Cray Develops Green, Super-High-Performance Cooling Technology

The challenges faced in cooling petaflop-scale computing are similar in nature, if not in scope, to the problems faced with cooling today's data centers; and yesterday supercomputer manufacturer Cray announced the creation of a new way to solve those problems.

Computers performing thousands of trillions of calculations per second will be able to take advantage of Cray's new ECOphlex technology, keeping high-performing computers cool while saving energy at the same time. The technology, which stands for PHase-change Liquid EXchange, can use either chilled or unchilled water alongside a phase-changing coolant to cool computers. Cray says the technology can replace the need for whole-room CRAC cooling units, which in supercomputing facilities can take up as much or more space as the computers themselves.

The new technology works on a "room air neutral" basis, where the air entering the machine is the same temperature as the air leaving it. Cray estimates it to be ten times as efficient at removing heat from computer cabinets as conventional water-coil units; at a test facility, the ECOphlex technology removed 100 percent of the heat from the system.