Tech Explained: Here’s a simplified explanation of the latest technology update around Tech Explained: Phononic: Advancing Cooling Technology for AI Data Centres in Simple Termsand what it means for users..
Cooling demands of AI data centres
AI training clusters and large-scale inference workloads place intense thermal pressure on infrastructure. As racks carry more GPUs and accelerators, the heat produced by memory and processors quickly becomes harder to control.
Phononic is addressing this challenge with its Gen 2 GPU high bandwidth memory cooling solution. High bandwidth memory (HBM) is a type of stacked memory used in AI accelerators to deliver extremely fast data transfer rates. However, the dense packaging that enables this performance also concentrates heat.
The Gen 2 system integrates Phononic’s Thermal Kit as a core subsystem. According to the company, it provides 75% greater cooling capability. The increase allows GPUs to sustain higher performance levels while reducing thermal throttling, which happens when processors lower speed to prevent overheating.
Phononic has also created a thermal kit for co-packaged optics (CPO). This design shortens signal paths, reduces energy use and increases bandwidth density.