Data Centers Cooling Themselves: SuperMUC-NG Science Symposium at LRZ

FAHRENHEIT participated in the SuperMUC-NG Next-Gen Science Symposium of the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) in Garching on November 22, 2018. Together with the LRZ as host as well as with Intel, Lenovo, and SuSE, the team of experts explained the high-performance computer, its operating system and adsorption cooling technology, and answered all questions of the journalists in attendance. One of the very exciting talking points was Fahrenheit’s adsorption cooling technology which is used for cooling the new SuperMUC-NG high-performance computer.

Adsorption cooling offers enormous potential for energy savings in data centers, as all computing power is converted into waste heat, which can be used for environmentally friendly cooling. Second only to the computer hardware, cooling consumes most of the power in data centers.

The room filled up quickly, and FAHRENHEIT’s Matthias Hoene demonstrated the adsorption cooling technology in the form of a small science experiment. The participants watched as the water instantly turned into ice. After an exciting and lively discussion with the technical experts, everybody went to visit the SuperMUC-NG, which ranks eighth in the recently published TOP500 list of the fastest computers in the world. The discussion was followed by a symposium with high-profile representatives from politics and academia. The event served to highlight the scientific knowledge created using the new SuperMUC-NG in fields such as medicine, climate research, or astrophysics.

Overall, it has been a great day with interesting participants, many remarkable facts, and inspiring conversations, successfully blending theory and practice from the world of high-performance computers.