November 11, 2014 at 11:00The evolution of the data center in the cinema
No one doubts the significance of data centers in the modern world. Evolving, developing, they continue to occupy leading roles in our daily life. Let's follow the development of data centers in a world that is not quite real, in the world of cinematography, in the world of pop culture. So ...
Data centers and cinema? They have been repeatedly presented to our eyes from blue screens over the years (at least as a concept). Along with supercomputers, hackers in various action films and science fiction (take, for example, Star Wars), the data center often appears in the lead roles. It will be interesting to follow the development of the concept of cinema data centers throughout the development of the world of cinematography.
Initially, futuristic boxes with blinking LEDs - this is how the data centers were presented in some films, such as Hacker, designed to convey the idea and concept of mystery, the power of data centers from the screens to the viewer. In more modern films, for example, "Excellence," such centers take on a look that is more consistent with reality, as the data centers actually look.
Going back to the distant 1960s ...
Two opposite emotions are caused by “2001: Space Odyssey”: people either love or hate this film directed by Stanley Kubrick. A very leisurely plot of the film, a series of bewitching slow combined shooting. EAL-9000 (HAL 9000) - a heuristic programmed algorithmic computer, a system based on artificial intelligence is similar to an eye in the form of a lens. With many abilities, HAL 9000 also knows how to read lips, appreciates art, experiences emotions.
The HAL 9000 is the first and most important computer device that has ever been used. A machine with a human mind, ambition and pride, getting rid of witnesses to their mistakes. The main character of the film turns off the HAL 9000 completely, going into the room that is behind the supercomputer, in fact, is the center of storage of the “mind” of the HAL 9000 machine, that is, the prototype of the data center. It is a rectangular room lit with red light with various boxes storing and processing information.
The idea of the film literally dreamed of James Cameron. The plot focuses on the confrontation between a living soldier and a cyborg terminator. In this film, the data center acts as the universal scale of Mr. Evil. There is a large number of super machines, Skynet is a representative of artificial intelligence. A war of self-conscious machines and humanity.
2001: The Space Odyssey and Terminator, with their comic unrealistic super machines HAL 9000 and Skynet, led to the creation of the IBM WATSON supercomputer , which is equipped with a question-answer artificial intelligence system.
A group of hackers is tasked with creating programs that effectively hack repositories of classified information. Cyber terrorists use hacker software to break into the FBI network and begin to destroy the infrastructure of all the US. In the title role, Bruce Willis is always a toughie. Hackers manage to use the capabilities of the system with a single control panel that looks impressive, if not for its implausibility.
It should be noted that Warlock is played by Kevin Smith. Warlock manages a “command post” which is actually located in the basement, but can be considered as a home data centerlike the end of the 90s. Having looked at the “changing / mutating encrypted algorithms” of the solid-state drive, the fact that the most important state information is in a separate backup data center, one conclusion suggests itself - is it a horror movie before us, the audience ?!
I recall another home data center, from the movie “Devil's Seed,” in which a certain doctor Frankenstein creates a super brilliant computer with an “over-brain” named Proteus 4. He naturally refuses to serve his creator, he enters his house through the terminal, which just stuffed with electronics and starts to control everything. Horrors, and only ...
One can not help but recall another story known to the film which revolves around artificial intelligence.
Computers enslaved humanity, even not, they did not enslave, but simply created their own world for them, absolutely analogous to the one in which they used to live. What is the result: machines got a good source of energy, and people the opportunity to live, love, etc.
And here we have an effective solution to the problems associated with the search for alternative energy sources for data centers. And at the same time, the output of energy is more than required for keeping these same people in capsules. The perfect solution! And that’s all, well, almost all, “happy” living in such a world, although computers could have come up with something more insidious for the fate of people. Since the machine is completely organic, all its parts make up an anti-utopian data center.
In films since 2000, data processing and storage centers deviate from the abstract concept and take on a form that is more suitable for the real one. Already we meet more “classic” data centers with traditional racks. In this film, one of the criminals makes his way to the casino data center. He connects the device to a network cable, which, as if by magic, provides access to a video stream from casino surveillance cameras.
Finally, we begin to see scenes in the data center resembling reality. James Bond does the job, saving a hard drive with a list of British intelligence agents who are rooted in the largest terrorist organizations in the world. In one of the scenes in front of James Bond, we see a neatly organized data center, in a huge room that belongs to the film's anti-hero. CEO of Compass Datacenters Chris Crosby called Skyfall - Film of the Year of the data center .
