CoolitDC v5.0 adds a new turbulence flow model fine-tuned for data center modeling, implements rack data import from Excel, and from CAD files. In addition, optimized grid generation enhances the user experience and creates more robust models.

Learn more from Daat.

dcTrack’s new modern, easy-to-use web interface for Connectivity Management visualizes power and data network circuits – two key data center infrastructure components. Circuits are shown end-to-end with all the intermediate nodes, providing detailed information about each node or connection point. dcTrack’s intuitive circuit builder has the flexibility to model any data network topology going through any number of patch panels without violating connectivity standards. It also allows the user to model the power path from the data center’s uninterruptable power supply (UPS) going through the power distribution units (PDUs), circuit breakers, rack PDUs, and down to the load – the servers and switches – without allowing power capacities to be exceeded at any node.

Learn more from Raritan.

Laser cooling of atoms has been practiced for several years in experiments in the quantum optical laboratories of the Quantop research group at the Niels Bohr Institute. Here researchers have cooled gas clouds of cesium atoms down to near absolute zero, minus 273 degrees C, using focused lasers and have created entanglement between two atomic systems. The atomic spin becomes entangled and the two gas clouds have a kind of link, which is due to quantum mechanics. Using quantum optical techniques, they have measured the quantum fluctuations of the atomic spin.

Koji Usami explains that in the experiment they shine the laser light onto the nanomembrane in a vacuum chamber. When the laser light hits the semiconductor membrane, some of the light is reflected and the light is reflected back again via a mirror in the experiment so that the light flies back and forth in this space and forms an optical resonator. Some of the light is absorbed by the membrane and releases free electrons. The electrons decay and thereby heat the membrane and this gives a thermal expansion. In this way the distance between the membrane and the mirror is constantly changed in the form of a fluctuation.

Learn more from the Niels Bohr Institute.

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In addition to energy efficiency and product safety for lighting fixtures and lamps, the laboratory will provide services for consumer electronics, information technology equipment, televisions, power supplies, audio/video, battery chargers, displays, imaging equipment, and set top boxes. The new facility features several type C goniophotometers for testing lamps and luminaries and a type A goniophotometer for testing automotive and airport lighting as well as retroreflective material. A group of very spacious environmentally controlled life testing rooms were also designed into the building for ENERGY STAR testing.

Learn more from TÜV SÜD.

SWITCH bulbs use 80 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs and last for about 25,000 hours no matter often you switch them on or off.

Learn more from SWITCH.

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The Microsoft team forged ahead with the project, building and testing a system with tiny directional antennas at the top of each rack to send and receive data. A central controller monitors traffic patterns, finds network bottlenecks, configures the antennas and turns on the wireless links when more bandwidth is required. Signals go out on a horizontal plane and are steered right or left. The design sped up traffic by at least 45 percent in 95 percent of the cases tested.

Learn more from the NY Times.

Learn more from European Commission Cordis.

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It turns out that battery coolant could leak on an electronic board, causing the fire. The leaks were discovered in tests in which a Volt was rotated until it was inverted. Only a small amount of coolant was involved.

To fix it, GM will modify the car to strengthen the protection around the battery. It will only add a few pounds.

Learn more from USA Today.

Self-healing electronics. Microcapsules full of liquid metal sit atop a gold circuit. When the circuit is broken, the microcapsules rupture, filling in the crack and restoring the circuit.

A team of University of Illinois engineers has developed a self-healing system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit in less time than it takes to blink. Led by aerospace engineering professor Scott White and materials science and engineering professor Nancy Sottos, the researchers published their results in the journal Advanced Materials.
As electronic devices are evolving to perform more sophisticated tasks, manufacturers are packing as much density onto a chip as possible. However, such density compounds reliability problems, such as failure stemming from fluctuating temperature cycles as the device operates or fatigue. A failure at any point in the circuit can shut down the whole device.
Most consumer devices are meant to be replaced with some frequency, adding to electronic waste issues, but in many important applications – such as instruments or vehicles for space or military functions – electrical failures cannot be replaced or repaired.
The self-healing system requires no human intervention or diagnostics, a boon for applications where accessing a break for repair is impossible, such as a battery, or finding the source of a failure is difficult, such as an air- or spacecraft.
“In an aircraft, especially a defense-based aircraft, there are miles and miles of conductive wire,” Sottos said. “You don’t often know where the break occurs. The autonomous part is nice – it knows where it broke, even if we don’t.”

Learn more from the University of Illinois.

Together with the company’s FloTHERM thermal simulation tool based on computational flow dynamics (CFD), lighting designers can model and improve heat transfer through the LED, printed circuit board (PCB) or luminaire system during design and prototyping phases.

Learn more from LEDs Magazine.

DC-powered technology is being increasingly adopted for electrical distribution in data centers as it reduces power conversion losses and is 10 to 20 percent more energy efficient than traditional alternating current (AC) technology. DC-powered systems also reduce complexity and require less space – decreasing equipment, installation and maintenance costs.

Learn more from ABB.