Google, UC San Diego repurpose smartphones into eco-friendly computing clusters
Technology
Google and UC San Diego are teaming up to turn unused smartphones into eco-friendly computing clusters.
Instead of letting old phones gather dust or end up as e-waste, they're being repurposed to help run cloud apps and research projects, cutting down on pollution from making new hardware.
Smartphone motherboards stripped and Linux-loaded
The process is pretty hands-on: screens, cameras, and batteries are removed, leaving just the phone's motherboard.
These boards get linked together (25 to 50 at a time) and loaded with Linux so they can work like mini-servers for things like research platforms or classroom tools.
A big cluster with 2,000 phones is planned at UC San Diego to power computer science courses and test how well regular phone hardware performs in data center-style setups.