Facebook is strengthening its global data centers with the launch of another modular switch platform, which follows its recently announced Wedge 100.
Backpack basically connects all the racks of a server within a data center. The second-gen modular switch will see Facebook’s data centers make the jump from 40-gigabit fiber optic networking to 100-gigabit.
Facebook claims the “Backpack” system is already in production at its headquarters (likely within its massive Area 404 hardware lab). Facebook also plans to submit its design to the Open Compute Project (OCP) — a coalition of tech giants that share computer infrastructure frameworks in order to accelerate growth and push down prices. It’s hoping the input of the wider tech community will help it, and others, to build upon the Backpack ecosystem.
As the company moves toward a more video-centric platform (Facebook claims 70 percent of its traffic will be generated by the format by the year 2021), it must ensure it can meet the bandwidth requirements high-quality media content demands. Seeing as a 100-gigabit network consumes significantly more power than a 40-gigabit network, the real risk is that the system will overheat. Critically, the company claims its second-gen switch opens up more air channel space for a better thermal performance. Backpack has been put through several test phases that focus on engineering, design and production validation at Facebook’s Altoona data center in Iowa.
“Backpack … [brings] faster bandwidth and better bandwidth to everyone,” said Jay Parikh, head of engineering and infrastructure at Facebook, at the Structure tech conference.
Facebook also recently unveiled its first telecom hardware equipment device, dubbed “Voyager.” The open source white box” transponder is designed to link data centers using a high-speed optical networking system that can cover large geographical distances. Voyager is part of the company’s Telecom Infra Project, an open source telecoms initiative similar to OCP.
Comets probably weren’t reliable couriers for the ingredients that helped life begin on Earth. A new Cambridge-led study found that fragile organic molecules would usually have been destroyed when the comets carrying them struck the surface.
Published in Scientific Reports, the research tracked hydrogen cyanide, a molecule involved in chemistry that can precede life. Rare successful deliveries remain possible, but the simulations offered little support for a steady supply from comets.
San Francisco startup Dimensional advertised for people to walk robot dogs through city streets. The New York Times reported that the job could include carrying a roughly 33-pound robot back to the office if it overheated. A lift home is an awkward requirement for a labor-saving machine.
Keeping the hardware running is only one challenge. Anthropic's robotics tests found that language models mostly failed when controlling joints directly, but did better when directing trained controllers. Giving an AI agent a body doesn't teach it to handle ordinary household objects.
Soon, a mattress protector may be more than a bed cover. Australian medtech company Sleeptite and researchers at RMIT University have received a US patent for FlexiSense, a smart bedding technology that tracks body position and posture to help caregivers identify when older residents may be at risk of falling.
The technology is being developed for Sleeptite’s in-bed monitoring system, REMi, and was recently on display at The MedTech Conference in Boston. A peer-reviewed study in Flexible and Printed Electronics says the sensors can also be made at scale without sacrificing performance or durability.