Intel plans to invest 700 million dollars in liquid immersion technology for cooling processors in data centerss. Among other things, a large test laboratory is being built for this purpose in the American city of Portland.
The processors used in data centres generate enormous amounts of heat. Industry experts estimate cooling to account for roughly 40 percent of all energy used by data centers. According to Intel, cooling chipsets with a special liquid immersion technology can save data centers up to 45 percent in CO2 emissions.
Innovative cooling technology
Intel wants to take the lead and has decided to invest no less than 700 million dollars (around 662 million euros) in the field. Specifically, the chip manufacturer is investing in the development of technology that cools processors by immersing them in a bath of non-conductive fluids, such as oils and coolants. This is an alternative to cooling via heat sinks and cooling plates, as is currently the norm.
Test lab in Portland
One part of the investment plan is building a gigantic test lab in Portland. In this laboratory, Intel wants to develop, certify, test and present various cooling technologies for data centers in a demo environment.
This includes testing cooling technology for Intel Xeon and Intel Optane processors, network interfaces and switching devices, Intel Agilex FGPAs, the Intel Xe architecture, the Intel Habana accelerators and future products for data center environments.
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