NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[kokonutguy]

The PaperClick Resolution Service is software that runs on a server on the Internet. It manages the relationships between individual identifiers and their associated web pages. We call these relationships “mappings.” When a user reads an identifier with the device software, the server is responsible determining what web page the identifier’s owner wanted displayed and returning it to the user’s web browser.
http://www.paperclick.com/faq.jsp


Now, I'm thinking...server..server...server...with 180 million cell phones in the United States alone and for Paperclick to go full bore and accepthed throughout (e.g. "maturation stage") would mean servers...servers...servers...lots of 'em.

Look at this again,

Where Does the PaperClick Resolution Service Reside?
NeoMedia provides three options for its customers. First, NeoMedia operates a Resolution Service at its corporate headquarters in Fort Myers, FL. Second, we are arranging with various partners to provide other “hosted” Resolution Services that you can use. Third, NeoMedia offers a version of the Resolution Service that you can install and run on your own server hardware, if you so choose.

Three possible locations where servers can be set up. The question is, which area will reside the bulk of the servers? If it's Ft. Myers...they'll need a lot of spaces just to set up servers to handle the load....potentially up to millions of cell phones clicking away every second at stores, parks, at home, etc, on barcodes, RFID, etc..


Look at Google. Guess how many servers Google have?


How many Google machines
April 30, 2004
An interesting tidbit coming out of the Google S-1 filing is that they have spent about $250 million on hardware equipment. From there, we can get a few guesses at the magnitude of the Google system. Based on quick back of the envelope calculations, it looks like Google is managing between 45,000 and 80,000 servers. Here's how I arrived at this conclusion:

According to calculations by the IEEE, in a paper about the Google cluster, a rack with 88 dual-CPU machines used to cost about $278,000. If you divide the $250 million figure from the S-1 filing by $278,000, you end up with a bit over 899 racks. Assuming that each rack holds 88 machines, you end up with 79,000 machines.

However, one must recognize that equipment is not all CPUs. As a result, you must discount the figure of $250 million to account for routers, firewalls, machines for employees, etc... So let's assume for a minute that only about $200 million is going to the CPUs. That still leaves us with 719 racks or a bit over 63,000 machines.

Even if we discount other equipment to be costing $100 million, we end up with a bit over 31,654 machines on 359 racks.

So how much processing power is that? Well, once again, the Google cluster document provides some interesting tidbits. Per the document, the racks that were used were
88 dual-CPU 2Ghz Intel Xeon servers with 2 Gbytes of RAM and an 80-Gbytes hard disk.

That means that, on the low end, the Google cluster has the following stats:
359 racks
31,654 machines
63,184 CPUs
126,368 Ghz of processing power
63,184 Gb of RAM
2,527 Tb of Hard Drive space

In the middle range of my estimates, the cluster would have:
719 racks
63,272 machines
126,544 CPUs
253,088 Ghz of processing power
126,544 Gb of RAM
5,062 Tb of Hard Drive space

And on the high end of my estimates:
899 racks
79,112 machines
158,224 CPUs
316,448 Ghz of processing power
158,224 Gb of RAM
6,180 Tb of Hard Drive space


Assuming that the 1Ghz chip is going at about a third the gigaflops of a 2Ghz processor (3.3Gflops), we can then guess at the size of the Google supercomputer. Just for the sake of argument, let's go with 1 Gigaflop per processor. This means that the Google supercomputer has about 126 teraflops of power on the low end of my estimates, 253 teraflops on the middle end, and 316 teraflops on the high end. This would easily put it on top of the list of fastest computers in the world.

http://www.tnl.net/blog/entry/How_many_Google_machines


And with lots of servers needed, if Ft. Myers Neomedia's place to handle the bulk of it, will need lots of spaces.

Real estate anyone? In Ft. Myers? Maybe ask a few questions?