Artificial intelligence is creating unprecedented demand in data centers as the need to process large amounts of data continues to grow.
As tech giants race to expand their infrastructure to accommodate AI workloads, they are faced with the growing challenge of powering these operations sustainably and affordably. This has even led companies like Oracle and Microsoft to embrace nuclear power as a potential solution.
Another critical issue is managing the heat generated by high-performance AI hardware. Liquid cooling has emerged as a promising way to maintain optimal system performance while meeting increasing energy demands. In October 2024 alone, several technology companies announced liquid-cooling solutions, highlighting a clear shift in that direction in the industry.
Liquid-cooled SuperClusters
At Lenovo’s recent Tech World event, the company unveiled its next-generation Neptune liquid cooling solution for servers.
The sixth-generation Neptune, which uses open-loop, direct hot water cooling, is now being deployed across the company’s partner ecosystem, enabling organizations to build and run accelerated computing for generative AI while reducing data center energy consumption by up to 40%, the company said.
At OCP Global Summit 2024, Giga Computing, a subsidiary of Gigabyte, unveiled a direct liquid cooling (DLC) server designed for Nvidia HGX H200 systems. In addition to the DLC server, Giga also unveiled the G593-SD1, which features a dedicated air cooling chamber for the Nvidia H200 Tensor Core GPU, targeting data centers that aren’t yet ready to fully embrace liquid cooling.
Dell’s new Integrated Rack 7000 (IR7000) is a scalable system designed specifically with liquid cooling in mind. It is capable of handling future applications up to 480 kW while capturing nearly 100% of the heat generated.
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“Today’s data centers are struggling to keep up with the demands of AI, requiring high-density computing and innovations in liquid cooling and modular, flexible and efficient designs,” said Arthur Lewis, president of Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group. “These new systems deliver the performance organizations need to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.”
Supermicro also unveiled liquid-cooled SuperClusters designed for AI workloads powered by the Nvidia Blackwell platform. Supermicro’s liquid cooling solutions, powered by the Nvidia GB200 NVL72 platform for exascale computing, have begun sample testing for select customers, with full production expected in late Q4.
“We are driving the future of sustainable AI computing, and our liquid-cooled AI solutions are quickly being adopted by some of the most ambitious AI infrastructure projects in the world, with over 2,000 liquid-cooled racks shipped since June 2024,” said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro.
The liquid-cooled SuperClusters feature advanced in-rack or in-row coolant distribution units (CDUs) and custom heatsinks to house two Nvidia GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchips in a 1U form factor.
It seems clear that liquid cooling will be at the heart of data center operations as workloads continue to grow. This technology will be critical to managing the thermal and energy demands of next-generation AI computing, and I believe we are only just beginning to see the potential impact it will have on efficiency, scalability, and sustainability.