Famous quotes from famous experts | From data centers to intelligent computing centers, this is how to solve the carbon anxiety in the "boiling era"

In terms of the latest trends in data centers, we are seeing changes in the following areas:

1. Stricter PUE target: Energy efficiency requirements have been raised from the original 1.5 to below 1.3.

2. Increase the use of green energy: At present, the use rate of some domestic green energy has reached more than 50%.

3. Integrated energy management system: The data center can adjust power supply and performance in real time, effectively improving energy efficiency.

The main means to reduce PUE is to reduce power consumption in cooling. However, there is a contradiction: the current increase in computing power demand has caused the average power consumption of server cabinets to rise rapidly. If you want to reduce the PUE to below 1.2, you need to introduce new methods such as liquid cooling. Another way to improve energy efficiency is to optimize the system of the server itself or IT equipment, and build a computing power pool or storage pool to utilize these hardware equipment more efficiently.

The implementation methods mainly include: increasing the communication bandwidth within the machine and shortening the training completion time; improving the communication efficiency between cabinets to significantly increase the amount of model parameters without significantly increasing the amount of calculations, etc. Secondly, improving energy efficiency in the entire power supply chain from the power grid to the GPU is also the focus of major AI server suppliers and data center operators.

Some implementation practices and technical routes include:

• Differences in thermal management technology. For example, there are currently four paths for liquid cooling: single- and dual-phase cold plates and immersed liquid cooling.

• IC design: Some companies develop self-developed ASIC chips with high computing power and low power consumption, sacrificing a certain degree of versatility to reduce power consumption per unit of computing power in specific application directions.

• Promote larger-scale pooling of computing power and storage, improve hardware utilization, and make full use of computing power.

• Build self-owned data centers in the western region and use green power and energy storage solutions on a large scale.

• Other related technologies, such as prefabricated modularization, lithium battery energy storage, flash storage, and the contribution of the digitalization of the data center itself to energy saving, such as intelligent thermal management, operation and maintenance, and intelligent collaboration.

The adoption of liquid cooling will greatly increase, and as costs decline in the future, immersion will dominate.

Infineon pioneered the introduction of top cooling (TSC) QDPAK and DDPAK packages to the industry a few years ago, which maximizes the heat directed to the top of the device. This technology goes hand-in-hand with liquid cooling. In addition, thermal management also needs to be standardized. We have registered this technology with JEDEC and are open to peers to use it to promote TSC packaging to become a standard in the semiconductor industry.

As the heat dissipation pressure of data centers continues to increase, the liquid cooling market will develop very rapidly. Among them, the immersed type will grow faster than the cold plate type. We have seen some technology hybrid trends, which will test the cooling architecture behind how to intelligently distribute coolant.

Infineon has a full range of products from 15V to 6500V to help data center operators achieve high energy efficiency and high reliability goals. For example, the embedded packaging technology we developed and the further vertical power supply technology on top of this can maximize the efficiency of CPU/GPU power supply and greatly reduce the power supply footprint and EMI interference. These are key technologies for cooling and energy saving.

Power supply for CPU and GPU is a big problem, because the load is unstable and there will be many peak and valley mismatches between these fluctuations, which requires a lot of very intelligent conversion and the use of efficient power semiconductors to control the overall energy. The conversion provides fast control and response, which can greatly save the overall data center power consumption and carbon emissions.

In order to meet the challenges brought about by increasing the utilization rate of green electricity, we can adopt a strategy of diversifying the energy mix: the combined use of photovoltaic, wind energy and other forms of energy can alleviate the intermittency and instability of a single energy source; promote the development of energy storage technology development, balancing the supply and demand fluctuations of renewable energy; selecting the most appropriate type of renewable energy based on the specific conditions of different regions.

Whether it is investing 2 billion euros to expand production capacity in Kulim, Malaysia and planning a major expansion last year, or acquiring Industrial Analytics, a start-up in Berlin, Germany, and completing the acquisition of Gallium Nitride Systems (GaN Systems), Infineon has a comprehensive layout to build The complete power semiconductor industry focuses on developing and providing high-performance semiconductor solutions to support the energy efficiency improvement and green transformation of data centers.

The first priority of the data center is stability, so green power must pay attention to its stability. Green power fluctuates and requires strong intelligent modulation facilities that can dynamically optimize the energy efficiency, cost, and carbon emissions of the data center.

From the cabinet power of 6.6 kilowatts in 2020, it may reach about 14 kilowatts by 2025. The computing power consumption of data centers will rise very quickly in the next two years, but the growth rate will slow down relatively from 2025 to 2030. Cooling and power supply related manufacturers will strive to catch up with the increase in cabinet power, and the era of green and energy-saving intelligent computing centers will also come.

The current ICT industry may produce 1.2 or 1.3 billion tons of emissions every year, but we can lead the world to reduce the total amount of social emissions by more than 13 billion tons every year. We are not only reducing carbon emissions for the ICT industry ourselves, but also contributing to the digitalization of the entire society.