Home Enterprise Podcast #109: Direct-on-Chip Evaporative Liquid Cooling

Podcast #109: Direct-on-Chip Evaporative Liquid Cooling

by Harold Fritts

There continues to be increasing interest in liquid cooling technology but also trepidation in the unlikely event of some sort of leak or spill. Enter ZutaCore HyperCool2 direct-on-chip Enhanced Nucleation Evaporator (ENE), a single, closed-loop two-phase, waterless liquid cooling solution that yields unparalleled heat dissipation at the chip level.

There continues to be increasing interest in liquid cooling technology but also trepidation in the unlikely event of some sort of leak or spill. Enter ZutaCore HyperCool2 direct-on-chip Enhanced Nucleation Evaporator (ENE), a single, closed-loop two-phase, waterless liquid cooling solution that yields unparalleled heat dissipation at the chip level.

Brian invited Udi Paret, ZutaCore’s President, to discuss the technology around this new waterless liquid cooling system and how the data center mindset is changing with more movement to alternative cooling technologies. The benefits of liquid cooling systems are hard to ignore.

The ZutaCore HyperCool2 technology is revolutionizing the market by alleviating cooling boundaries at the chip level, server, rack, POD, and data center levels. Unlike water-based solutions that carry the risk of IT meltdown, HyperCool2 leverages a safe, non-conductive, refrigerant. It is a complete hardware system, enhanced by a software-defined-cooling platform resulting in a low-pressure system that triples computing densities on a fraction of the footprint.

Udi considers himself a strategic and operating executive with a demonstrated international history of success, leading Fortune 500 divisions and Venture Capital start-ups across a wide spectrum of industries like IP networking, data storage, and data center management in the enterprise, System Integrator, and renewable energy domains.

Prior to taking the helm with ZutaCore in 2019,  Udi was engaged with the company as an advisor from 20017 through 2019.  Udi continues to perform duties as an Adviser with Next Energy Technologies, a role he has held since 2014. Next has developed proprietary organic semiconducting materials — Soluble Small Molecule Organic Photovoltaic (SSM-OPV) — that are earth-abundant, low cost, and non-toxic.

Udi brings a lot of data center and cooling technology knowledge to this podcast. He also recognizes the need for companies to get up to speed on energy efficiencies and power management in small to massive data centers. This is a technology that will gain traction, so give this a listen.

Video short of the ZutaCore solution

ZutaCore site

Video pod on YouTube

Show notes

00:00 Introduction

  • A quick intro to cooling liquid v air
  • Perfect storm
  • Accelerators driving thermal challenges
  • Reaction from Dell Technologies World
  • Brian runs through the solutions available

05:00 Where ZutaCore fits

  • Overview of implementation
  • Much like single-phase
  • The difference is the liquid
  • Visual of plate
  • Delivery mechanism is fundamentally different

10:00 Comparisons

  • Walk through the functions of the vapor and liquid pipes
  • Available solutions from small in a rack, to end-of-row
  • Using gravity to move liquid

15:00 Keeping it cool

  • How ZutaCore keeps the solution so small and compact
  • Energy efficient
  • Steps to swap normal heat sink with ZutaCore
  • Going beyond CPUs
  • What is the go to market for ZutaCore
  • Developing ecosystem including large SIs

20:00 Talking about the loop

  • Scary concerns
    • What happens if there is a leak?
    • System designed to be leakage-free
    • Should a tube get cut, the system would be shut down for that tube
    • ZutaCore eliminates the need to add alternative safety mechanisms
    • Easy to install with flexible tubing

25:00 System maintenance

  • Not typical for liquid to need topped up
  • Because it is closed loop and the make up of the liquid keeps it in tact
  • Disposing of the heat
    • Choices are determined by environment
    • Heat injection units

30:00 Data Center envelopes

  • ZutaCore can be integrated in existing air cooled data centers
  • Power efficiencies are a differentiator
  • Wide scope of solutions for different data center environments
  • Technology is driving alternative cooling options
  • Adoption for greener initiatives

35:00 AI is driving hardware growth

  •  To keep up with AI and ML server farms are growing
    • That means more power to push air or retrofit a liquid solution to cool the hardware
    • Providers must be able to deliver and service cooling solutions
  • ZutaCore serves the HPC, edge and SMB markets
  • All environments have a need for cooling
  • Edge deployments are prime environments for ZutaCore

40:00 Mainstream vs. Hyper Scale markets

  • Brian talks about the SR lab and the challenges around cooling
  • ZutaCore’s simplicity makes it attractive to different groups
  • Eliminates forklift upgrades
  • No changes to processes

45:00 Economics

  • There is an investment
    • More efficiences
    • Rationalize financials
  • CapEx and OpEx savings for near term and long term projects
  •  Software Defined Cooling based on data collected within the data center

50:00 Gathering data to make systems more energy efficient

  • ZutaCore  sits on many endpoints to collect data
  • Helps to lower power and make systems more efficient
  • Control system to guarantee 70 degree of heat coming out
  • Huge benefit from both hardware and software
  • Collecting existing data will make turn around simple

55:00 Wrap up

Subscribe to our podcast:

Engage with StorageReview

Newsletter | YouTube | Podcast iTunes/Spotify | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | TikTok | RSS Feed