IBM experiments with a liquid cooling system that moves heat away from sensitive computer components without chillers, cutting energy costs in half

Today’s supercomputers run hot, thanks to power-hungry microprocessors that enable sophisticated scientific research and complex financial transactions to be performed in the blink of an eye. As these microprocessors have become smaller and more powerful over time, they are generating even more heat, a problem that data centers generally address expensively with air conditioning and chilled-liquid cooling systems.

Whereas datacenters have for decades used cold liquids to transfer heat away from central processing units (CPUs), a team of IBM researchers in Switzerland is experimenting with a micro network of copper tubes that run through smaller, clustered computer servers and whisk away heat with the help of warm water. Liquid cooling, even with warm water, is 4,000 times more effective than air cooling at removing heat, they say.

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Tags: Cooling, Data Center, Energy Efficiency