The data center industry is set to transform significantly, with annual capital spending projected to soar from $250 billion in 2022 to over $500 billion by 2027. This rapid growth, driven by the increasing demand for high-performance AI servers, is leading to the adoption of advanced liquid cooling systems to efficiently manage heat and enhance overall efficiency.
Let’s take a look at new innovations in liquid cooling technology.
Aligned Data Centers Launches DeltaFlow
Aligned Data Centers, earlier this year, announced the launch of its DeltaFlow~ liquid cooling solution, a patent-pending technology designed to support the high-density compute requirements of emergent and future applications in high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence, machine learning, and supercomputers.
DeltaFlow~ is an extension of Aligned’s ExpandOnDemand platform capabilities, billed as offering customers the “flexibility to seamlessly pivot and scale to support shifting computing environments – no matter their applications, density requirements, or cooling solutions.”
DeltaFlow~ is billed as a turnkey solution delivered within a standardized delivery process to streamline liquid-cooled deployments. The company notes that its scalable, universal architecture supports customers’ customization requirements, as well as integration with current and future liquid cooling technologies, including direct-to-chip, rear-door heat exchangers, immersion cooling, and others.
DeltaFlow~ also integrates seamlessly with Aligned’s patented air-cooled technology, Delta3, requiring no changes in power delivery or existing data hall temperatures, and making the transition from air to liquid cooling seamless, even in live environments, as stated by the company.
Aligned emphasized that its proprietary DeltaFlow~ and Delta3 cooling technologies are designed to easily allow customers to transition from air-cooled to liquid-cooled systems, or to deploy hybrid cooling systems combining both air and liquid in the same data hall.
Such flexibility may eliminate the need to construct new AI-dedicated build-to-suit data centers or completely retrofit and retool existing facilities, the company contends.
The company said the platform is capable of supporting densities ranging from three to 300 kW per rack and higher, while still maintaining a commitment to sustainability and waterless designs, as it employs a standard, closed loop system.
“Aligned has been a leader and innovator in data center cooling for more than a decade. Providing customers the ability to scale seamlessly across rising rack densities is intrinsic to our data center designs; we call it ExpandOnDemand,” explained Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned.
“DeltaFlow~ is an extension of these capabilities,” continued Schaap. “Our universal liquid cooling platform allows customers to maximize advancements in chipset technology and realize the benefits of GPUs across a wide range of computing applications, while mitigating time-to-market, cost, and risk.”
Aligned Data Centers noted that it has also been working closely with leading chip and server manufacturers as part of an ongoing commitment to innovation, the better to ensure its customers have the advantage of a scalable, universal architecture that supports both current and future cooling requirements.
Accelsius Partner Program Eases Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling Transitions
For its part, Accelsius has also now unveiled a new partner program to support the rapid growth of demand for its NeuCool direct-to-chip liquid cooling solutions.
The NeuCool platform is billed as a patented, water-free, direct-to-chip, two-phase cooling system, delivering best-in-class thermal efficiencies and reliability at scale to address high-performance CPU and GPU chips serving new data center compute loads for AI and ML.
The company said its associated Accelerate Partner Program provides resources and a collaborative market model for system integrators and data center infrastructure providers to employ as they guide their customers through the journey from air to liquid cooling.
Accelsius said the program helps customers transition by connecting them with top system integrators, OEMs, cooling specialists, and other data center IT providers in the U.S. and Canada.
“At Accelsius, our success depends on our ability to enable our partners’ success. “And developing a world-class partner ecosystem is a strategic priority,” said Accelsius CEO Josh Claman. “Our partners are more than a force multiplier at Accelsius — they are our lifeblood and our route to market.” CEO Josh Claman.
Data Center Immersion Cooling Advancements
The outlook for data center immersion cooling technology has been hot for several years, and is on track to escalate further this year.
For one operator, NTT noted in its key technology predictions for 2024 that the company is already using techniques including liquid immersion cooling (as well as district heating projects and researching solar panels in space) to ensure sustainability prospects as AI drives investment in more disruptive energy supplies for data center infrastructure.
This month also finds thermal management specialist Modine touting its investment in liquid immersion cooling technology to support high-density data center applications.
Wisconsin-based Modine has now purchased the intellectual property and other specific assets of TMG Core, a specialist in single- and two-phase liquid immersion cooling technology for data centers with high-density computing requirements.
The investment adds single- and two-phase immersion cooling technologies to Modine’s portfolio, shoring up the company’s position as a complete cooling solutions provider as data center heat loads rise.
“Modine’s investment in liquid immersion cooling technology advances our strategy to expand our global data center product offering and capture market opportunities that help us achieve our long-term growth targets,” said Neil Brinker, President and CEO of Modine.
The new investment positions Modine to capture share in the rapidly developing data center liquid cooling market, which analysts forecast to reach $7.8 billion by 2028, as cited by the company.
Brinker added, “This investment strengthens Modine’s position in the rapidly growing data center market, providing our customers with advanced solutions to support high-density, accelerated computing applications, such as generative artificial intelligence, 5G and machine learning.”
The company points out that, in addition to facilitating high-density compute, liquid immersion cooling also serves edge data center applications where data processing must be closer to the source to reduce latency, such as in autonomous vehicles.
GIGABYTE Brings Data Center DLC and Immersion Cooling to CES 2024
Also recently in the arena of data center liquid cooling, along with unveiling four top-tier AI/HPC servers at this month’s CES 2024 tradeshow, Taiwan’s GIGABYTE and its subsidiary, Giga Computing, brought their direct liquid cooling (DLC) and all-in-one single-phase immersion cooling technologies to the exhibition, in the form of an in-house server cabinet and immersion tank.
The company’s AI/HPC server series features units supporting the AMD Instinct MI300A APU, NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchip, and NVIDIA HGX H100 8-GPU, designed for the exponential growth of AI and its increasing model parameters and datasets.
Sunon Launches Range of Data Center Liquid Cooling Solutions
Finally, last December Taiwan’s Sunon announced a range of liquid cooling offerings tailored to advanced data centers equipped with high-capacity CPU and GPU computing for AI, edge, and cloud servers.
The Sunon array of cooling modules and systems includes direct cooling solutions, rear-door heat exchangers (RDHx), and reservoir and pumping units (RPU).
Sunon says its associated liquid cooling design services are ideally suited for data centers engaged in generative AI computing and HPC applications, with solutions “meticulously customized to fit the cooling space and server density of each data center.”
