Session A5
Paper #6032
Disclaimer — This paper partially fulfills a writing requirement for first year (freshman) engineering students at the
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. This paper is a student, not a professional, paper. This paper is
based on publicly available information and may not be provide complete analyses of all relevant data. If this paper is used
for any purpose other than these authors’ partial fulfillment of a writing requirement for first year (freshman) engineering
students at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, the user does so at his or her own risk.
THE APPLICATION OF WATER COOLING TECHNOLOGY IN DECREASING
THE POWER CONSUMPTION OF THE SUPERCOMPUTER
Bryan Kelly, bek63@pitt.edu, Mena 6:00pm, Haoqi Gu, hag51@pitt.edu, Vidic 2:00pm
The supercomputer is a type of computer structured
similarly to everyday computers that are widely used in our
life, but they include higher level computational capacity
and calculation ability. Its current purpose is to solve
problems with substantial and complicated data [8]. A
supercomputer works in unique ways from normal
computers and therefore can solve problems differently.
Parallel processing is the most common method being used
by supercomputers. Instead of calculating one figure at a
time, this method of calculation allows the supercomputer to
multi-task and ever operate multi-calculations. That means it
can perform up to petaFLOPS (floating-point operations per
second) which is an insanely high processing speed that will
be discussed in detail later. Due to its outstanding
calculation ability, the supercomputer has played a vital role
in our life for many years [5].
However, the tremendous power consumption of the
supercomputer is one disadvantage that restricts them from
being more widely used. Because of the running of
thousands of processing chips inside of the supercomputer, it
can cost more than 20,000 kilowatt hours per day. Under
usual circumstances, the supercomputer is hardly ever turned
off because the inactive state may potentially destroy its
sophisticated components. Thus, users have to continuously
supply enough power to make sure of the continuous
operation of the supercomputer. Such a huge demand of
power usually leads to lack of power supply and a hefty
electric bill.
There are a few measures that could be taken to decrease
the power consumption of a supercomputer but we will only
focus on one. Water cooling technology can be improved
upon and eventually play a vital role in decreasing the power
consumption of the supercomputer. It is a way to decline the
energy cost of a computer by cooling down its parts [7].
During the cooling process, the heat produced by the
supercomputer will be carried away by the water in
thousands of micro conduits on hardwires [3]. This paper
will discuss the detailed process of water cooling technology
further. Following the discussion, this paper will then detail
the design of the water cooling system, as well as the
material used. After that, a report that evaluates whether this
technology will be successful and sustainable or not will be
given along with the discussion of potential ethical problems
and a look at the codes of ethics for computer engineers.
This paper will finally conclude by imagining the future of
this technology and evaluating the potential advantages and
profits it may bring to the supercomputer field. This
technology could improve the power of computers and even
change the future of technology.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1]Clifton. J. (2012, Nov. 12,). “How Can Hot Water Cool a
Supercomputer?” Howstuffworks.com. (online article).
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/hot-water-coolsupercomputer.htm
This article, wrote by Clifton. J. in 2012, mainly
introduces the detailed operation of water cooling
technology that being used on supercomputer. The article
give out an instance of the use of water cooling technology
in Leibniz Supercomputer center in 2012, and it further
explains what exactly is the water doing. Information from
this article help will help us to focus the exact and detailed
operation of the water cooling system, and assist us to infer
the material that will be used in creating such a system.
[2]Conficoni. C, Bartolini. A, Tilli. A, Tecchiolli. G, Benini.
L. (2015). “Energy-Aware Cooling for Hot-water Cooled
Supercomputers” ( Online Paper)
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=70926
02
This paper, posted during the 2015 Design,
Automation& Test in Europe Conference& Exhibition
(DATE), discuss the efficient design of liquid cooling as a
key technology in future. This paper introduce the liquid
cooling models for supercomputer and discuss the optimal
thermal management strategy used to design. The
knowledge from this paper help us to further explain the
operation of water cooling system and evaluate its future as
a key technology.
[3]“Europe's fastest supercomputer uses warm water cooling
to conserve energy and heat buildings”(online news).
http://www.gizmag.com/ibm-supermucsupercomputer/23086/
1
University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering
2016/01/29
Bryan Kelly
Haoqi Gu
thermal sustainability.” Hydrogeology Journal, 23(8).
(Online Paper). DOI 10.1007/s10040-015-1280-z
This Hydrogeology Journal article is a reliable source
that details a very environmentally friendly way to perform
water cooling on supercomputers. This article has various
studies showing that the usage would not cause any harm to
the groundwater and it could still be used for whatever. This
shows us an interesting way to not only make our water
cooling system more efficient, but more environmentally
friendly as well, which in return would give us more support.
This article, from a professional website specializing in
new and emerging technology, introduces an innovative
cooling design for supercomputer in Europe. The article
describes how supercomputer uses warm water cooling
system to save energy, and it also evaluates this innovation
as an effective approach to save costs and increase the peak
performance of supercomputer. Description of the cooling
technology from this article helps us fundamentally
understand the operation of this new technology and those
advantages brought by this new innovation.
[8]Woodford. C. (2014, Nov. 5,). “Supercomputers”
Explainthatstuff!
(online
article).
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-supercomputerswork.html
This article is a very broad start to our research. It
provides a very informational overview of what exactly a
supercomputer is and what it consists of. There are multiple
explanations of why and how a supercomputer is much
greater than a typical computer. The article was written by a
reliable source. Woodford is a seasoned writer for
explainthatstuff.com and has his MA in Natural Sciences
from Cambridge University.
[4]Hen. B. (2012, Jun. 20,). “IBM’s SuperMuc Water-cooled
Supercomputer Can Significantly Save Energy” Engadget.
(online article).
http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/11/13/new-topsupercomputer-dumps-cores-and-increases-powerefficiency/
In this article, Hen describes the current best
supercomputer in the world. It describes the performance,
the power consumption, and the certain parts it contains.
There is also a very useful section about the overall trend
that the supercomputer has taken over the years. This is
important to us because we now know what model we are
trying to improve and what thresholds we must overcome to
achieve this.
[5]Kogge.
P.
(2011,
Jan.1,)
“Next-Generation
Supercomputers” (online article).
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/nextgeneration
-supercomputers
Peter Kogge, a professor of computer science and
engineering at the University of Notre Dame provides a
source that details the future of supercomputers. He explains
the current issues that developers are running into with
supercomputers and explains exactly what the computers can
accomplish if we were to hurdle over these obstacles. This is
extremely important in showing why our paper is important.
[6]Murphy. D. (2013, Feb. 19). “Liquid cooling vs.
traditional cooling: What you need to know” (online article)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2028293/liquid-cooling-vstraditional-cooling-what-you-need-to-know.html
This article, provided by a global electronic magazine
“PC World”, compares both air cooling and water cooling
by using solid researches and logistic reasoning. This article
discusses that air cooling is cheap and easier but it is not as
efficient as water cooling. The information from this article
will help us understand feathers of both cooling methods and
clarify the reason of the application of water cooling.
[7]Sheldon, H. A., Schaubs, P. M., Rachakonda, P. K.,
Trefry, M. G., Reid, L. B., Lester, D. R.. . Regenauer-Lieb,
K. (2015). “Groundwater cooling of a supercomputer in
perth, western australia: Hydrogeological simulations and
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