Details on EVE Online's server infrastructure

EVE has a single instance world which is a much more difficult problem than what WOW has to deal with. WOW basically caps the total amount of people that can be in one instance (or at least they used to, haven't played in a few years).<p>It kinda boils down to a massive supercomputer simulation where your limiting factor is the speed, but more specifically latency of communication between servers. Notice how this upgrade brings them far greater internal networking capabilities which should mitigate performance pressure from growth for the time being.<p>If you look at their hardware you can kinda glimpse how their software stack might function:<p>TQ Tech Details: (Not the whole system, just what runs TQ)<p>Servers 64 x IBM HS21 2x Dual Core 3.33GHz CPU's 32GB of RAM Each 1x72GB HDD Each<p><pre><code> 2 x IBM X3850 M2's 2x Six Core 2.66GHz 128GB of RAM 4 x 146GB HDD </code></pre> Cores - 280 total Cores - ~1 THz<p>RAM - 2.3TB of Total RAM<p>Storage - 4.8TB of Local Storage - 2TB of SSD SAN - 256GB of RAM SAN<p>Network - Gigabit Ethernet - 4Gb/s Fiber Channel

Gotta hand it to MMOs when it comes to architecture - they have some very unique problems to deal with. Sending media-heavy data back to a number of widely dispersed clients in real time has to take the cake in my book, not to mention continuously writing that same data back onto a database (you log in the same place as you logged out, don't you?)<p>I'd imagine the media messages they send to clients are a continuous broadcast of 3D coordinates and audio processing signals for player characters but I honestly have no idea. I'd love to learn more about it.

Before I had my daughter I played this game all the time. The politics, drama, and complexity of the game are very compelling. Their infrastructure and design always impressed me. Keeping the whole world in one instance makes for a lot more fun when playing with people you know.

I get so used to my tens of thousands of cores that I forget the amazing things that can be done with far less . . . only two hundred cores! Only two terabytes of RAM! Astounding.