New Intel data center: high efficiency and extreme density of equipment placement

New 60U racks in the new Intel data center

Intel company sets records on the efficiency of its data center, creating a new type of rack on his own project. New server racks, having a height of 2.7 meters, are a key element in the company's data centers, allowing you to increase the density of equipment and improve the efficiency of resource use, including electricity.

The company's internal needs are served by about 59 data centers around the world. The total number of servers in these data centers is 130 thousand. Now the company has transformed a former semiconductor manufacturing enterprise into a highly efficient data center. It is located in Santa Clara, California.
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The former factory has become a field laboratory of a company where innovations related to data centers are being tested. Soon this data center could become one of the most powerful in Silicon Valley, since Intel plans to increase the capacity of the facility to 30 MW within 5 years.

Now in the production premises of the former factory server racks of a new type (60U) are located. Intel uses its own hot aisle containment system and evaporative cooling to control the density of equipment.

Extreme density and extreme PUE

PUE of the new data center of the company is 1.06 - this is almost an ideal figure, comparable to PUE data centers of Google and Facebook. Now PUE can be called a "barometer" of the efficiency of the data center. The 5 MW facility is located on just 460 square meters of space.

The new data center is a more advanced version of the previous concept of the data center, where the same 5 MW accounted for approximately 2000 square meters.



Shesha Krishnapura, CTO & Senior Principal Engineer at Intel IT, near the equipment racks in the new data center

By the way, now about 90% of the capacity of the data center is used for the needs of chip developers and research operations.

The design of the new 60U racks is non-standard - these racks are higher than usual. In this case, the racks are compatible with standard servers, switches and power equipment of well-known manufacturers. An interesting point is that the switches are located at the bottom of the rack, and not at the top, as usual. This is done to make it easier for staff to maintain them - since the rack is high, the configuration “on top of the rack” would be too inconvenient.

Intel is also now able to place 30 racks in a space where it previously fit 25. This was made possible by the new design of racks.

Energy efficiency

60U racks are placed in a sealed hot corridor, where there are 24 racks on each side. For access are used sliding doors. If the door is open, the person feels the flow of hot air coming from inside. The key element of the cooling system here is pressure.

With a high load, the heat escapes with hot air upwards, to the cooling element, which is located in the upper part of the "fencing". If the load decreases, large fans start to work at the top of the hot aisle.

When hot air escapes through the cooling element, which is located in the upper part, cold air flows down through the diffuser. Thus, a rather significant temperature difference is achieved: in the hot corridor, the temperature was 42C, in the “cold” - 28.

A water cooling system is also used, and not treated drinking water is used, but treated wastewater. In California, this system is very relevant, since for many years there has been a crisis with water supply.



Intel IT Supercomputer is cooled with fresh air. The system consists of 15 racks with 1300 servers.

Now the former factory building houses about 31,000 servers, including the Intel IT Supercomputer, which is at 81 positions in the Top500 supercomputers rating.

And a little more about the factory

As mentioned earlier, the data center is now located in the building where the factory for the production of chips, semiconductor elements was previously based. Production was closed in 2009, and now many elements of the factory are preserved.



Intel workers wear special protective suits that protect sterile rooms from contamination.

Now the placement of data centers in the premises of former factories and factories is a common thing. In addition to Intel, so does Google, QTS, and many other companies.

In the future, Intel will expand its data center, planning to increase its capacity to 30 MW by 2020.

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