Silicon Heatwave: The Looming Change in Data Center Climates

Overview

This document is a report by D. Bizo, published by Uptime Institute Intelligence in August 2022 as UII Briefing Report 74. Its subject is the steep rise in typical server power consumption since the mid-2010s and what it means for data center climate control. The full text requires registration or a subscription; the information on this page is drawn only from the key findings on the public landing page.

According to the key findings, the rise is driven chiefly by server processor (silicon) power, and the trend is expected to continue. The high thermal power and lower temperature limits of next-generation processors challenge air cooling and efficiency. In other words, processors produce more heat while the temperature range in which they can operate narrows, and together these effects create a need for colder supply air or different cooling methods on the facility side.

The report stresses that operators face complex decisions on whether and how to prepare facilities for higher-power servers. That decision affects the limits of existing facilities, the design envelope of new ones and the timing of any move to liquid cooling. The public summary does not give a numerical comparison of these options; such detail sits in the full text of the report.

The findings summarized here are qualitative trends; no specific temperature threshold or power value appears in the public summary. Even so, the report is a frequently used context source for questioning supply-temperature assumptions in air-cooled designs and for justifying the need for liquid cooling.

Key points

1. UII Briefing Report 74, August 2022, by D. Bizo.
2. Typical server power consumption has risen steeply since the mid-2010s and is expected to keep rising.
3. The main driver is server processor (silicon) power.
4. High thermal power and lower temperature limits of next-generation processors challenge air cooling and efficiency.
5. Operators face complex decisions on whether and how to prepare facilities for higher-power servers.
6. The report is behind registration or a subscription; this summary uses only the public key findings.

Using it in design

• Plan for lower supply temperatures, H1-class rooms or liquid cooling when high-TDP servers are selected.
• Re-validate the supply-air temperature assumption of an air-cooled design against the temperature limits of the target server generations.
• State in the design notes how the facility will accommodate future growth in server power (space, pathways, power).
• Assess separately how a lower supply temperature affects free-cooling hours in the cooling efficiency calculation.

Who should read it

Cooling and mechanical designers, capacity planners and engineers selecting server platforms.

Publication details

Authors

D. Bizo

Publisher

Uptime Institute Intelligence

Year

2022

Document number

UII Briefing Report 74

Document language

English

Source type

Industry body

Access

Citation only

Licence

Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document

Citation