Heat Dissipation Problem of High-power Servers
The data center is like an “super factory” of information, processing massive amounts of data day and night. Walking into the data center, rows of tall cabinets come into view. The servers inside are running at high speed like tireless “workaholics”. But do you know? While these servers provide powerful computing power, they also face severe heat dissipation challenges.
With the rapid development of technology, the performance of servers continues to rise, and power consumption also increases dramatically. The traditional air cooling method is like using a small fan to cool down a large stove, which is becoming increasingly incapable of doing so. Taking an ordinary data center as an example, the cabinet power density per square meter may be as high as several kilowatts. In some high-performance computing scenarios, the power of a single cabinet can even exceed tens of kilowatts. Under such high loads, traditional air cooling systems need to be equipped with high-power air conditioning units and a large number of cooling fans in order to remove heat. Not only does this consume a staggering amount of energy, accounting for about 40% of the data center’s electricity consumption, second only to the IT equipment itself, but the heat dissipation effect is also unsatisfactory.
It is well known that CPU, GPU and other chips inside the server generate a lot of heat. However, as the key component for data storage and reading and writing, the heat dissipation problem of memory cannot be ignored either. Today’s high-performance server memory, especially DDR5 and higher specification memory modules, has significantly increased power consumption compared to previous generations. Standard power consumption is usually as high as 15W, and high-power DIMMs are even more common. When memory works in a high temperature environment for a long time, the data reading and writing error rate will increase significantly, just like a tired scribe who makes frequent mistakes in a stuffy room. This will not only lead to a decline in system performance, but in serious cases may also cause catastrophic consequences such as crashes and data loss, casting a shadow on the stable operation of the data center.
Why Liquid Cooling Technology Stands Out
Faced with the difficulties of traditional air cooling, liquid cooling technology has made a brilliant debut like a “heat dissipation wizard”. Liquid cooling, as the name suggests, uses liquid as a heat transfer medium to quickly remove the heat generated by the server. Its working principle can be compared to the human body’s blood circulation system. Driven by the pump, the coolant circulates along the carefully designed pipes and flows through the heat-generating components in the server, such as the CPU, GPU, memory, etc., like a “heat carrier”, continuously transporting the heat to the external cooling device and finally dissipating it into the air.
Compared with air cooling, the advantages of liquid cooling are obvious. First, the thermal conductivity of liquid is about 25 times that of air, which means that heat is transferred faster and more efficiently in liquid, and can be discharged as quickly as lightning, keeping the inside of the server “cool” at all times. Just like on a hot summer day, washing your hands with cold water can quickly take away the heat from your hands, while the cooling effect of a breeze is much less effective.
Secondly, the liquid cooling system has excellent stability. Since the specific heat capacity of liquid is large, after absorbing a large amount of heat, the increase in its own temperature is relatively small, which can provide a relatively stable thermal environment for the server and effectively avoid hardware failures caused by excessive temperature fluctuations. This is like putting a layer of constant temperature “protective clothing” on the server, so that the server can run stably no matter how the external environment changes.
Furthermore, liquid cooling technology excels in energy saving and noise reduction. On the one hand, the liquid cooling system does not need to be equipped with a large number of high-power cooling fans like air cooling, which reduces the energy consumption of the fan and also reduces the noise generated by the operation of the fan. According to statistics, liquid-cooled data centers can reduce energy consumption by about 30% compared to traditional air-cooled data centers, which can significantly reduce the electricity bills of data centers and achieve green energy saving. On the other hand, without the whirring sound of fans, the data center becomes quieter, creating a relatively comfortable working environment for operation and maintenance personnel and reducing the impact of noise on the surrounding environment.
Finally, liquid cooling technology makes high-density deployment of servers possible. Since the liquid cooling system has high heat dissipation efficiency and can effectively cope with the large amount of heat generated by high-power density servers, more servers can be placed in the same space, improving the computing power and storage density of the data center and making full use of precious computer room space resources, just like building taller skyscrapers on limited land, greatly increasing the “production capacity” of the data center.
Memory Liquid Cooling Solutions of High-power Servers
Memory liquid cooling solutions of high-power servers
- Limitations of existing solutions
Currently, the industry’s existing memory liquid cooling solutions mostly use steel pipes or copper pipes to connect cold plates to dissipate heat. TIM (thermal interface material) is attached to the surface of the tube, and cooling is achieved by contact between TIM and DIMM. Although this design can reduce DIMM temperature and improve performance to a certain extent, it has many disadvantages.
On the one hand, compatibility is poor. Due to the diversity of server system layouts, this design with fixed DIMM spacing cannot be applied to different platforms as a standard part. This is like custom-made clothes of the same size for people of different body shapes. They are either too tight or too loose and difficult to fit perfectly. This will not only significantly increase the overall cost, but may also affect the stability of the system. According to relevant data, in some scenarios where server accessories need to be replaced frequently, the additional cost expenditure caused by memory liquid cooling compatibility issues may account for more than 30% of the entire cooling system cost.
On the other hand, it is difficult to maintain. The DIMM liquid cooling system requires easy maintenance when plugging and unplugging DIMMs. However, the current design has the risk of damaging the TIM on the tube surface when plugging and unplugging DIMMs. It is also possible that the contact force is difficult to control, resulting in poor contact between the DIMM and the tube, which in turn leads to uneven DIMM temperature distribution. Just like when disassembling and installing a key component of a precision instrument, one may accidentally damage the sensitive components inside, affecting the normal operation of the entire instrument. In the operation and maintenance records of some large data centers, heat dissipation failures caused by memory plugging and unplugging often occur, causing great trouble to the operation and maintenance personnel and increasing the risk of system downtime.
