Researchers recycle old phones and cluster them into ‘computing platforms’ — says processors on modern smartphones deliver higher single-core performance than comparable multicore servers
Researchers from UC San Diego and Google have developed a method to repurpose old smartphones into functional computing platforms, aiming to reduce e-waste and data center costs. By stripping down devices to their motherboards and installing a Linux distribution, these repurposed phones can serve as low-cost data centers. A cluster of 25 to 50 old phones can match the computing power of a single server-class CPU, with plans to build a 2,000-phone data center for educational institutions. AI
IMPACT Demonstrates a potential for cost-effective, localized compute infrastructure, particularly for educational or smaller-scale applications.