Apple is planning a solar panel farm for its data center in Reno

By Katie Fehrenbacher | GigaOM.com, Published: July 2

Apple, working with Nevada utility NV Energy, is planning to build another solar panel farm next to a data center, and this time it’s for its new data center in Reno, Nevada. Apple has already been building two solar panel farms next to its data center in North Carolina, and this latest solar farm in Reno, called the “Ft. Churchill Solar Array,” shows Apple’s growing commitment to clean power at its new facilities.

Apple’s solar farm in Reno will be able to provide between 18 to 20 MW worth of power, which is about the same size as its two solar plants in North Carolina, which are both 20 MW in size. For an independent company (not a utility) — particular an internet company — 18 to 20 MW is a very large solar system.

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But for the Reno solar farm, Apple is actually planning to use a new type of technology for the solar system, which includes both solar panels and also mirrors that concentrate the sun’s rays up to seven times onto the panels. That process increases the amount of power generated.

Apple is working with solar company SunPower on the engineering and construction, as well as the tracker technology that will be used with the solar panels. Apple also worked with SunPower for its North Carolina solar farms.

Apple’s partnership with utility NV Energy also shows how Apple is looking to work closely with utilities in states to create clean power options for its data centers.  Apple is one of the first companies to take advantage of a new green tariff approved by Nevada’s utility commission that will enable Apple to pay for the cost of building the solar panel farm.

Since Apple will assume the incremental building costs throughout the project, the rates of NV Energy’s other customers doesn’t have to go up. Duke Energy and Google are working on a similar (though slightly different) proposal in North Carolina.

In the Nevada green tariff proposal, NV Energy can also pay Apple to use or even eventually buy the solar farm and include it in its energy generating assets. The Nevada state utility commission approved the green tariff on June 12. Apple has an option to expand the solar farm as well.

Because building the solar farm might take awhile, Apple plans to also use local geothermal power (the Galena 3 geothermal facility), which is widely available in the Reno area. Part of the reason that Apple chose to build its next data center in Reno, Nevada was because of the abundant clean power there.

The Apple Reno solar farm could create 100 jobs during the construction period.

Apple addressed the project in a statement:

All of Apple’s data centers use 100 percent renewable energy, and we are on track to meet that goal in our new Reno data center using the latest in high-efficiency concentrating solar panels. This project will not only supply renewable energy for our data center but also provide clean energy to the local power grid, through a first-of-its-kind partnership with NV Energy. When completed, the 137 acre solar array will generate approximately 43.5 million kilowatt hours of clean energy, equivalent to taking 6,400 passenger vehicles off the road per year.

NV Energy CEO Michael Yackira said in a statement:

We’re excited to be in partnership with Apple on a new solar energy project, the first project under our new Green Energy Program.  This program allows customers such as Apple to choose to have a greater proportion of their energy coming from renewables than the law requires, without having a cost impact on our other customers.

Apple is looking to eventually use 100 percent clean power for its data centers through a combination of direct clean power generation, buying renewable energy credits and buying clean power from providers.

(c) 2013, GigaOM.com.

Suvolta’s energy-saving tech cuts an ARM chip’s power consumption in half

Chip startup Suvolta has developed a process that when used in manufacturing chips helps them conserve power, and it has shown off the results in a test with ARM. In that test, anARM microcontroller core consumed 50 percent less power than it previously would have running at 350 MHz. While these microcontroller cores aren’t the chips inside phones or servers, the Cortex M cores are ARM’s bet for the internet of things.

And if you think reducing power consumption on mobile devices is important, imagine having to plug in 40 or 50 sensors in order for your smart home to function. Those connected door locks or thermostats need power too.

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Yet, that’s not all that’s packed into the news about Suvolta’s ARM partnership. Jeff Lewis, SVP business development and marketing with Suvolta, notes that what happens with the Cortex M core could be duplicated in the higher-level A-15 and other ARM cores that are used in mobile phones. So while the Suvolta technology isn’t designed into those or used for manufacturing ARM’s cores today, an ARM licensee could easily bring the power-saving tech to the upper tiers of ARM cores if it chose.

