Wade D. Vinson

Data center TCO benefits of reduced system airflow

New blade chassis designs, with banks of aggregate fans and system-level thermal architectures which precisely manage airflow, have enabled a new level of energy savings for enterprise customers that extends beyond the system and offers an opportunity for new system thermal design principles. By reducing system airflow rate to an absolute minimum, system fan power is minimized. More significantly, lowering airflow rates reduces data center cooling infrastructure power requirements. This work outlines the opportunities enabled by extending this concept to all IT equipment design and coupling the concept with data centers control mechanisms, tying server inlet temperatures to air conditioning flow rates and set point temperatures, for breakthrough infrastructure cost structures.