Microsoft Tests New Liquid Cooling System for The Data Center

[Uskompuf]

Microsoft employees are trialing a novel new immersive cooling system for their data center servers involving boiling liquid. Microsoft has looked to this two-phase closed-loop system as a solution to increasing power requirements from components. The cooling system features large vats where servers are submerged in a specially designed fluid from 3M which is harmless to electronics and boils at just 50°C (122°F). The heat from the servers is transferred to the fluid which boils and carries the heat away without any risk of overheating. The vats each contain a condenser that comes in contact with the gas cooling it down into a liquid and falling back into the loop. Microsoft claims that this new cooling approach will improve efficiency and sustainability through increased utilization of resources.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Darksaber]

Why is there a picture of a guy smiling into the camera?

 

[Caring1]

Why is there a picture of a guy smiling into the camera?

Maybe it's the fumes.

 

[ZoneDymo]

is this not one of those technologies that we have seen presented..oh idk, 10 years ago? more?

 

[ZeppMan217]

is this not one of those technologies that we have seen presented..oh idk, 10 years ago? more?

Was gonna say the same thing. Isn't this mineral oil cooling?

 

[turbogear]

This principle was shown also by Der8auer in 2017 at Gamescom but if I remember this was supper expensive.
Der8auer offered also at that time some systems at Caseking with this principle but if I remember correctly the cost of one high end PC with such submerged liquid cooling was around 10k€.
He at that time said that servers use this.
So maybe it was not widespread in server and Microsoft want to bring it to next level now.

 

[Space Lynx]

I thought Microsoft was putting data centers into the ocean to keep them cold...

Microsoft finds underwater datacenters are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably - Source

Microsoft retrieved the Northern Isles underwater datacenter from the seafloor off Scotland's Orkney Islands. Project Natick is proving the concept of underwater datacenters is feasible as well as logistically, environmentally and economically practical.

news.microsoft.com

 

[dyonoctis]

Was gonna say the same thing. Isn't this mineral oil cooling?

It looks similar, but 3M liquid isn't mineral oil. Mineral oil doesn't evaporate for one

 

[Anvirol]

I wonder what kind of liquid is that. I hope they have extensively studied the safety of it..

3M synthetic liquids immediately remind me of PFOA / C8 chemical scandal which can be found in multiple U.S. water sources.
It can cause multiple cancers. Some people who worked directly with the chemical died in just a few years.

 

[R0H1T]

Speaking of industrial (scale) disasters, there's always this!

Bhopal disaster | Causes, Effects, Facts, & History

Bhopal disaster, chemical leak in 1984 in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh state, India, during which about 45 tons of methyl isocyanate escaped from an insecticide plant. Tens of thousands of people were killed, some half a million others suffered maladies, and the site remained contaminated...

www.britannica.com

 

[1d10t]

is this not one of those technologies that we have seen presented..oh idk, 10 years ago? more?

Actually it was demonstrated in CES 2019.

 

[Vayra86]

Speaking of industrial (scale) disasters, there's always this!

Bhopal disaster | Causes, Effects, Facts, & History

Bhopal disaster, chemical leak in 1984 in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh state, India, during which about 45 tons of methyl isocyanate escaped from an insecticide plant. Tens of thousands of people were killed, some half a million others suffered maladies, and the site remained contaminated...

www.britannica.com

Why not get something more recent eh

Florida reservior leaking toxic wastewater demonstrates decades of regulatory failure, environmental activists say

“Whatever could go wrong has gone wrong," a longtime environmental activist said of the reservoir where the leak is occurring.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Punkenjoy]

1 phase cooling is like water cooling or mineral oil immersion. The liquid stay in the same phase and you move that liquid to a radiator to cool it.

2 phase cooling is when the liquid change phase (evaporate) then is condensed and put back in the loop.

Changing phase require a lot of energy. So when the liquid boil, it absorb a great deal of energy from the part you want to cool. (This is how humans cool themselves by sweating). And when the liquid condensate of it have to release a lot of energy. Vapors are easier to move around also.

But you are right, heatpipe are 2 phase cooler and they were around for quite some time. The difference here is the liquid isn't encapsulated into pipe. The whole system sit in it.

 

[Quitessa]

Yeah this is pretty old news really, 3M have been trying to sell this for Years as the Ultimate Cooling Solution

Servers

PC

 

[L'Eliminateur]

it's 3M Fluorinert, that liquid is already used in the industry for other stuff, but since it's "thin"(it has very low viscosity, in fact i think it's "thinner" than water) and the surface tension is similar(it "wets" easily) plus the boiling point is low at atmospheric pressure (around 60~70°ish) AND it's nonconductive and doesn't leave residue, it's been used for immersion cooling since several years ago.

The gist, it's expensive AF, liquid gold levels of expensive.

I think the only twist that MS is bringing is that it's a condensing closed system, making sure you don't lose the liquid gold to evaporation

 

[Dr_b_]

Data centers have been using this for a while now, wonder what the microsoft "innovation" is to this

 

[R0H1T]

Actually it was demonstrated in CES 2019.

So these are the guys who siphoned off all those 16x 2080 Ti's

Why not get something more recent eh

Florida reservior leaking toxic wastewater demonstrates decades of regulatory failure, environmental activists say

“Whatever could go wrong has gone wrong," a longtime environmental activist said of the reservoir where the leak is occurring.

www.nbcnews.com

Scale mostly, human death toll which is estimated to be a lot more than 20k ~ that's just the headline number, a lot more people died due to exposure in the years since & at least 10x have had lasting effects of the gas literally etched into their bodies!

 

[L'Eliminateur]

Data centers have been using this for a while now, wonder what the microsoft "innovation" is to this

as i've said, probably the innovation is the condensing system and how it's a "sealed" off vat

 

[pisscut]

I worked with this stuff building battery driven Heavy Fondation Equipment.
We had to cool the batteries with this stuff "3m Novec 7300" . I Think one Liter cost 110-130€

 

[Wirko]

it's 3M Fluorinert, that liquid is already used in the industry for other stuff, but since it's "thin"(it has very low viscosity, in fact i think it's "thinner" than water) and the surface tension is similar(it "wets" easily) plus the boiling point is low at atmospheric pressure (around 60~70°ish) AND it's nonconductive and doesn't leave residue, it's been used for immersion cooling since several years ago.

The gist, it's expensive AF, liquid gold levels of expensive.

I think the only twist that MS is bringing is that it's a condensing closed system, making sure you don't lose the liquid gold to evaporation

Looks like it's 3M Fluorinert FC-3284, which has a boiling point at 50°C. Pricing upon request. Here's a price listing for FC-72 - similar but boils at 56°C and is closer to silver, price-wise.

A fluid like this has to be used in a condensing closed system - there simply is no other option when you're working with a fluid close to its boiling point. The datasheet indeed suggests that the fluid can also be used in single-phase systems - but the super low boiling point is one of the characteristics that make it super expensive, and why would anyone buy it and then not make use of evaporation?

 

[qwerty_lesh]

so how much money did they lose getting the photo of the system open while it was making all those bubbles surrounding the motherboards

 

[Blueberries]

NASA engineering in the server space.