IBM Hot Water-Cooled Supercomputer Goes Live at ETH Zurich
IBM has delivered a first-of-a-kind hot water-cooled supercomputer to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), marking a new era in energy-aware computing. The innovative system, dubbed Aquasar, consumes up to 40 percent less energy than a comparable air-cooled machine. Through the direct use of waste heat to provide warmth to university buildings, Aquasar’s carbon footprint is reduced by up to 85 percent. Pictured below is one of the nature-inspired microchannel coolers that could contain up to 50,000 tiny nozzles that shoot miniscule jets of water onto chips to cool them. This jetimpingement
cooler is five times more efficient than todays best air-cooling systems.
The processors and numerous other components in the new high performance computer are cooled with up to 60 degrees C warm water. This is made possible by an innovative cooling system that comprises micro-channel liquid coolers which are attached directly to the processors, where most heat is generated. With this chip-level cooling the thermal resistance between the processor and the water is reduced to the extent that even cooling water temperatures of up to 60 degrees C ensure that the operating temperatures of the processors remain well below the maximally allowed 85 degrees C. The high input temperature of the coolant results in an even higher-grade heat at the output, which in this case is up to 65 degrees C. Overall, water removes heat 4,000 times more efficiently than air.
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