Open Compute
Facebook’s open compute server makes some interesting design decisions. Most of the innovations pioneered in Open Compute require adjustments to both traditional server design and the attendant data center to get synergies from the mechanical and electrical infrastructure. The fact that the small-area fans in 1U rack servers, for example, are grossly inefficient has been overlooked for years in server design as an excessive focus by customers and vendors on density has obfuscated such issues. The removal of two electrical step-down stages (one in the grid and one or more in the server power-supply) also requires a significant rethink in both the data center and server design, but eliminates two sources of energy loss which results in a meaningful benefit on the economics of a large-scale datacenter.
Although individually manufactured in Taiwan the hardware is assembled by Synnex subsidiary Hyve into large racks in Oakland, CA.