Introduction The environment of every data center is complex and unique. Air currents within the data center have hot and cold air streams colliding, cold air exhausting upward from perforated tiles, hot air streams exhausting from tops and the rear of servers and storage racks. Not only are these air circulation patterns extremely complex, they can also be transient in nature … [Read more...]
Estimating Temperatures in an Air-cooled Closed Box Electronics Enclosure
Introduction In the majority of air-cooling applications, openings or vents are provided in the enclosure or box in which the electronic components are housed. The required cooling air is drawn in from outside the box by fans or blowers. In some applications, however, there may be airborne particulates or other substances in the air that would be injurious to the electrical … [Read more...]
Server Design Challenges for the High-heat-load Internet Data Center
Introduction Microprocessor and system thermal management are linked to facility cooling: power dissipation and cooling techniques employed at one end of the size scale have cascading impacts at the other extreme (Figure 1). For example, ineffective airflow distribution or insufficient underfloor static pressure in a data center can reduce the supply airflow rate from … [Read more...]
Communication Network Power Efficiency Assessment, Limitations and Directions
Introduction Despite the slowdown in the communication industry, Internet traffic continues to grow rapidly, fueled by the explosion in data communications, mobile Internet, e-commerce, content rich applications, and multi-media services. Internet traffic has increased by approximately 80% yearly in each of the last three years, and will continue to grow at 60 - 80% annually … [Read more...]
Hot Spots in Data Centers
Heat loads of data processing equipment continue to increase at a rapid rate. This increasing heat load has been documented by a Thermal Management Consortium of 17 companies [1] as shown in Figure 1. Also shown in this figure are measured heat fluxes (based on product footprint) of some recent product announcements. The most recent shows a rack dissipating 28,500 watts, … [Read more...]
