Intel has unveiled plans to invest in excess of $700 million for a 200,000-square-foot, state-of-the art research and development mega lab focused on data centre technologies and addressing areas such as heating, cooling and water usage.
Additionally, Intel introduced the technology industry’s first open intellectual property (open IP) immersion liquid cooling solution and reference design. With the initial design proof of concept initiated in Taiwan, Intel aims to simplify and accelerate the implementation of immersion liquid cooling solutions throughout the ecosystem globally, the company said in a statement.
Environment & Economics
Intel has announced two new investments in its continuing efforts to create more sustainable data centre technology solutions. Further, these two investments represent Intel’s continued efforts to bring together the technology ecosystem to address critical global environmental issues.
The new mega lab will be focused on areas such as immersion cooling, water usage effectiveness and heat recapture and reuse. Construction on the lab will begin this year at the Jones Farm campus in Hillsboro, Oregon, with opening expected in late 2023.
Additionally, the lab will qualify, test and enable Intel’s portfolio of data centre products including Intel Xeon, Intel Optane, network interfaces and switch gear, Intel Agilex FPGAs, Xe architecture, Habana accelerators and future products under development. The lab will also host an advanced technology showcase for customers and partners to observe and test Intel products in a variety of data centre environments in the lab, in an effort to accelerate adoption of these new technologies throughout the ecosystem.
The industry’s first open IP data centre immersion liquid cooling solution and reference design is an open, easy-to-deploy and easily scalable total cooling solution. It will allow partners to accelerate the introduction of Intel solutions in response to the trend of increasing data centre power density to enhance operational efficiency.
The initial solution and design proof of concept will be completed in partnership with Intel Taiwan and across the Taiwanese ecosystem in a phased approach, with plans to scale out globally. Intel will continue to work with partners to develop and validate related solutions.
These efforts by Intel needs to be seen in the context of data centres consuming approximately 1% of the global electricity demand and accounting for about 0.3% of global carbon emissions. This is rising with each passing day. Investing in standardising cooling technologies and R&D for future innovations strengthens Intel’s commitment to more sustainable technology solutions. Research shows that immersion cooling with energy reuse could reduce carbon emissions by 45% compared to traditional data centre usage.
Also, these efforts build on Intel’s previously announced commitment to working with customers and industry partners to create more sustainable technology solutions. The research and development for these emerging technologies have the power to fundamentally change the way data centres are built and operated.
