Implemented Solutions
Coolant Distribution Units (CDU = water-cooling system) to respond to growing thermal loads
- NEEDS
- Respond to growing thermal loads as CPUs and other devices become sophisticated
- SOLUTION
- Offer CDUs and other heat-resisting solutions to meet requirements
In the near future, CDUs will become a mainstream thermal solution for datacenters
In recent years, datacenters that support the operations of ICT services are witnessing a significant increase in thermal load as CPU, GPU, ASIC, and other units become sophisticated, while customers’ demands for heat-resisting measures are growing increasingly strict. Nidec offers optimum solutions by combining heat-dissipating fans, heatsinks, water-cooling devices, and so many other heat-resisting products.
CDUs are said to be the mainstream of cooling systems in the near future. In general, cooling systems with heatsinks, fans, air-conditioning units, etc. are thought to be insufficient for CPUs with over 300W. For high-power CPUs with 300 – 1,000W to continue to operate properly and enjoy improved arithmetic processing efficiency, heat needs to be processed properly by the use of a CDU.
High cooling performance is not the only advantage of a CDU: Compared with an air-cooling unit, it has a major advantage of consuming such a small amount of electricity that, according to some estimates, a CDU can save 20 – 30% of electricity for the entire server operation.
Employing equipment and technologies from HDD production to make highly reliable and low-cost products
So far, CDUs have not been used widely despite such advantages because of concern that water leak due to aging, etc. may damage equipment. This is why it is truly critical that a CDU to be introduced possess high reliability and durability. Nidec’s strength in this regard is its precise designing, simulation, machining technologies and equipment for, among others, HDD spindle motors, with which the company enjoys the largest global market share. By applying those resources to produce quick coupling and many other components in-house, Nidec is able to offer CDUs that, though inexpensive, meet high quality, reliability, and durability standards.
Three types of CDUs with different cooling performances and installation costs
Nidec’s CDUs are divided into several categories. See below for the products, described in the order of those with the highest to the lowest cooling performances.
- Liquid-to-liquid CDUs
The CDUs in this category hold the best cooling performance of all types. They require, among others, pipes to be installed to operate with a facility’s water. For the CDUs to cool wider areas, Nidec can offer cooling solutions combined with an LCM or a CDM. In addition, to enable hot swap without stopping the system if it malfunctions, we minimize risks by securing redundancy for the power sources, pumps, and controllers of key components.
- Liquid-to-air CDUs
Though limited in cooling capability compared with liquid-to-liquid CDUs, the products in this categories, which don’t require water pipes, can be installed more easily, and take less space and lower initial cost than liquid-to-liquid CDUs.
- Closed-loop liquid-cooling CDUs
The CDUs in this category release heat with high efficiency after simply being installed in a server. These CDUs respond to thermal loads that would be hard to process with a fan or a heatsink.
As big data, 5G, and other innovations take place widely, competition among server manufacturers is intensifying as they try to improve their products’ performances and reduce their sizes. In the workplaces where products are required to be developed and improved to the ultimate level, fans to be used must be as sophisticated, instead of general-purpose ones, and this is why Nidec’s engineers work jointly with their customers in product development. As a company that excels at offering high-value-added products that meet its customers’ specifications, Nidec stays committed to listening to such needs, and sophisticating its ability to make proposals.
