Podcast #103: A Deep Dive on Immersion Cooling

There has been a lot of buzz around liquid cooling, especially when discussing performance degradation when chips overheat. Liquid cooling technology is a successful solution to keeping components cool and operating at peak performance.

There has been a lot of buzz around liquid cooling, especially when discussing performance degradation when chips overheat. Liquid cooling technology is a successful solution to keeping components cool and operating at peak performance.

StorageReview.com has covered the progress and acceptance of this technology with much focus on GPUs, but it goes deeper. So, while attending Dell Technologies World 2022, Brian was given a chance to look closely at some of the solutions TMGcore had on display. We posted a few short videos from the event, which garnered a lot of conversation. The technology was impressive, so Brian reached out to Taylor Monnig, Chief Operating Officer at TMGcore, to join him for an in-depth discussion on immersion cooling.

TMGcore is focused on developing advanced immersion cooling and has developed a suite of products that includes both hardware and software solutions. Located in Plano, the tech hub of Texas, TMGcore has its fingers in all major technologies like HPC, AI &Machine Learning, Edge, Cloud, Gaming, Government, and more. Taylor takes Brian through liquid cooling options, challenges facing air-cooling, and the paradigm shift to liquid cooling. Taylor also talks about server and card design to support liquid cooling and the differences between the liquids used in the immersion technology.

This is an in-depth discussion with someone who understands and believes in the technology. This emerging technology continues to gain traction, and this podcast provides excellent detail from a company dedicated to immersion cooling.

Social Videos:

• Single-phase demo – TikTok | Instagram
• Two-phase demo – TikTok | Instagram

If you don’t have time to watch the podcast in its entirety, you can jump to the sections that are most interesting to you by checking the timestamps below.

Timestamp

00:00  Introduction

• Introduction to immersion cooling
• Options
  • Liquid on-chip
  • Rear door heat exchange
  • two-phase
  • Cooling distribution unit
• Steps to move to immersion

05:00  Challenges

• Air cooling challenges
• HPC
• Paradigm shift to immersion
• Driving migration to liquid cooling
• Design changes to increase performance

10:00  TMGcore Servers

• Server design
• Thermals
• Re-use warm egress water
• What components use immersion

15:00  Impacts

• Impact on power consumption
• Modifications to existing servers
• Eliminating needs for specific components
  • Reduce the waste that goes to landfills
• Not for storage
  • SSDs
  • HDDs

20:00  Servicing

• Device serviceability
• Removing, servicing, re-inserting into liquid
• Hot updates not recommended
• Single-phase vs. two-phase

25:00  Markets

• #1 Crypto
• #2 HPC
• #3 Government
• How two-phase works
• Fluid differences
• Maintenance

30:00  Costs

• Cost of ownership
• Fluid vendors

35:00  Data Center designs

• What are the design considerations for data center layout
• Vision for SMB/Small Enterprise
• What do OEMs need to do to build immersion-ready servers
• Creativity in design

40:00  Edge

• Edge boxes
• Areas of acceptance
• Reasons for acceptance in specific regions

45:00  Deployments

• Rugged design deployments
• Government
• Military
• Foreign deployment
• Logistics

50:00  Wrap up!