Iceotope plumbs in immersively cooled servers for first customer

IDG News Service (Paris Bureau) — Iceotope's immersively cooled server racks are now in production, and the company has named its first customer. The University of Leeds, in the north of England, has been using an Iceotope server since December to run computational fluid dynamics models -- and to warm the radiators in one of its laboratories.

The company showed off prototypes of its unusual liquid-cooled system at the Cebit trade show in Germany last March, but took another few months to figure out how to mass-produce the aluminum server modules, which are filled with Novec, an inert coolant liquid from 3M.

The Novec carries heat from the server motherboard to the module's surface by natural convection, without the need for noisy, inefficient fans. Water is pumped to the top of the rack, from where it trickles down over the modules to a heat exchanger. A secondary water circuit then carries the heat away, either to a rooftop cooling system or, at the University of Leeds, to regular domestic radiators.

The many fans in a typical server rack might be turning as much as 6kW of electricity into acoustic and thermal energy as they push air around, according to senior lecturer Jon Summers. Iceotope's racks are cooled by two 40W water pumps, and just one could do the job if the other failed, according to company CTO Peter Hopton.

While many data centers are struggling because their servers are running too hot, Summers said that if anything the university's Iceotope server is too cool.

"We're looking at a water temperature of 50 to 55 C from the back of the system going into the radiators, which are normally expecting 70 C," he said. That means each radiator's heat output is around 1.7kW, well below the 2.5kW they would deliver if connected to a central heating system.

A PhD student sponsored by Iceotope is using the server to model how it could be made to run hotter, boosting cooling efficiency -- and warming the laboratory more effectively through the winter, said Summers.

"We are trying to understand what flow rates we need to operate it at and the external circuit that best matches the performance of the system. We've been running some heavy computational loads to generate that heat," he said.

The server is probably worked harder than those in many data centers, he said, because it operates at about 95 percent utilization, running calculations in batch mode for student projects, while utilization in commercial environments is much lower.

The Leeds server has a mix of modules containing both AMD and Intel processors, reflecting the academic interest in experimentation. It has a total of 240 cores and 360GB of RAM.

Processor modules containing two Intel six-core Romley E5-2620 processors, 64Gbytes of RAM and SSD storage start at APS3,195 (US$4,835). A rack can hold 48 modules, along with dual heat exchangers and dual power supplies for redundancy.

With the servers bathed in fluid and sealed in aluminum boxes, the upgrade options are limited to swapping a box out of the cabinet and putting a new one in.

"Refilling is possible, but nobody has requested it yet," said Iceotope CEO Neil Bennett. "We are encouraging customers to put a lot of memory in from day one. It's not something a customer can just put a new DIMM in."

http://www.cio.com/article/729487/Iceotope_plumbs_in_immersively_cooled_servers_for_first_customer

University of Leeds tests immersed servers

Researchers at the University of Leeds are trialling liquid-cooled servers that could cut power consumption used in cooling systems in datacentres by up to 97 per cent.

Most servers in datacentres use air to cool them, but server modules used by the university are totally immersed in liquid. This liquid replaces noisy, power-hungry fans.

The system, designed and built by Iceotope in Rotherham, uses a non-flammable liquid coolant, called 3M Novec, and can be in direct contact with electronics because it does not conduct electricity.

Iceotope designed and built the system working with team of researchers led by Dr Jon Summers from the University of Leeds’ School of Mechanical Engineering. The first production system has now been installed at the University after two years of testing prototypes.

So far the university claimed that the new system uses just 80 watts of power to harvest the heat from up to 20 kilowatts of ICT use. The server also does away with the need for ancillary data centre facilities such as computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units, humidity control systems and air purification.

Dr Summers said “The liquid we are using is extraordinary stuff. You could throw your mobile phone in a tub of it and the phone would work perfectly. But the important thing for the future of computing and the internet is that it is more than 1,000 times more effective at carrying heat than air."

“The cooling of servers is traditionally done using fans and air conditioning units, but air is a great insulator. We use it in double glazing. Why would you use it to cool a server?” he added.

Dr Nikil Kapur, also from the University of Leeds’ School of Mechanical Engineering, said the fact that the system is completely enclosed raises many possibilities. "It does not interact with its environment in the way an air-cooled server does, so you could put it in an extreme environment like the desert. It is also completely silent. You could have it on a submarine or in a classroom.”

