Intel and Submer have announced a collaboration to co-develop the Precision Immersion Cooling Fluid Cloud for use in next-generation data centres. Intel and Submer are using Intel Xeon-based immersion-optimised server boards and their own precision cooling technique to demonstrate the reuse of high-grade waste heat generated by computing elements in data centres. This collaboration will help accelerate industry standards for the adoption of immersion cooling.
“Recent innovations in immersion cooling techniques are helping to significantly improve the energy efficiency of data centres and enable organisations to address their sustainability goals,” Mohan Kumar, a fellow at the data centre and AI group for Intel, said. “Our collaboration with Submer will allow us to address all stages of the immersion cooling value chain and offer a sustainable solution that will make a difference for our mutual customers.”
Data centre managers are increasingly looking for ways to implement greener and more sustainable designs. By adopting immersion cooling techniques, data centre managers can help ensure their infrastructure is able to solve today’s challenges and power future use cases. Industry-wide guidelines around best practices for the use of immersion technology are vital as use increases.
Heat is considered a burden in current data centre cooling implementations. It is removed and discarded, but with a process that impacts the environment and data centre operating costs. The Precision Immersion Cooling Fluid Cloud concept uses liquid cooling to achieve the next level of efficiency and density, with the goal of reshaping the use of IT thermals by integrating a precision immersion cooling architecture within each node. This approach helps to ensure the generated high-grade heat can be easily reused, monetised or even leveraged to produce electricity while guaranteeing an optimal operating temperature for the processors and other components. This approach will eventually lead to eliminating cooling costs and unprecedented total cost of operations improvements, which convert today’s cooling burden into a benefit.
There will also be guidance from a consortium of industry leaders that will help build a supply chain for the scaling of the technology to ensure data centres are equipped to deliver a new generation of sustainable infrastructure. The companies collaboration together builds on Intel’s RISE initiative and 2030 goals, which include the company’s role as a global leader in sustainability and addressing climate change with technology.
