The development history of data center liquid cooling
The data center is composed of server, UPS system, battery, AC power supply device, DC power supply device and cooling system. In order to ensure the smooth operation of various equipment and prevent equipment overheating, the cooling system is a key component of the infrastructure of the data center. For the data center, the choice of cooling mode depends on many factors, among which operating cost is the most important factor for most enterprises.
In recent years, great changes have taken place in cooling technology. Many modern data centers are developing towards a new cooling technology - liquid immersion cooling technology. Immersion cooling can reduce operating costs, save energy and prolong the service life of equipment. Research shows that liquid cooling is a better choice than air cooling technology, especially liquid immersion cooling, which is the latest and best technology available for data center cooling.
First generation: air conditioner cooling
The first generation of cooling uses mechanical cooling to cool the air entering the data center. This process will consume a lot of energy, and the cooling effect is not enough for the rack with high density.
Generation 2 - rack cooling
By placing the cooling unit between two racks to cool each row of server racks, cold air or chilled water can be used to reduce the temperature. The cost of chilled water is expensive. In addition, this cooling system also requires fans to drive the cold air around the room, which will cause additional costs.
Generation 3 - rear housing heat exchanger:
The rear heat exchanger is usually used for computing applications with higher density. The rear shell is equipped with a chilled liquid pipe connected to the back of the rack to achieve cooling and heat dissipation, but there is a certain risk of leakage.
Generation 4 - cold plate:
In the cold plate cooling mode, the CPU chip in the server is cooled by directly installing the liquid cooling module on the top of the CPU, and the coolant is directly sent to the cold plate through the pipe. The cooling effect of this method is good, but the server update cost is high and complex.
Generation 5 - liquid immersion cooling
Liquid immersion cooling technology involves placing the entire data center equipment (including each component of CPU, memory, hard disk drive, network card and server) in a non flammable, non-conductive and insulating liquid bath to absorb heat and prolong the service life of the equipment. This cooling method has not found any shortcomings, and its low cost and low pue make it the best choice for the cooling of future data centers.
The data center is a key machine for data processing, which is undoubtedly important to enterprises. Especially for large enterprises involving finance, transportation, big data processing, etc., the stability of the data center directly affects the service ability of enterprises. Therefore, ensuring the stability and reliability of the data center is the top priority of these enterprises. It can be seen that the cooling of the data center is very important.
