Cutting Power Demand at Server Farms
Silicon Wick Keeps Computer Components Cool
2008-Jun-05
Just a stone’s throw from the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, Siemens’ Technology-to-Business Center offers the right environment for bringing budding businesses to market. An example is Progressive Cooling, a start-up founded by Dr. Ahmed Shuja (left) with key technology support from Dr. Praveen Medis (right).
The young company may have an answer to the ravenous electricity demand of server farms, each of which, on average, uses about 500 servers. Collectively, server farms accounted for about 1.5% of total U.S. electricity demand in 2007.
The inventors’ solution is a looped “wick” that uses capillary force to pump heat away from hot spots on processors and graphic cards. Unlike the heat pipes that often cool today’s processors, which are circular and made of copper or nickel oxide, Shuja’s and Medis’ device is flat and is made of silicon, allowing it to cover – or perhaps eventually become – a processor’s shell. (PN 2008.14)
