HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING
Tech focus: cooling
A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST COOLING TECHNOLOGIES FOR SCIENTISTS USING HPC TO SUPPORT THEIR RESEARCH
As computing challenges increase, so too must the size of high performance computing systems, and this drives constraints to power usage and heat generation. Maintaining power efficiency requires innovative data centre and cooling design which can support these large HPC systems without compromising performance. For computing applications such as complex weather models, simulations in automotive or mechanical engineering, animations in films, research analysis, or AI- based high-frequency trading of securities, HPC users require high performance cooling which can support their computing requirements. In addition, companies
are also increasingly using artificial intelligence applications to minimise the maintenance time of machines via machine
10 Scientific Computing World Spring 2021
learning in production environments. Several different cooling
technologies are available to HPC users, and these vary in performance in the amount of heat they can dissipate, cost and ease of maintenance, or upkeep costs. Rear Door heat exchangers (RDHX) rely on passive or active cooling in the server door, which can help to reduce cabinet temperatures and better control the overall temperature of the server rack.
Liquid cooling is in theory
very similar to using air but instead liquid is pumped in a
closed system. Water has a better thermal conductivity, so this is potentially a higher performance system but requires additional infrastructure. Water-cooled data centres may also require additional costs from raised flooring or other infrastructure to support the water pipes and other equipment. Immersion cooling solutions use a non-conductive liquid that can sit directly alongside components. As the liquid heats up, it circulates and moves away from the hot components, creating a flow that keeps the component cool.
With the global race to
deliver the HPC industry’s next supercomputing milestone gathering pace, there is possibly little surprise that innovation within the cooling market for HPCs/data centres has likewise stepped up a gear, as the efficiency and performance of cooling technology becomes ever more significant in preventing the operational costs of HPC resources from reaching prohibitive levels.
Further information
By transitioning data centres from traditional cooling
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