An Intel Corporation lab in Hillsboro, Oregon, holds 24 powered-on Intel Xeon-based servers in a tank filled with synthetic non-electrically conductive oil. Immersion cooling is a method of managing heat from processors more effectively than by traditional air cooling. Intel is working with industry partners to develop solutions for today’s data centers and those in the future. (Credit: Intel Corporation)
Extending Moore’s Law means putting more transistors on an integrated circuit and, increasingly, adding more cores. Doing so improves performance but requires more energy.
Over the past decade, Intel estimates it has saved 1,000 terawatt hours of electricity through the improvements its engineers have made to processors. These advances are complemented by cooling technologies – fans, in-door coolers, direct-to-chip cooling – that further manage heat, conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions.
These cooling features require up to 40% of a data center’s energy consumption1. As Intel looks to increase performance in the future, improvements need to be accomplished in an energy-efficient way, and air cooling may not be the solution.