The technology works best for systems on a chip — multiple cores combined together onto one chip. SoCs, as they are called, are becoming more important as companies integrate more functions on one chip.

Suvolta on Tuesday also announced apartnership with UMC, a semiconductor manufacturing plant, where UMC can make chips using the Suvolta Deeply Depleted Channel process at sizes down to 28 nanometers. The chip-making process aims to cram as many transistors on a chip as possible, and the lower that process number is, the more advanced (and energy efficient) the chip is. The ARM core tested was manufactured at 65 nanometers.

I’ve been amped up about Suvolta for a few years now, and am excited that its technology is gaining ground with big name companies such as ARM. We’re placing computing in more places, but without new breakthroughs in battery life, those computers will have to have wires or compromise compute for battery life. With Suvolta, they can double their run-time without time-consuming architecture changes or expensive manufacturing techniques.

(c) 2013, GigaOM.com.

Nelson Mandela dies; former president of South Africa was 95

View Photo Gallery — Nelson Mandela dies at age 95: In an extraordinary life that spanned the rural hills where he was groomed for tribal leadership, anti-apartheid activism, guerrilla warfare, 27 years of political imprisonment and, ultimately, the South African presidency, Nelson Mandela held a unique leadership cachet that engendered respect and awe in capitals around the globe.

Nelson Mandela, the former political prisoner who became the first president of a post-apartheid South Africa and whose heroic life and towering moral stature made him one of history’s most influential statesmen, died Thursday, the government announced. He was 95.

The death was announced in a televised address by South African President Jacob Zuma, who noted, “We’ve lost our greatest son.” No cause was provided.

Timeline

Nelson Mandela, also known as Madiba, led the struggle to replace South Africa's apartheid regime with a multi-racial democracy. See key moments in his life.

Audio

Listen to an excerpt of Mandela's famous speech.

To a country torn apart by racial divisions, Mr. Mandela became its most potent symbol of national unity, using the power of forgiveness and reconciliation to heal deep-rooted wounds and usher in an era of peace after decades of conflict between blacks and whites. To a continent rife with leaders who cling to power for life, Mr. Mandela became a role model for democracy, stepping down from the presidency after one term and holding out the promise of a new Africa.

And to a world roiled by war, poverty and oppression, Mr. Mandela became its conscience, fighting to overcome some of its most vexing problems. He was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who spent 27 years in prison as part of his lifelong struggle against racial oppression.

Throughout this moral and political fight, Mr. Mandela evoked a steely resolve, discipline and quiet dignity, coupled with a trademark big, charismatic smile. He ultimately carried them into office as South Africa’s first black president.

His victory capped decades of epic struggle by the African National Congress and other liberation groups against South Africa’s brutal white rulers, first under British colonialism and then under a white-run system called “apartheid,” or racial separation.

On the day of his inauguration — May 10, 1994 — Mr. Mandela stood at the podium near South Africa’s last apartheid-era president, F.W. de Klerk. A year earlier, they had shared the Nobel Prize for what the Nobel committee called “their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new, democratic South Africa.”

“We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation,” Mr. Mandela, then 75, declared. “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another . . . the sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement.”

Only a few years before, the 20th century’s most celebrated political prisoner had been dubbed a terrorist by the conservative governments in the United States and Britain under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, respectively.

In the decades after Mr. Mandela’s release from prison in 1990, many South Africans of all races referred to him reverentially as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name. Countless others called him Tata, which means father in the Xhosa language.

For all his achievements, Mr. Mandela will also be remembered as slow to react to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that began sweeping South Africa on his watch. It was not until 1998, four years into his presidency, that he directly addressed the South African public about the disease. Later, he would acknowledge that he had not initially recognized the severity of the epidemic.

