A low-power data center built from 2,000 old Pixel phones
The University of California has built a low-carbon from 2,000 retired Pixel phones. The phones are stripped down to their main boards, loaded with a that removes some consumer phone limits, and grouped into clusters of 25 to 50 devices. Modern phone can match or beat modern server cores on single-threaded work.
Benchmark results suggest that 25 to 50 phones can deliver roughly the work of one modern server. Early tests showed that a 20-phone cluster could handle peak assignment submissions for a class of more than 75 students, with grading delays lower than the default AWS backend. A 2,000-phone setup is expected to support about 100 similar classes at the same time.
The system will also be used to study phone-based computing at large scale.
Key points
- The system uses 2,000 retired Pixel phones as a low-carbon .
- Each phone is reduced to its main board and runs a .
- The phones are organized into clusters of 25 to 50 devices.
- Tests suggest 25 to 50 phones can compare with one modern server.
- The idea is relevant to low-power , but it is much harder to run than a Mac mini.