People are making increasingly large demands of "The Cloud", from ever larger data backups to multiplying numbers of virtual machines. In turn, this means that data centers need to use more energy to power their infrastructure, and even more energy to keep their machines cool. In order to lower their carbon footprint, and to maximize performance, they need advanced thermal management.
"At EPFL, we continue to identify innovative solutions that optimize workloads of next-generation chips for cloud and AI servers," says Babak Falsafi, Professor of Computer and Communication Sciences at EPFL, and founder of the EPFL EcoCloud center. In order to ground this research, it is vital to work with industry, which explains the strong links between EcoCloud and GemaTEG Switzerland Sàrl.
Maurizio Miozza, co-founder and CCO of GemaTEG, is clear on this point: "We are proud to work together with Babak Falsafi and his team, to help advance and optimize the next generation of sustainable data centers.
"Through our collabration with EPFL, and our participation within EcoCloud, we believe we are developing innovative thermal management solutions that go beyond simple chip cooling, maximizing effectiveness and efficiency at the most fundamental level: chip performance."
According to Youri Markevitch, Director of GemaTEG, their researchers are focussed on fluid dynamics, and the unique properties of silicon. Their two main goals: fulfilling the potential of each chip, and lowering energy consumption.
"The effective deployment of innovative thermal management can enable processing output to achieve the design specifications of each chip," explains Markevitch, "without concern for overheating or damage."
"In addition, deployment of advanced thermal solutions can also decrease resource consumption, leading to efficiency gains of approximately 50%."
Babak Falsafi is clear about the benefits: "Our work with Maurizio Miozza and the GemaTEG engineering team has revealed significant new advancements in thermal management and its impact on processing power, as the world rapidly evolves into data center expansion and the AI paradigm."
In the case of data centers, as in so many domains, A2B collaborations - Academia to Business - are vital, if our care for the environment is going to keep up with our increasing demands on technology.