SMC offers servers with NVIDIA GPUs immersed in water

SMC (Sustainable Metal Cloud) is offering its new server solution, HyperCubes – which contain NVIDIA GPUs inside a “container” immersed in water and can reduce energy consumption by 50% compared to systems that rely on air cooling.

Furthermore, they claim that the solution is 28% more cost-effective than other liquid cooling solutions seen in the industry. Its nature also means it is faster to set up, allowing data centers to operate with greater ease.

SMC Co-CEO Tim Rosenfield says that submerged servers containing NVIDIA GPUs don’t require space for airflow — meaning they can use the space to fit more graphics cards and increase the computing power on offer.

HyperCube enables high-density hosting for GPUs. It enables the kind of hosting we need to see for platforms like Grace Blackwell

Tim Rosenfield

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Server immersion

The immersion cooling solution for servers is not something that SMC pioneered, but is also seen by Intel – which has invested millions of dollars in research related to the format to analyze its application within its data centers.

Microsoft has also embraced the same approach, with its “Project Natick” – literally sinking all of its servers underwater. The company recently concluded the experiment, claiming that there were fewer failures compared to their counterparts located on dry land.

LG Electronics is also keen to enter this segment, with its adoption under development. Even China is investing in this scenario, with underwater servers starting to be built by the end of 2023.

SMC takes the lead in the server market

The development of cooling solutions for servers is essential for the industry, considering that the demand for processing power and AI is increasing more and more. To give you an idea, all GPUs sold in 2023 alone are expected to consume 14 million MWh annually.

Given that this is enough power to power 1.3 million homes in the US, SMC and others are working hard to bring new solutions to this server segment – ​​whether for use with NVIDIA GPUs or those from other manufacturers, such as Intel’s Gaudi or AMD’s Instinct.

With the demand for GPUs for servers growing and with no forecast of its pace being reduced, energy consumption also tends to increase – something that everyone works to get around, considering not only operating costs, but also the sustainability of their projects.

SMC’s co-CEO also says the server industry itself needs to adapt, creating compatibility for the use of immersion liquid cooling.

Most data centers are not ready for liquid cooling anywhere, whether it’s immersion or direct-on-chip cooling. The market is trying to figure out the best way to adopt this, and I believe there will be multiple ways.

Tim Rosenfield

Source: Tom’s Hardware