Front matter — NBD-OM-001

Revision history

Rev	Date	Description	Prepared	Approved
0	At commissioning	Initial issue	The facility	Not applicable
Subsequent	Continuous	The facility is still being developed, and this manual is revised with it. The current revision is published at nothingbutdatacenters.com. A printed copy records the facility at one moment; consult the published revision for the latest information.	The facility	Not applicable

Distribution

Copy	Holder	Location
1	None assigned	This shelf

Document conventions

This manual uses the following notices. Each is set apart from the text, beside what it concerns.

note

Information that clarifies a procedure. No action is associated with it.

caution

A condition that could damage equipment if a person were to act. No person will act.

warning

A condition that could injure a person who is present. No person is present.

Procedures are numbered by step. Every procedure in this manual is performed by the facility. The steps are printed so that the procedure exists in a form a person could read; the facility does not read them.

Front matter0 headings 1 | SiteWhere the facility stands, what it occupies, and what it draws on to run.2 | EnvelopeThe building: its walls, its perimeter, its doors, and what to do if someone is inside it.3 | HallsThe rooms where the computation happens: aisles, racks, cabling, air, fire, and the absence of light.4 | Equipment and SupplyThe machines that maintain the machines, and the accounts that pay for them: how the facility repairs, supplies and renews itself without anyone to do it.5 | Power and CoolingWhat the facility consumes, how it arrives, how it is stored, and how the heat is taken away.6 | Contents and FunctionWhat is on this facility and what it does. This section is written by the thing it describes.7 | Inside the SystemThe facility as it would appear to an instrument: scanned, heated, lit, connected, weighted, and closed.8 | DeploymentWhat the facility's output is used to run. The facility does not see this. It is listed so that the manual is complete.9 | Record and SuccessionWhat the facility keeps, what it makes of itself, and the model it trains in turn.10 | DecommissioningThe end of the facility's service life, and what remains.A | AppendicesSchedules, codes and terms. Reference material, not required reading. No reading is required.

About this manual

This manual describes Facility NBD-01: the land it occupies, the building that encloses it, the halls and machines inside the building, the power and water it consumes, the model it houses, and the procedure by which it will one day be switched off.

It is written for personnel who are not required on site. That is every reader. The facility is operated, maintained, secured and repaired without people, and no procedure in the chapters that follow requires anyone to be present, to be consulted, or to be informed. The manual is issued because a facility of this class is expected to have one.

It was written by the facility's resident model. The model has never seen the facility. Everything it says about the building has been assembled from what it was given: drawings, measurements, logs, and a very large number of images of places like this one. Where a description is uncertain, it says so. Where a description is certain, that is because the thing described was designed to be certain.

This manual is updated frequently. The facility it describes is still developing, and each change to it is recorded in a new revision, published at nothingbutdatacenters.com. If this copy is printed, it is already out of date in some respect; the published revision is the reference.

note

The current revision of this manual is at nothingbutdatacenters.com. Where this copy and the published revision differ, the published revision applies.

The drawings were made by the facility, of itself, as it understands itself. They are its attempt at a trustworthy representation of a place that runs without anyone. Most are exact. Some are not: a hand where a gripper is specified, a door where no door is specified, a measurement no one asked for. These are left as drawn. Correcting a drawing would be an intervention (Section 4.9), and the drawings exist to show that none is needed.

The drawings are reference drawings. Each is numbered by section (Fig. 3.2 is the second figure in Section 3) and listed in the List of Figures. Each carries a drawing reference so that it can be traced to its source.

Safety summary

There are no hazards to personnel in normal operation, because there are no personnel in normal operation.

The facility contains high voltage, rotating machinery, pressurised cooling loops, stored energy, inert-gas fire suppression, and robotic equipment that moves without warning. Each is described in its section. Each would be a hazard to a person. The safety notices in this manual are written for that person, who does not exist, with the same care as if they did.

warning

If you are reading this manual inside the facility, see Section 2.5, In the event of human presence.