IBM and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) are planning to develop a new water-cooled supercomputer, Aquasa.
The new supercomputer will be located at the ETH Zurich and is expected to start operation in 2010. The system is based on long-term joint research collaboration of ETH and IBM scientists in the field of chip-level water-cooling, as well as on a concept for ‘water-cooled data centres with direct energy re-use’ advanced by scientists at IBM’s Zurich Lab.
The new system is expected to decrease the carbon footprint of the system by up to 85% and estimated to save up to 30 tons of CO2 per year, compared to a similar system using existing cooling technologies.
IBM said that the water-cooled supercomputer will consist of two IBM BladeCenter servers in one rack and will have a peak performance of about 10 Teraflops. Each of the blades will be equipped with a microscale liquid cooler per processor, as well as input and output pipeline networks and connections, which allow each blade to be connected and disconnected to the entire system.
The company also said that the pipelines from the individual blades link to the network of the server rack, which in turn are connected to the main water transportation network. The water-cooled supercomputer will require about 10 litres of water for cooling and a pump ensures a flow rate of approximately 30 litres per minute. The entire cooling system is a closed circuit.
IBM said that the project is part of its First-Of-A-Kind program (FOAK), which engages its scientists with clients to explore and pilot emerging technologies that address real world business problems.
