It's time for a new change in the cooling method of big data centers!
Why do you say that? As insiders, we clearly see that under the wave of new infrastructure, cutting-edge technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and AI are developing at an astonishing speed, and the construction of data centers is also in full swing. As evidenced by data, as of the end of 2019, the number of data centers in use nationwide was approximately 2.658 million, a year-on-year increase of 28.6%. The scale of data centers under construction is approximately 1.85 million, a year-on-year increase of 30.0%.
In order to overcome the cooling problem of data centers, many big coffee companies have moved their data centers into the mountains, the Arctic, and the sea. It is conceivable that the investment, manpower, and material resources involved are almost equal to most companies. Can't do it.
Is there a cooling technology that can save most companies from "fire and water"? The current hot technology-immersion liquid cooling technology, can not only solve the current data center cooling problem, but also predicts that in the future, it will also become a new engine for the development of big data centers . Today, we will interpret the immersion liquid cooling technology from a technical point of view. In addition, as the "pioneer" of this revolution, Sugon has a lot of experience, and learns from each other to see how we can win this tough battle of cooling.
New stage, new cooling mission
As a proposition that comes with data centers, cooling technology has been upgraded along with the development stage of data centers. In terms of stages, the development of the two has gone through four stages together:
In the 1.0 era, in scientific computing and large-scale computer rooms, both the technology and the experience in cooling were at a relatively low level. There was neither precise temperature control nor effective dust prevention. However, it is understandable that the initial stage , Are crossing the river by feeling the stones.
In the 2.0 era, special air-conditioning equipment with constant temperature and humidity began to appear in the tower server room, and with the new air system and the positive pressure and dust prevention of the computer room, the data processing and computing capabilities have reached a new level.
In the 3.0 era, the rack-mounted server room at this stage widely used special air conditioners with constant temperature and humidity and preliminary airflow organization management. It can be seen that the cooling technology is more mature, and the unified and standardized management capabilities are stronger.
In the 4.0 era, data centers evolved into cloud computing centers, and high-density servers and ultra-large-scale IDC became the mainstream. In terms of cooling technology at this stage, inter-column air conditioners have been widely used, and fine airflow organization management has emerged.
It can be found from the four major stages that the development of the data center is closely related to the cooling technology, and the two promote each other. The data center at each stage must be matched with the cooling technology.
Now, in the era of data center 5.0, cooling is more difficult and more complicated. According to CCID Consulting's statistics, in 2019, about 43% of China's data center energy consumption is used for heat dissipation of IT equipment, which is basically the same as the energy consumption of 45% of IT equipment itself. In addition, under the new requirements of energy saving and environmental protection, green data centers have become imperative.
In a word, the new stage gives us a new cooling mission!
The time is right for immersion liquid cooling technology
Following the above, as data centers increasingly adopt high-performance core processors that generate more heat, immersion liquid cooling technology is rapidly spreading.
First of all, liquid cooling refers to the use of liquid instead of air as a refrigerant to exchange heat for heating components and remove heat. It mainly includes direct cooling, mainly immersed liquid cooling technology; indirect cooling, uses cold plate liquid Mainly cold technology.
Compared with traditional air-cooling technology, liquid-cooling technology has significant advantages. The specific divisions are as follows:
More heat is taken away, and the same volume of liquid takes away 3,000 times of heat than the same volume of air. The temperature transfer is faster, and the thermal conductivity of liquid is 25 times that of air. The noise quality is better. When the heat dissipation level is the same, the noise is 15~30dBA lower than the air-cooled noise. Power consumption and energy saving are more economical, and the liquid cooling system saves 30-40% of electricity than the air cooling system. Save more space, greatly improve the power density of a single cabinet, and liquid-cooled cabinets can save 80% of space.
Which liquid cooling technology has better cooling effect? The immersion liquid cooling technology immerses the heating element in the liquid, and cools down by direct contact with heat exchange, and can bring subversive changes in the server architecture. For data centers, the aforementioned cold plate liquid cooling technology is more of a transitional technology, and immersion liquid cooling is the future, because it can achieve a better cooling effect by "drawing from the bottom of the pot".
From air-cooled to immersed liquid-cooled, do you think that only the cooling method is changing? Obviously not, the ecology and computing power of the entire data center have been optimized, and the immersion liquid cooling technology is more conducive to improving high-density computing performance. It is also very simple to understand. The immersion liquid cooling greatly reduces the volume flow of the refrigerant, reduces the heat transfer temperature difference, the device power density and energy efficiency ratio are higher, and the chip surface temperature is lower. Naturally, the server data placed in the unit space can be increased, and new breakthroughs in computing density and performance can be achieved.
Dawn's cooling revolution
In this promising market, Sugon can be said to be the predecessor of this industry. In 2011, it began the research and development of data center liquid cooling technology, in 2012 it began to study immersion liquid cooling technology, and in 2017 it delivered the first domestic commercial immersion technology. Liquid-cooled server.
In 2019, Sugon completed the first large-scale application project of immersed liquid-cooled servers in China. Its full-immersion infrastructure supporting solution C8000 series can achieve a PUE value of 1.05 and below, which can save more than traditional air-cooled data centers. 30%, which meets the needs of high-density data centers. In the same year, the PUE value of the new-generation computer "Silicon Cube" launched by Sugon can be reduced to below 1.04.
In the past ten years, a series of intensive new products and new research have shown Sugon's strength in immersion liquid cooling technology. And so far, Sugon has nearly 50 core patents for liquid cooling, and many of them are still in application.
Sugon's immersion liquid cooling technology is truly in the first echelon of the industry, and has begun a full commercialization stage. Its products are widely used in electric power, meteorology, finance, communications, Internet companies, universities and research institutes and other fields, providing low energy consumption , There are tens of thousands of high-density computing nodes.
On the whole, in this cooling revolution, some of Sugon's vision and technology are worth learning.
New engine for big data center development
The submerged liquid-cooled data center brings more powerful computing power to data-intensive computing, enabling computer mathematical operations to reach tens of billions of times per second. And data shows that by 2023, the global liquid-cooled data center market will reach US$4.55 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 27.7%. From the perspective of development trends, immersion liquid cooling technology is undoubtedly the new engine for the future development of data centers.
Facing the future, we will continue to follow up and look forward to the efforts of Sugon and other manufacturers to create a new generation of data centers with stronger computing capabilities and more reliable with immersion liquid cooling technology. Let's wait and see!