it either, desiccants[1] are nothing new and they are the standard when it comes to humidity reduction in shipping. You might be familiar with those little packets of silica beads in foods and computer components that say "DO NOT EAT" on them.
That said, nitrogen-refrigeration is commonly used for temperature control.
"A whole data center on cross-oceanic cables would provide a lot of infrastructure they can use to analyze traffic in real-time."
And plenty of room for submarine cat-and-mouse. Guess it'd have to be inside US waters.
I wonder if they've considered an inert fluid to immerse the computers in? If you can use something like Fluorinert, or even high-grade mineral oil, you might be able to make the vessel not required to withstand crush forces as high since the fluid in the capsule can be at the same pressures.
I do love this idea because they can start putting data centers along of submarine cables. One in the middle of the Atlantic, between London and NYC would be great for HFT traders.
I wouldn't be surprised if the NSA wouldn't love something like this too. A whole data center on cross-oceanic cables would provide a lot of infrastructure they can use to analyze traffic in real-time.