Google, Facebook, payroll accounts targeted in major password theft, security experts say

Hackers using malicious software have scooped up the user names and passwords for about 2 million accounts on some of the most popular sites on the Web, including Facebook and Google, security researchers say.

According to researchers from the Chicago-based firm Trustwave, hackers used a “botnet” known as Pony to pull off the massive theft. After being downloaded through a Web site or e-mail, the software monitors users’ browsers, collecting their log-in credentials.

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The massive malware attack has been going on for at least a year, said John Miller, Trustwave’s security research manager.

Pony is a common malware tool, often sold and rebundled in hacking communities. It collects tens of thousands — sometimes hundreds of thousands — of passwords from Web sites, e-mail providers and other accounts each day, Miller said. The malware is probably collecting far more information than Trustwave discovered, he said.

The attack is smaller than some recent Internet data thefts, such as the 150 millionuser names and passwords taken from Adobe in November.

But the nature of the attack means that there is probably little the affected companies can do to stop it because it targets Web users rather than company security systems, Miller said.

The attack has already snagged user credentials from Web sites such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter and LinkedIn, according to Trustwave. But it also grabbed information from companies such as the payroll-services provider ADP. One of the world’s largest payroll companies, ADP administers the benefits and payroll systems for more than 620,000 companies.

Miller said that the kind of work ADP does makes it an attractive target for hackers.

“They’re a little different than Facebook,” he said. “You can use a Facebook account to spam people with, but ADP has banking information behind it.”

In a statement Wednesday, ADP said that is aware of the botnet and had determined that none of its internal networks or servers have been compromised. “To our knowledge, none of ADP’s clients has been adversely affected by the compromised credentials,” the company said in a statement.

Still, ADP said, it is requiring a password reset for the 2,400 of its clients who were affected out of an “abundance of caution.”

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Yahoo said they are working with Trustwave to reset the passwords on affected user accounts on their networks. None commented on whether users’ accounts have been penetrated.

Google declined to comment on the malware attack.

Miller said that, ultimately, the onus falls on companies and individuals to run regular antivirus scans on their computers. Companies can install software that prevents employees from downloading malware such as Pony, and individuals can do the same for their home computers. Those targeted by the attack should also change the login information for any account that shares a username or password with the affected account.

SIM card hacked, could affect "millions of phones"

German cryptographer Karsten Nohl claims to have broken the encryption standard on certain types of SIM cards. The exploit could allow a virus to be uploaded and then carry out payment system fraud, redirect and record calls, and more.

Nohl says that cards which are affected vary by country and carrier - since encryption standards vary between countries. According to his estimates about an eighth of the world's SIM cards could be affected, or about half a billion devices.

This marks the first time SIM cards have been compromised, as until now it was thought that SIM cards were unhackable. The Data Encryption Standards (DES) security encryption developed back in the 70's has finally been cracked, though.

The four major German carriers, as well Verizon and AT&T in the US have since commented that their SIM cards are not vulnerable. AT&T has even said that it had moved on to triple DES (3DES) almost 10 years ago.

Nohl claims that the dated security standard and badly implemented Java Card code could allow him to compromise the encryption keys of certain SIM cards in less than a minute. He has since shared his findings to various carriers and the GSMA in an effort to help close the exploit before it becomes widespread amongst cybercriminals.

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Krishna Govardhan

Krishna Govardhan

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Operation Bluestar - The Untold Story Of India - Part 1

Top Comments

•  
  Amli Tip-top 2 months ago

  its your fantasy..... live in fantasy

  if marathas were too strong then why they couldn't keep real name of your race?

  why they accepted the name given by pathans "hindu"?

  do you know the meaning of word hindu?

   · 5  in reply to Jeetu311 (Show the comment)
•  
  Zachary Toland 2 days ago

  what a girl. money makes the girls fools. kareena slapped a senior news reporter in a meeting. she must be mad.

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