Peter Hopton, Iceotope’s Chief Technology Officer and originator of the Iceotope concept said the basic principle of the design has many applications.

"While a few years away, there is no reason why every home shouldn't make better use of the surplus heat from consumer electronics, imagine having your PC or TV plumbed into the central heating system."



Read more: http://www.itpro.co.uk/data-centers/19313/university-leeds-tests-immersed-servers#ixzz2Ma5T3g5t

Wet computer server could cut internet waste

A revolutionary liquid-cooled computer server that could slash the carbon footprint of the internet is being tested at the University of Leeds. While most computers use air to cool their electronics, all of the components in the new server are completely immersed in liquid. The power-hungry fans of traditional computing are replaced by a silent next-generation liquid cooling process that relies on the natural convection of heat.

But the significance of the new Iceotope server lies less in the novelty of its design than in the bite it could take out of the huge electricity demands of the internet servers that form the fabric of our online lives.Its designers calculate that the server cuts energy consumption for cooling by between 80 percent and 97 percent. 

While the information industry enjoys an image of hyper efficiency and environmental friendliness, all internet use relies on remote servers, which are usually housed in large data centres that must be constantly cooled to remain operational. The reality is that the mobile apps, networked devices and 24-hour internet access on which we have come to rely are very energy hungry.

A 2011 report by Datacenter Dynamics estimated that the world's data centres currently use 31 gigawatts of power, the equivalent of about half of the UK's total peak electricity demand. A 2008 report by McKinsey and Company projected that data centre carbon emissions will quadruple by 2020 and a year-long investigation by the New York Times, published in September, criticized the industry for its energy waste.

UK company Iceotope designed and built its new server working with team of researchers led by Dr Jon Summers from the University of Leeds' School of Mechanical Engineering. The first production system has now been installed at the University after two years of testing prototypes.


Dr Summers, whose team used computational fluid dynamics to model how the coolant flows through the new server's components, said:

"The liquid we are using is extraordinary stuff. You could throw your mobile phone in a tub of it and the phone would work perfectly. But the important thing for the future of computing and the internet is that it is more than 1,000 times more effective at carrying heat than air.

"The cooling of servers is traditionally done using fans and air conditioning units, but air is a great insulator. We use it in double glazing. Why would you use it to cool a server?" he added.

The non-flammable liquid coolant, called 3M Novec, can be in direct contact with electronics because it does not conduct electricity.

There is no equivalent of the noisy fans required by traditional computers and the server does not require an elaborate pump to move the coolant over its components.

Instead, a simple low energy pump, located at the bottom of the cabinet, pumps a secondary coolant (water) to the top where it cascades down throughout all 48 modules due to gravity.The secondary coolant terminates at heat exchangers within the cabinet for transfer of heat to a third and final coolant, on an external loop, taking the heat away for external cooling or reuse.
The third coolant can be drawn from "grey water" sources such as rainwater or river water, further reducing the environmental impact of the server. Because of the high cooling efficiency of the system, the output water can reach temperatures of up to 50 degrees Centigrade, which can be used for heating and other uses.

The Iceotope system uses just 80 watts of power to harvest the heat from up to 20 kilowatts of ICT use. The server also does away with the need for ancillary data centre facilities such as computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units, humidity control systems and air purification. Dr Nikil Kapur, also from the University of Leeds' School of Mechanical Engineering, said:

"The fact that this system is completely enclosed raises a host of possibilities. It does not interact with its environment in the way an air-cooled server does, so you could put it in an extreme environment like the desert. It is also completely silent. You could have it on a submarine or in a classroom."

Neil Bennett, CEO of Iceotope, said:

"Information technology has been the poster child of the new economy but its environmental impact has frequently been unaddressed. Given the increasing scarcity of resources such as energy and clean water, Iceotope delivers computing with a conscience. We are proud to have the University of Leeds as partners on this disruptive and exciting journey."

Peter Hopton, Iceotope's Chief Technology Officer and originator of the Iceotope concept, said:

"More than five years of research, innovation and collaboration have gone into Iceotope's technology. The basic principle of the design has many applications and, while a few years away, there is no reason why every home shouldn't make better use of the surplus heat from consumer electronics, imagine having your PC or TV plumbed into the central heating system."

