"Immersed" servers under water!?
Facing problems of limited budget, carbon dioxide emissions and high electricity prices, many IT companies are looking for opportunities to save money, reduce energy consumption and maximize the efficiency of data centers that require high power and constant temperature. Among them, a British startup is the company Iceotope, which is expanding its productive activities in order to meet the growing consumer demand for their server system with full liquid cooling. In November, the company plans to provide a wide range of production models at DCD CONVERGED trade shows in London and SC14 in New Orleans.
“At the moment we are increasing our potential, we are engaged in interactive product development for the launch of mass production,” said Peter Hopton, CEO of Iceotope and inventor of methods for cooling in liquids. Iceotope talked about successful pre-production testing at the University of Leeds and at the Poznan Computing Network Center, where it was possible to significantly improve performance. The results were presented at the IP EXPO in London.
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Each blade server of the Iceotope system is located in a metal case filled with dielectric coolant, which helps to avoid high costs and carbon emissions when cooling the entire data center. Heat from the blade servers is removed through an auxiliary system through which water circulates.
“Full liquid cooling” means that the system does not have a single fan. Since there are no fans, the system runs much quieter than air-cooled servers. The absence of fans significantly reduces the level of vibrations inside the IT equipment. The fluid circulating in the system does not leave it, water is mixed with additives that reduce its conductive properties. Thus, you can even heat the building, if you connect the system with radiators that are located in DC. This allows you to save money in the heating season, and in general for the year.
Iceotope has proposed to abandon air-conditioned computer rooms and air-cleaning systems that control humidity, which also allows for significant savings in power consumption. The liquid cooling system is most effective and useful when using high-performance servers (HPC). This type of load has been used at the University of Leeds over the past 18 months. Leeds University equates Iceotope with a Rear Door Heat Exchange System. A 40.8% increase in productivity was observed when using the Iceotope system.
Meanwhile, in Poznan, while maintaining a certain coolant temperature, the server worked smoothly at full power in the turbo mode, without requiring additional costs. “Research has shown that using a fully liquid cooling system is not only functional, but also effective,” said Haupton.
Last month, researchers at the newly created Dell Research Department noted that by 2020, advances in liquid cooling would make it possible to build a DC in any climate zone with a PUE level of 1.03.
“While we are talking about a partial PUE, yes, really. Obviously, you should have your own electrical transformers for research, as a result in Poznan received PUE 1.02, - believes Hopton, - and so we have no fans inside the servers, they literally are no different from ordinary motherboards.
This year, Iceotope, led by Aster Capital and the Ombu Group, increased funding by $ 10 million. At the same time, the company has entered into partnership agreements with a French international company, an expert in the management of electricity by Schneider Electric, known for more than 100 countries around the world for its integrated energy-efficient solutions for data centers.
“We are open for business. I would like to have even more IT partnerships in the near future, and we would have the opportunity to work with them to create even more diverse IT equipment for such systems, ”said Haupton.
More and more companies are taking part in the development of new efficient solutions for cooling both high-performance and conventional servers. Iceotope and other companies are conducting various experiments on the implementation of liquid cooling systems, trying to develop an effective and simplest concept of heat removal from servers.
Certainly, the inertia of the market and the need to adapt IT equipment to the needs of engineering systems are constraining factors, but a growing baggage of experience and accumulated knowledge will help to overcome the transition from air cooling to liquid cooling.
PS Immersion in practice
“At the moment we are increasing our potential, we are engaged in interactive product development for the launch of mass production,” said Peter Hopton, CEO of Iceotope and inventor of methods for cooling in liquids. Iceotope talked about successful pre-production testing at the University of Leeds and at the Poznan Computing Network Center, where it was possible to significantly improve performance. The results were presented at the IP EXPO in London.
')
Each blade server of the Iceotope system is located in a metal case filled with dielectric coolant, which helps to avoid high costs and carbon emissions when cooling the entire data center. Heat from the blade servers is removed through an auxiliary system through which water circulates.
“Full liquid cooling” means that the system does not have a single fan. Since there are no fans, the system runs much quieter than air-cooled servers. The absence of fans significantly reduces the level of vibrations inside the IT equipment. The fluid circulating in the system does not leave it, water is mixed with additives that reduce its conductive properties. Thus, you can even heat the building, if you connect the system with radiators that are located in DC. This allows you to save money in the heating season, and in general for the year.
Iceotope has proposed to abandon air-conditioned computer rooms and air-cleaning systems that control humidity, which also allows for significant savings in power consumption. The liquid cooling system is most effective and useful when using high-performance servers (HPC). This type of load has been used at the University of Leeds over the past 18 months. Leeds University equates Iceotope with a Rear Door Heat Exchange System. A 40.8% increase in productivity was observed when using the Iceotope system.
Meanwhile, in Poznan, while maintaining a certain coolant temperature, the server worked smoothly at full power in the turbo mode, without requiring additional costs. “Research has shown that using a fully liquid cooling system is not only functional, but also effective,” said Haupton.
Last month, researchers at the newly created Dell Research Department noted that by 2020, advances in liquid cooling would make it possible to build a DC in any climate zone with a PUE level of 1.03.
“While we are talking about a partial PUE, yes, really. Obviously, you should have your own electrical transformers for research, as a result in Poznan received PUE 1.02, - believes Hopton, - and so we have no fans inside the servers, they literally are no different from ordinary motherboards.
This year, Iceotope, led by Aster Capital and the Ombu Group, increased funding by $ 10 million. At the same time, the company has entered into partnership agreements with a French international company, an expert in the management of electricity by Schneider Electric, known for more than 100 countries around the world for its integrated energy-efficient solutions for data centers.
“We are open for business. I would like to have even more IT partnerships in the near future, and we would have the opportunity to work with them to create even more diverse IT equipment for such systems, ”said Haupton.
More and more companies are taking part in the development of new efficient solutions for cooling both high-performance and conventional servers. Iceotope and other companies are conducting various experiments on the implementation of liquid cooling systems, trying to develop an effective and simplest concept of heat removal from servers.
Certainly, the inertia of the market and the need to adapt IT equipment to the needs of engineering systems are constraining factors, but a growing baggage of experience and accumulated knowledge will help to overcome the transition from air cooling to liquid cooling.
PS Immersion in practice
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/241752/
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