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NEXT-GENERATION COOLING TECHNOLOGIES
PROMOTE DATA CENTER EFFICIENCY
Technical Note by:
Simon Goodson
Thomas Homorodi
Aamir Kazi
SUMMARY
Dell EMC expanded operating
Environments research &
development (R&D) kicked off in
2008 with Fresh Air Cooling:
Addressed temperature and relative
humidity; continuing advanced R&D on
corrosion in poor air quality
environments
Dell EMC Enterprise products can be
deployed in expanded environments –
under warranty
Expanded operating environment
allows for reduced CAPEX & OPEX
More Next generation cooling
technologies are here Dell EMC is
shipping (limited) configurations with
Cold Plate (Direct Liquid Cooling)
The worldwide demand for computing power is skyrocketing with
cloud computing, IoT, and traditional application models all
experiencing growth. In response the industry has responded by
packing more power into successive generations of CPUs, faster RAM
to feed them and greater storage density to house the information
demanded by consumers. The increase in power has brought on
increases in operating temperature necessitating new, more efficient
cooling technologies for datacenters to dissipate the heat being
generated and address corrosive elements in varied environments.
Dell EMC recognized these trends early, and in 2008 initiated the first
iteration of its Fresh Air Cooling (FAC) research in anticipation of
evolving energy demands. Fresh Air Cooling is the process of using
outside air or mixing it with exhaust air (to generate desired inlet
temperature), or passing it over an evaporative cooling mechanism
(swamp cooler) and feeding it directly into the inlet side of the data
center servers. A fresh air cooled datacenter replaces traditional cold
room air conditioners with a much more efficient, cost saving cooling
solution.
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is the ratio of the total energy
consumed by a data center to the energy used for computing only. A
lower PUE means a more efficient data center. Traditional data center
PUE’s range between 1.6 and 1.8, FAC datacenters generally deliver
PUE’s between 1.2 and 1.4. For example, a large data center in
Arizona has a record low PUE of 1.015 using Dell EMC FAC.
By 2009, when the EU Code of Conduct endorsed FAC, Dell EMC
was well into Phase 1 of FAC R&D. Dell EMC demonstrated the
operational robustness of its hardware in 40°C/85% relative humidity
(RH) environments. Then Dell EMC validated the solution’s operability
in low temperature and humidity. In 2011, Dell EMC shipped its first
Fresh Air Cooled Modular Data Center (MDC). MDCs are deployable
in semi-knocked-down states for fast, easy assembly in situ. Dell EMC
R&D successes bore FAC-ready products within 11th Generation
PowerEdge.
In late 2012, Dell EMC progressed into FAC Phase 2 with a higher
temperature and humidity tolerance (45-55°C, 85-90% RH).
Concurrent with FAC 2.0, Dell EMC built and deployed a fresh air
cooled MDC on its Round Rock, Texas campus to give personnel
direct exposure to the technology and facilitate improvements in
design and develop best practices. This 0.5 MW MDC runs real-world
customer workloads (not simulated). During this time period,
ASHRAE, ISA, iNEMI and other industry consortia began to
investigate the unconditioned, frequently corrosive