More information: Key facts about data centres:

—The world's data centres use 31 gigawatts of power, more than seven times the capacity of UK's largest coal-fired power station, Drax in North Yorkshire.

— Data centre carbon emissions are projected to quadruple between 2008 and 2020.— The UK has 7.6 million square metres of data centre floor space.

— 1 in 3 of the world's population use data centres. The number is growing at around 15 per cent annually

Provided by University of Leeds

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-server-internet.html#jCp

Iceotope Finalists for Network Computing Awards 2013 Datacentre Product of the Year Award.

Iceotope have been chosen as finalists in the Network Computing Awards 2013 for Datacentre Product of the Year.

The final decision is down to popular vote, so here's another chance to show your support for Iceotope. Simply follow the link below and cast your vote - it only takes a minute!

www.networkcomputingawards.co.uk/

Thanks everyone!

The Future is Changing. Take Your Place in it.

Iceotope is a disruptive market entrant whose technology solves some of the most pressing challenges facing today’s datacentre operators. Following university collaboration on advanced fluid dynamics, the combination of IT and mechanical engineering, and an extensive beta testing phase – Iceotope has developed an integrated cooling system for datacentre and High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities that uses a fraction of the natural resources, such as energy and water, of other solutions.

Iceotope’s liquid cooling system is the only one of its kind in the world. It allows datacentres to run neutral in terms of heat, resulting in a reduction of cooling power costs of up to 97 percent. The Iceotope Solution doesn’t require fans, chiller equipment or any other complex and expensive supplementary systems as part of the cooling process. This cuts infrastructure and operating costs, as well as total energy bills and emissions. It uses just 80 watts of power to cool 20kW of ICT. This equates to an overall reduction in energy consumption of 50 percent.

Able to be located anywhere, the Iceotope Solution can be deployed in industrial spaces or populated areas. With input water temperatures of up to W4 on the ASHRAE water cooling tier (that’s 45°C maximum), full time free cooling in any climate becomes a reality, even in equatorial or hostile environments. Completely silent and clean in operation, the Iceotope Solution is also dust and humidity safe, meaning that servers can be located in environments that were previously considered unsuitable for datacentre use. This means that even the hottest environments, where cooling can be a real difficulty and ultimately an environmental hazard, can run efficiently.

Source: http://www.ecoconnect.org.uk/cleantech-innovate/iceotope/

Start-ups to follow in 2013 - Iceotope

Iceotope has designed an innovative liquid cooling system that has the potential to dramatically cut energy usage in computer centres and prevent millions of tons of CO₂ being released.

Iceotope was named New Company of the Year in the Elektra Electronics Industry Awards in December.

The Sheffield-based start-up claims it can dramatically cut, by over 90%, the cooling overhead of data centres, and increases the computational density of server racks, by moving to liquid cooling.

Conventional servers are cooled by air, with fans bowing over processor heatsinks.

Resulting hot air is cooled by a heat-exchanger in the back of the cabinet, or air conditioning units elsewhere in the server room.

On top of the power consumed by the server electronics "you have to add at least 20% because of the fans in the rack, and the air conditioning can bring this up to 120% of the electronic load", said Iceotope chief technology officer, Peter Hopton, speaking toElectronics Weekly last year.

"Some back-cooled air-cooled racks can get down 50-90% of processor power, but they struggle to get 20kW-worth of electronics inside the rack."

Hopton's claimed he can get 22kW worth of servers into a rack, and get that heat out to the environment, with only 4% extra energy.

Behind the Iceotope cooling technique are two main ideas: keep the heat in liquid, so that air never needs to be handled, and avoid refrigeration, with its power-hungry compressors. 

To implement liquid cooling, almost everything in an Iceotope server rack is different, and made in the UK.

The only thing that stays the same are off-the-shelf blade server motherboards, each of which is mounted inside its own sealed hot-swappable 'cartridge', which is flooded with primary coolant - a novel liquid from 3M called Novec.

Novec is both compatible with electronics and fireproof, but its most extreme characteristic is its capacity to remove heat through natural convection.

"Novec is very convective, said Hopton. "It has high thermal expansivity - 20x more than water - and low viscosity, which means it convects 20-40x better than water."

