Intel: Our upcoming AI chip will be cheaper, run cooler than Nvidia, AMD options

Crescent Island is an air-cooled chip that uses LPDDR5 memory.

See full article...

 

[mpetty423]

Air cooled will make datacenters more palatable to many communities.

Just because the chips are water cooled does not mean that the data center is also water cooled.

Many (most?) new datacenters proposed use heat exchangers, where the chips are water cooled, and then the water is cooled down. with air.

Just like the radiator in your car.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mic...n-datacenters-consume-zero-water-for-cooling/

 

[mpetty423]

Most new datacenters are still using evaporative towers. That's why they are using so much water to operate. They could use more advanced systems that use less water, but they are also more expensive.

Are they?

Project Jupiter in New Mexico is designed as closed loop with air cooling.
EdgeCore in Phoenix is also closed loop with air cooling.
Meta in Louisiana is closed loop with air cooling.

A half dozen other ones I looked at that were announced were all closed loop with air cooling.

It's basically the "new" standard for buildout. It's why Nvidia is releasing chips that can run at a hotter temperature; a temperature that can be more readily met with closed loop cooling.

 

[mpetty423]

Your link is marketing material. From my understanding the majority of data centers use a combination of both closed and open loop cooling.

Open loop cooling is more efficient since you gain the evaporative effect as well.

Yes, open loop cooling is more efficient.

And, yes, the majority of data centers use open loop cooling.

I was talking about data centers planning to be built; most of those are closed loop cooling with none or very little evaporative cooling.

I can't think of a proposed data center in the Southwestern US that isn't closed loop cooling.

The thing is that if we want to retire the old data centers that evaporate a ton of water, we actually do have to allow new non-evaporative data centers to get built.