Microsoft submerging server racks into boiling liquid

Chris

Chris

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Microsoft submerging server racks into boiling liquid

Microsoft recently revealed a new datacentre cooling process that involves submerging its server racks into boiling liquid to improve power and energy efficiency.

This forms part of the company’s multi-purpose approach to make datacentres more sustainable and efficient to build, operate and manage.

Unlike water, the fluid used is harmless to electronic equipment and engineered to boil at 50 degrees Celsius.
 
Is it me or does server technology still got some way to go? This doesn't look futuristic.
 
rustypup said:
Waaaaaait a second.

It involves condensers... how is this "efficient"?
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Many implementations of emersion cooling don't use condensers. Either dry coolers or water towers. I would think a condenser would be pointless as you just need to cool down the novec enough for it to return to liquid.
 
rustypup said:
Did you watch the clip... the bit where they discuss the condensers?
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Maybe you thinking of condensers in air conditioning systems which have compressors that draw quite a bit of power to do it's job.

The other efficiency comes in that it's targeted cooling, so instead of having to cool an entire room using HVAC, you just have to cool a liquid.

Either way, if it wasn't more efficient then farms like the one's BitFury has, wouldn't exist.

Another good video here:
 
acidrain said:
Maybe you thinking of condensers in air conditioning systems which have compressors that draw quite a bit of power to do it's job
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This is exactly what is being discussed. As in *exactly*.

The heat exchange results in gas which bubbles to the surface and is then fed back into the system by removing enough energy to revert to liquid state. Claiming this is efficient is a lie. It takes energy to do this.

I'm not saying that it's equivalent to or worse than ambient cooling but it's certainly not shattering any records.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Random question, but what do you mean by looking futuristic?
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The stuff looks chunky, like it will be replaced by smaller, smarter parts soon. Heck I'm surprised the smaller, smarter stuff isn't here already.
 
Gudnews said:
The stuff looks chunky, like it will be replaced by smaller, smarter parts soon. Heck I'm surprised the smaller, smarter stuff isn't here already.
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Server parts don't necessarily tend towards smaller for numerous reasons.. and also looks are not a high priority in a DC.

But you are looking at v0.001 of a product, so I would expect it to change radically if it gets adopted more widely in a MS datacenter, or other larger datacenter providers
 
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