Intel and Vertiv partner to liquid cool AI processors

Liquid cooling has till now been pretty much confined to CPUs and GPUs, but Intel’s Gaudi3 AI accelerator can be liquid- or air-cooled cooled to a partnership with cooling specialist Vertiv.

Gaudi3, due to arrive in 2024,  will support Vertiv’s pumped two-phase (P2P) cooling infrastructure. The liquid cooled version has been tested up to 160kW accelerator power using facility water from 17°C up to 45°C (62.6°F to 113°F). For air-cooled data centers the Vertiv air cooled solution supports up to 40kW of heat load at up to 35°C (95°F).

The numbers reflect the efficiency of liquid cooling and liquid cooling can handle four times the power can handle much higher temperatures.

Vertiv’s P2P liquid cooling is architecturally similar to currently available single-phase liquid cooling, but more efficient and with better performance, the vendor says.  It uses cold plates in a closed loop direct liquid cooling (DLC) technology, similar to direct-to-chip cooling, with a low power pump to move non-toxic refrigerant through cold plates attached directly to the chip.

Heat from these components is transferred to the fluid via heat of vaporization, whereby the fluid changes phases from liquid to gas. The gas is then captured and cooled, turning it back into liquid. This supports customers in reducing or possibly eliminating chillers altogether in their data centers.

It’s yet another sign of the growing acceptance of liquid cooling, being driven by the need to cool these exceptionally hot chips used in AI processing.

Intel’s Gaudi processors are designed specifically for AI training, and are being pitched as an alternative to Nvidia’s chips. They are produced by Habana Labs, which Intel purchased in 2019. The current product, Gaudi2, was launched in 2022.

“To support increasing thermal design power and heat flux for next-generation accelerators, Intel has worked with Vertiv and other ecosystem partners to enable an innovative cooling solution that will be critical in helping customers meet critical sustainability goals,” said Dr. Devdatta Kulkarni, principal engineer & lead thermal engineer on this project at Intel in a statement.