International. The computer company IBM announced that it will put aside the air cooling system and that it will again use water for the cooling of its computers and data center.
The company indicates that energy consumption is the main factor for which they were forced to analyze new alternatives, since half of the electricity consumption is generated by the cooling system.
The computer giant IBM began using water to cool computers in the 60s of the last century in its System/360, but abandoned this technology in 1995 because it required complex architectures and the arrival of more efficient processors such as CMOS.
For a year now, the water cooling system has been operating on a European supercomputer located at the Supercomputing Center in Leibniz, Germany, which according to the company is consuming 40% less energy than an air system.
According to the technology journal Libertad Digital, the system cools the equipment with water that enters at 40°C and reaches the processors and other elements such as memory modules – where more heat is generated – through microchannels incorporated into these components. According to its creators, it is inspired by the human circulation system and mimics the way blood and oxygen are distributed throughout the body."
On this computer, the server pipes are attached to the main water distribution network. The entire system is a closed circuit. The cooling water is constantly heated by the chips and re-cooled as it passes through a passive heat exchanger. The excess heat is destined for the heating system of the Leibniz research centre.
