Lab: Barrel OS in development
Here we tell how we build Barrel OS, the software that aligns sun, battery and GPUs in our off-grid AI data centers. We write what works, what we measured in simulation and what is still missing.
Project status
| Component | Status |
|---|---|
| Four-mode rules | done, proven in simulation |
| Battery, PV and compute simulator | done |
| Multi-node community simulation | done, Lampedusa case |
| Sun estimate without internet | done, proven in simulation |
| Learning user demand | done, proven in simulation |
| Anticipatory compute (third queue) | proven in simulation |
| NVIDIA GPU power limit | written, to be tested on hardware |
| Battery reading via Modbus | written, read-only, to be tested on hardware |
| User priority in the request queue | to do |
| Energy per million tokens in the monthly report | to do |
| Generator set control | to do |
Barrel OS will be published as open source under the Apache 2.0 license. Anyone who installs a Barrel must be able to verify what the system does and keep using it in any case. The public repository is in preparation.
From the lab notebook
Store answers, not electrons
Barrel OS prepares predictable work with sun: in simulation worth about 40% of a second battery cabinet.
Lampedusa, six nodes: a distributed data center for an island
Six nodes on Lampedusa: diesel falls from 216 to 17 MWh when software and microgrid work together.
Barrel OS: the software that aligns sun, battery and GPUs
Four modes, one rule, no internet dependency.
Two winter weeks in simulation
68 hours of blackout without control, zero with Barrel OS. Simulation on an overloaded site.
Why Barrel OS goes safe when it cannot see the battery
Without fresh battery data, Barrel OS enters Reserve. Better slow than in the dark.
Barrel OS: next steps
Hardware tests, queue priority, energy per million tokens, generator control.