Its thermal capacity is lower than water, said Hopton, but the overall effect is 10-15x better heat removal than if the Novec was replaced with un-pumped water.

To take heat out of the Novec, there is a secondary circuit with water snaking through a channel inside one wall of the cartridge, supplied through two self-sealing fluid valve/connectors at the back.

One litre of water per minute gaining 5°C is enough to extract 400W of heat from the server motherboard, with only 20W escaping into surrounding air.

"The meander channel is large, so it has a low pressure drop, and the pressure drop of the valve is small too," said Hopton.

The rack's cooling water comes from a reservoir at the top of the rack (which Iceotope calls a plenum), flowing into a bottom reservoir through 60 parallel paths, one through each cartridge - 48 blades and 12 PSUs.

Overall pressure drop through each path is low enough, said Hopton, that gravity is sufficient to push the required litre per minute through the cartridges.

"The only need for a pump is to return 60 litres of water to the top plenum. One 40W pump would suffice. We have two pumps - 80W in total," said Hopton.

And this is the source of Iceotope's headline marketing claim that it can shift 22kW from a cabinet at the cost of only 80W.

Two pumps mean dual redundancy to keep the servers working after one failure.

For the same reason, there are two heat exchangers at the bottom of the cabinet, one per pump, to transfer heat from secondary loop to a tertiary and final water loop which takes heat out of the building.

"Water in from the external circuit can be at up to 45°C, and water out will be at a maximum of 50°C," said Hopton.

As returning water only has to be cooled to 45°C, this can be done by simple outdoor radiators almost any where in the world, providing that they are in the shade. There is no need for refrigeration and its attendant energy cost from compressors, said Hopton.

As external cooling is passive, the total energy budget is 22kW of heat per rack from the electronics, 80W/rack from the rack pumps, plus the energy required to pump the tertiary circuit.

According to Hopton, modelling by a third-party data centre simulation firm predicts that cooling is always possible for a total of 4% over the power budget of the electronics - including pumping twin tertiary loops, and sprayed water evaporative cooling water to boost the outside radiators in extreme weather.

"Even in Houston Texas in mid-summer, we can still get 45°C water back to cabinet with some evaporative cooling," he said.

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/03/01/2013/55290/start-ups-to-follow-in-2013-iceotope.htm

Iceotope beats global competition to win the Tech Trailblazers Sustainability Award

18^th December 2012 – Iceotope is proud to announce its success in the first ever Tech Trailblazers Awards, an accolade which boasts some of the world’s most innovative new tech start-ups. In winning the Sustainable IT Trailblazer category, the Sheffield-based business fought off stiff competition from all over the globe. Its category alone saw entrants from South Africa, Iceland and the USA, all vying for the prize. The award tops off a stellar year for the fledgling business and follows a string of industry award wins in 2012, including successes in the Elektra, Techworld and RealBusiness Future 50 Awards.

As well as a public vote, the winning companies were chosen by an independent judging panel in a process that saw each member invest millions of ‘virtual dollars’ into their chosen businesses. The awards covered nine distinct categories and separate IT sectors including mobile, virtualisation and security.

The award was given to Iceotope in recognition of its capability to address some of the most pressing environmental issues in IT, including the sharp rise of energy usage and related CO2 emissions as a result of industry growth, as well as the spiralling costs of running a data centre. Launched earlier this year, Iceotope’s innovative liquid cooling system can provide full-time free cooling for IT anywhere on the planet and also bears the ‘Made in Sheffield’ mark, an accolade given to organisations continuing the region's tradition of manufacturing the highest quality goods and products.

“We are absolutely delighted to be recognised in this manner – it caps off a brilliant 2012 but also reflects the great work our research and development teams have been doing for some time”, said Iceotope CEO, Neil Bennett. “We’d like to thank the fantastic institutions like 3M™, AMD, Intel and the University of Leeds that have backed us throughout, the brilliant support we achieved during the public vote, as well as the awards organisers and sponsors who put this all together. Seeing Iceotope listed amongst some of the most ground-breaking and successful new start-ups, from every corner of the globe, is absolutely brilliant and emphasises just how far we believe we can reach in the future - as well as how far we’ve already come

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http://techtrailblazers.com/news/#/pressrelease/view/enterprise-tech-startup-rock-stars-announced-tech-trailblazers-awards-2012-winners-unveiled-822915