The Iron Man logo featured several times in the Oracle logo - an American corporation, the world's largest developer of software for organizations, and also a server equipment supplier. And in the van of the protagonist installed their complex Exadata. A fairly powerful Database Machine, for those of you who are interested, the X2-8 version included two Sun X4800 servers with eight processor sockets such as Socket LS, and fourteen Exadata Storage Server nodes. The complex’s servers were equipped with eight-core Intel Xeon X7560 processors with a frequency of 2.26 GHz, and 1 TB of RAM in each of the two nodes. Only one complete set was delivered (full cabinet) with a cost of $ 1.5 million for US consumers. Cabinet weight - 943 kg, peak power consumption - 17 kW, the average power consumption claimed by the manufacturer is 11.9 kW.
In a van for a couple of thousand dollars a cabinet is stored for $ 1.5 million, also the question is, how do they provide energy consumption? Another fictitious article was released on how Stark Industries (Oracle) uses a cloud data center owned by Oracle. So, as we see, the evolution of the data center on the blue screens takes place partially, acquires real external characteristics, but does not quite correspond to reality.
In this film, data centers are presented in the "future." Therefore, their appearance does not correspond to the modern. Server cabinets are not arranged in rows, but are evenly distributed from each other. Kinolyap - you say, but who knows, maybe in the future the amount of heat generated by the servers will be zero? Which will allow placing server cabinets in this way.
The superiority of Wally Pfister is original in that it reveals the possibility of combining man and machine. The talented scientist Will Custer is working hard for the benefit of science and humanity, he is eager to create the greatest artificial intelligence on the planet in order to conquer diseases, old age and restore ecological balance.
All you need to create the perfect data center is your body, the human body. The mind of the protagonist Will (Joni Depp) transforms into artificial intelligence and builds the most beautiful date center that has ever appeared on blue screens. The whole network becomes part of Will. The entire infrastructure of mankind depends on it.
“To destroy artificial intelligence, you need to turn off all computers on earth, and turn off the Internet. Apparently a big red circuit breaker still exists. About non-volatile memory (for example, such as all hard drives and SSDs) they apparently were not in the know. Or our modest artificial intelligence wasn’t in the know ... ”The
data center was located in the fictional town of Brightwood, 5 levels underground. It is built underground based on the goals of safety, maintenance and control of temperature conditions. Solar panels act as a source of energy.
The evolution of data centers in the history of cinematography from the HAL computer of the Space Odyssey to the artificial intelligence from the film Superiority has come a long way. The general public is opening up such a thing as a data center. Initially, being a set of flashing buttons and boxes in movies, data centers gradually began to appear from the screens to viewers in their real "guise".
Data centers and cinema? They have been repeatedly presented to our eyes from blue screens over the years (at least as a concept). Along with supercomputers, hackers in various action films and science fiction (take, for example, Star Wars), the data center often appears in the lead roles. It will be interesting to follow the development of the concept of cinema data centers throughout the development of the world of cinematography.
Initially, futuristic boxes with blinking LEDs - this is how the data centers were presented in some films, such as Hacker, designed to convey the idea and concept of mystery, the power of data centers from the screens to the viewer. In more modern films, for example, "Excellence," such centers take on a look that is more consistent with reality, as the data centers actually look.
Going back to the distant 1960s ...
2001: Space Odyssey / 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Two opposite emotions are caused by “2001: Space Odyssey”: people either love or hate this film directed by Stanley Kubrick. A very leisurely plot of the film, a series of bewitching slow combined shooting. EAL-9000 (HAL 9000) - a heuristic programmed algorithmic computer, a system based on artificial intelligence is similar to an eye in the form of a lens. With many abilities, HAL 9000 also knows how to read lips, appreciates art, experiences emotions.
The HAL 9000 is the first and most important computer device that has ever been used. A machine with a human mind, ambition and pride, getting rid of witnesses to their mistakes. The main character of the film turns off the HAL 9000 completely, going into the room that is behind the supercomputer, in fact, is the center of storage of the “mind” of the HAL 9000 machine, that is, the prototype of the data center. It is a rectangular room lit with red light with various boxes storing and processing information.
Terminator 1 and 2 / Terminator 1 and 2 (1984, 1991)
The idea of the film literally dreamed of James Cameron. The plot focuses on the confrontation between a living soldier and a cyborg terminator. In this film, the data center acts as the universal scale of Mr. Evil. There is a large number of super machines, Skynet is a representative of artificial intelligence. A war of self-conscious machines and humanity.
2001: The Space Odyssey and Terminator, with their comic unrealistic super machines HAL 9000 and Skynet, led to the creation of the IBM WATSON supercomputer , which is equipped with a question-answer artificial intelligence system.
Die Hard 4: Freedom or Death / Live Free Or Die Hard (2007)
A group of hackers is tasked with creating programs that effectively hack repositories of classified information. Cyber terrorists use hacker software to break into the FBI network and begin to destroy the infrastructure of all the US. In the title role, Bruce Willis is always a toughie. Hackers manage to use the capabilities of the system with a single control panel that looks impressive, if not for its implausibility.
