News & Analysis
Comment
johnwood
I had very similar issues with my refrigerator but no more it happened again and ...
DrQuine
There are also the hobbyists who cool their motherboards with liquid nitrogen so ...
Servers cool it with liquid refrigerant
Rick Merritt
12/20/2012 10:45 AM EST
Cooling options
Liebert already sells a version of the former product under the brand name XDS. In addition, one server maker is testing an evaluation system, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center will commission another system early next year.
The approach let’s data centers keep systems in shipping containers, eliminating the need to build the air-cooled facilities widely use today. Hughes estimates that could save as much as $600 per server. However, data center managers will have to pay as much as $1,000 per server to install the Clustered Systems technology.
Hughes’ approach is one of a handful of liquid cooling options now circulating in the high-end server market. Others used by the likes of Asetek, Coolit, Eurotech and IBM employ a variety of waters, oils or other ingredients sent to the rack or the server.
Hughes got his start helping to develop the QuickRing technology at Apple, then trying to create a video server based on it—but the key chip behind it failed. The project morphed into the idea of a mesh for a big telco switch that reaped $110 million in VC funding, but went belly up in the dot-com crash.
Along the way, “I got addicted to startups,” said Hughes.
Clustered snagged $3 million in finding from President Obama’s economic stimulus. It has financial runway for another year or so before it needs to see commercial sales of its technology to stay afloat.
Meanwhile the entrepreneur is pondering his road map. “I've concluded the technology is capable of supporting a petaflop in a rack with today's product—I think that the message is that cooling is removed as a barrier to exaflop computing,” he said.
Related stories:
Sophisticated thermal management solutions cool hi-rel systems - Part 1
Intel tests oil immersion to cool servers
Electronica: Porous metal could help cool processors
Liebert already sells a version of the former product under the brand name XDS. In addition, one server maker is testing an evaluation system, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center will commission another system early next year.
The approach let’s data centers keep systems in shipping containers, eliminating the need to build the air-cooled facilities widely use today. Hughes estimates that could save as much as $600 per server. However, data center managers will have to pay as much as $1,000 per server to install the Clustered Systems technology.
Hughes’ approach is one of a handful of liquid cooling options now circulating in the high-end server market. Others used by the likes of Asetek, Coolit, Eurotech and IBM employ a variety of waters, oils or other ingredients sent to the rack or the server.
Hughes got his start helping to develop the QuickRing technology at Apple, then trying to create a video server based on it—but the key chip behind it failed. The project morphed into the idea of a mesh for a big telco switch that reaped $110 million in VC funding, but went belly up in the dot-com crash.
Along the way, “I got addicted to startups,” said Hughes.
Clustered snagged $3 million in finding from President Obama’s economic stimulus. It has financial runway for another year or so before it needs to see commercial sales of its technology to stay afloat.
Meanwhile the entrepreneur is pondering his road map. “I've concluded the technology is capable of supporting a petaflop in a rack with today's product—I think that the message is that cooling is removed as a barrier to exaflop computing,” he said.
Related stories:
Sophisticated thermal management solutions cool hi-rel systems - Part 1
Intel tests oil immersion to cool servers
Electronica: Porous metal could help cool processors
Navigate to related information


CommonSense
12/20/2012 12:47 PM EST
Cray addressed a similar problem about 30 years ago by pumping Fluorinert liquid through his supercomputers, then cooling it in a heat exchanger. I have beenc ontinually surprised that a liq
Sign in to Reply
CommonSense
12/20/2012 12:51 PM EST
Technology triumphs! Let's try this:
I have been continually surprised that a liquid-based cooling sysem has not been put in place for servers: much more efficient than cooling with air.
(I am also a little disappointed there is not opportunity to edit/delete a post when errors are made.)
Sign in to Reply
markhahn
12/20/2012 5:23 PM EST
what would be really interesting is if someone (Intel) promoted a standard location for a cold plate on a standard 1U. vendors could arrange heatpipes inside the chassis however they liked, and the rack vendor would be responsible for circulating coolant through the plates that mated with the chassis plates...
modular, non-proprietary and not requiring a coolant hookup for each server.
Sign in to Reply
DResnick
12/21/2012 9:34 AM EST
Before Cray Research used Fluorinert, he used Freon in two systems: CDC 6600/6400 and the CDC 7600.
And BTW: Could not get a similar cooling system working for what was to be the CDC 8600. That failure is why Cray left Control Data and formed
Cray Research.
Sign in to Reply
green_is_now
1/2/2013 3:03 PM EST
Use the phase change delta pressure to provide the power to drive the liquid pump with a small turbo-turbine coupled to liquid pump.
Then it would be self contained and need no electrical input.
Sign in to Reply
DrQuine
1/7/2013 10:32 PM EST
There are also the hobbyists who cool their motherboards with liquid nitrogen so they can clock them very fast. I think that a major issue with all liquid cooled systems is that the coolant requires more maintenance than the underlying computer. It also represents a common point of failure that can take everything else down. Air cooling may be crude - but it is relatively robust.
Sign in to Reply
johnwood
4/1/2013 2:24 AM EDT
I had very similar issues with my refrigerator but no more it happened again and again because I got reliable commercial refrigeration service,
John Wood
http://www.bergenrefrigeration.com/
Sign in to Reply