Intel has announced an investment of 700 million of dollars in a research and development facilities in charge of design of liquid immersion cooling solutions of new generation, as well as other technologies intended for use in data centers.
In addition, the company has also announced the first open IP (open IP) immersion liquid cooling solution. It is a reference design that allows data centers to start using immersion liquid cooling without having to make significant investments in custom solutions.
It is intended for cooling solutions launched with it that are easy to deploy and can be easily scaled. Of course, the design is for now a proof of concept, which will be completed in collaboration with Intel Taiwan and in the Taiwanese ecosystem, in a project that will be developed in several phases. The choice of Taiwan for this is not accidental, since many third-party equipment manufacturers have their headquarters in Taiwan, and what Intel intends by doing this test there is to work side by side with them to make it easier for Intel to work with suppliers. of servers, as well as with its users.
But Intel is not going to settle for just one design, as it wants immersion liquid cooling to become as popular a system as traditional air and liquid cooling. Hence the announced investment. Also the plans it has to establish its new research and design laboratory in Oregon, on its Jones Farm campus. It will be dedicated to investment in immersion cooling, water use effectiveness, and heat recapture and reuse. The construction of the new center has already begun, and if all goes well it will come into operation at the end of next year, 2023.
The company is convinced that liquid immersion cooling with energy reuse could reduce the energy consumption of data center cooling systems. Also carbon emissions, which will make operating data centers cheaper, and reducing the level of pollution emitted by power plants.
Still, mind you, there is a problem with immersion liquid cooling solutions. Almost all deployments of these systems employ very expensive proprietary hardware designs, and to reduce their cost and make them more accessible to their major customers, Intel has been working with various experts in this field for about a year now.
Sandra L. Rivera, Vice President of Intel and Head of its Data Center and Artificial Intelligence Grouphas underlined that «Intel’s dedication to its global deals is evident with today’s announcements. The future of the data center, and of data center design, is based on sustainable and innovative technologies and practices, and I am proud of the work we do every day to help make a sustainable future a reality.«.