It should be noted that Warlock is played by Kevin Smith. Warlock manages a “command post” which is actually located in the basement, but can be considered as a home data centerlike the end of the 90s. Having looked at the “changing / mutating encrypted algorithms” of the solid-state drive, the fact that the most important state information is in a separate backup data center, one conclusion suggests itself - is it a horror movie before us, the audience ?!
I recall another home data center, from the movie “Devil's Seed,” in which a certain doctor Frankenstein creates a super brilliant computer with an “over-brain” named Proteus 4. He naturally refuses to serve his creator, he enters his house through the terminal, which just stuffed with electronics and starts to control everything. Horrors, and only ...
One can not help but recall another story known to the film which revolves around artificial intelligence.
The Matrix / The Matrix (1999)
Computers enslaved humanity, even not, they did not enslave, but simply created their own world for them, absolutely analogous to the one in which they used to live. What is the result: machines got a good source of energy, and people the opportunity to live, love, etc.
And here we have an effective solution to the problems associated with the search for alternative energy sources for data centers. And at the same time, the output of energy is more than required for keeping these same people in capsules. The perfect solution! And that’s all, well, almost all, “happy” living in such a world, although computers could have come up with something more insidious for the fate of people. Since the machine is completely organic, all its parts make up an anti-utopian data center.
Eleven Friends of Ocean / Ocean's Eleven (2001)
In films since 2000, data processing and storage centers deviate from the abstract concept and take on a form that is more suitable for the real one. Already we meet more “classic” data centers with traditional racks. In this film, one of the criminals makes his way to the casino data center. He connects the device to a network cable, which, as if by magic, provides access to a video stream from casino surveillance cameras.
Agent 007: Skyfall Coordinates / Skyfall (2010)
Finally, we begin to see scenes in the data center resembling reality. James Bond does the job, saving a hard drive with a list of British intelligence agents who are rooted in the largest terrorist organizations in the world. In one of the scenes in front of James Bond, we see a neatly organized data center, in a huge room that belongs to the film's anti-hero. CEO of Compass Datacenters Chris Crosby called Skyfall - Film of the Year of the data center .
Iron Man 2 / Iron Man 2 (2010)
The Iron Man logo featured several times in the Oracle logo - an American corporation, the world's largest developer of software for organizations, and also a server equipment supplier. And in the van of the protagonist installed their complex Exadata. A fairly powerful Database Machine, for those of you who are interested, the X2-8 version included two Sun X4800 servers with eight processor sockets such as Socket LS, and fourteen Exadata Storage Server nodes. The complex’s servers were equipped with eight-core Intel Xeon X7560 processors with a frequency of 2.26 GHz, and 1 TB of RAM in each of the two nodes. Only one complete set was delivered (full cabinet) with a cost of $ 1.5 million for US consumers. Cabinet weight - 943 kg, peak power consumption - 17 kW, the average power consumption claimed by the manufacturer is 11.9 kW.
In a van for a couple of thousand dollars a cabinet is stored for $ 1.5 million, also the question is, how do they provide energy consumption? Another fictitious article was released on how Stark Industries (Oracle) uses a cloud data center owned by Oracle. So, as we see, the evolution of the data center on the blue screens takes place partially, acquires real external characteristics, but does not quite correspond to reality.
Tron: Legacy / Tron: Legacy (2010)
In this film, data centers are presented in the "future." Therefore, their appearance does not correspond to the modern. Server cabinets are not arranged in rows, but are evenly distributed from each other. Kinolyap - you say, but who knows, maybe in the future the amount of heat generated by the servers will be zero? Which will allow placing server cabinets in this way.
Excellence / Transcendence (2014)
The superiority of Wally Pfister is original in that it reveals the possibility of combining man and machine. The talented scientist Will Custer is working hard for the benefit of science and humanity, he is eager to create the greatest artificial intelligence on the planet in order to conquer diseases, old age and restore ecological balance.
All you need to create the perfect data center is your body, the human body. The mind of the protagonist Will (Joni Depp) transforms into artificial intelligence and builds the most beautiful date center that has ever appeared on blue screens. The whole network becomes part of Will. The entire infrastructure of mankind depends on it.
“To destroy artificial intelligence, you need to turn off all computers on earth, and turn off the Internet. Apparently a big red circuit breaker still exists. About non-volatile memory (for example, such as all hard drives and SSDs) they apparently were not in the know. Or our modest artificial intelligence wasn’t in the know ... ”The
data center was located in the fictional town of Brightwood, 5 levels underground. It is built underground based on the goals of safety, maintenance and control of temperature conditions. Solar panels act as a source of energy.
The evolution of data centers in the history of cinematography from the HAL computer of the Space Odyssey to the artificial intelligence from the film Superiority has come a long way. The general public is opening up such a thing as a data center. Initially, being a set of flashing buttons and boxes in movies, data centers gradually began to appear from the screens to viewers in their real "guise".