The more I read about it, the more I like the idea of Project Blackbox.

Project Blackbox

All you need is an AC point, water supply (for cooling) and a network connection and you can have one of these babies where ever you like. What's even more impressive is that one of these boxes can hold enough computing power to instantly put it within the top 200 supercomputers in the world, without the need for a huge amount of floor space (seen the pics of BlueGene/L recently?).

There are some great photos showing one of these boxes in greater detail and I must say, it's all pretty impressive for a bog standard shipping container.

Sun has even put together a list of possible scenarios where companies would want to use one of these including:

- stacking them in an old warehouse (re-use old space)
- on oil rigs (what space?)
- on top of inner city buildings (where space is priced by the square foot, but the roof comes free)
- in the underground car park (one bay less isn't a major issue)
- and even on relief missions (you don't get much computing power in rural Africa)

But one scenario I find a bit ambitious...

Blackbox on Mars

... but it does have potential once we discover water on Mars.

However, it is important to remember that the world's transport system is already setup to shift these crates anywhere you like.

Update: Check out the tour inside one of these on YouTube