- Highlights of the innovative solution
To overcome these challenges, a high-power memory liquid cooling system based on modular thermal and mechanical cold plates was developed. The system uses a special heat sink directly connected to the DIMM to efficiently transfer the heat generated by the memory to a remote cold plate. It achieves heat exchange through flowing liquid to optimize the DIMM temperature and keep it within the appropriate operating range.
Modular heat sink and cold plate design are the core highlights of this innovative solution. By assembling the DIMM and heat sink separately and using pressure to maintain uniform contact force, stable contact between the DIMM and the heat sink is ensured, allowing heat to be efficiently transferred, avoiding local overheating caused by poor contact. This also makes the DIMM temperature distribution more uniform, providing a solid guarantee for stable memory operation.
In terms of compatibility, this design adopts a standard pitch design and can be widely used on multiple DIMM platforms. The benchmark design of DIMM pitch is 0.297 inches, which can be universally used in various DIMM pitch platform designs from 0.297 to 0.35 inches. It is like a master key that can be adapted to a variety of “locks” of different specifications, greatly reducing additional costs. Whether it is a data server for a small enterprise or a high-performance computing cluster in a large data center, it can be easily managed without worrying about compatibility issues.
Adaptability is also a major advantage of this solution. It can flexibly adjust the heat sink material or design according to needs to meet different DIMM power consumption requirements. For example, for DDR5 high-power DIMMs with higher power consumption, a copper heat sink with stronger thermal conductivity can be selected, and its heat sink fin structure can be optimized. For ordinary DIMMs with relatively low power consumption, a low-cost aluminum heat sink can be used to ensure the heat dissipation effect while achieving precise cost control. This enables server manufacturers and data center operators to tailor the most suitable memory cooling solution according to actual business needs, avoiding wasting resources.
To verify the excellence of this innovative solution, the researchers conducted thermal simulations using the Flotherm 2210 tool. Results show that the new design outperforms conventional cooling solutions in terms of thermal resistance, with improvements ranging from 8% to 19%. At the same time, in the DDR5 TTV test, the actual test results differed from the simulation within 5%, further proving the effectiveness of the new solution. This means that after adopting the new liquid cooling solution, the memory modules can dissipate heat faster, just like replacing an underpowered car with a high-performance engine, allowing it to maintain good heat dissipation when driving at high speeds, ensuring stable and efficient operation of the server system.
Actual Performance of Memory Liquid Cooling
In the data center of a large Internet company, the servers that originally used traditional air cooling would experience a sharp rise in memory temperature during business peak periods, and the system would frequently report errors, leaving the operation and maintenance staff often overwhelmed. To completely solve this problem, they introduced a memory liquid cooling solution based on modular thermal and mechanical cold plates.
The effect after implementation is significant. The server memory temperature is accurately controlled. Even under high load operation, the temperature fluctuation is extremely small and always remains in the ideal working range. The stability of the system has been greatly improved. Problems such as system crashes and data errors caused by memory overheating have almost disappeared, and business continuity has been effectively guaranteed. At the same time, the energy consumption of the data center has also been significantly reduced, and the electricity cost savings are considerable, bringing real economic benefits to the enterprise.
There is also a startup company focusing on artificial intelligence computing. With the rapid expansion of its business, the requirements for server performance are getting higher and higher. When their high-power servers run complex AI models, memory cooling becomes a bottleneck. After replacing the new memory liquid cooling system, the server seemed to be injected with a booster, the performance was fully released, the model training time was greatly shortened, and strong support was provided for the rapid iteration of the product, helping the company stand out in the fierce market competition.
It can be seen from these successful cases that memory liquid cooling technology has demonstrated its powerful power in actual combat, ensuring the stable and efficient operation of data centers for many companies. Looking into the future, with the continuous advancement of materials science and manufacturing processes, memory liquid cooling technology will continue to evolve. The thermal conductivity of the coolant will be further improved, the design of the heat dissipation pipes and heat sinks will be more sophisticated and efficient, with compatibility and maintainability reaching new heights, which paves a solid heat dissipation path for the development of high-power servers, helping the digital world to flourish.
Embrace the Era of Liquid Cooling
The emergence of high-power server memory liquid cooling technology has brought innovative solutions to the heat dissipation problems in data centers. It not only fulfills the high heat dissipation requirements that traditional air cooling cannot meet, but also overcomes the compatibility and maintenance problems of existing memory liquid cooling solutions. With its excellent heat dissipation performance, outstanding stability, significant energy-saving effects and good adaptability, it ensures the efficient and stable operation of the server.
In this era of accelerated digital transformation, data centers, as the cornerstone of the information society, are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. The rise of liquid cooling technology is undoubtedly the key to opening a new chapter in future data centers. If enterprises want to stand out in the fierce market competition, they must keep up with the trend of technological development and pay attention to and actively apply advanced technologies such as memory liquid cooling. I believe that in the near future, with the continuous popularization and improvement of liquid cooling technology, data centers will usher in a new transformation, injecting continuous impetus into the vigorous development of the global digital economy. Let us wait and see and welcome this liquid cooling era full of infinite possibilities!