Rochester, Minnesota – Taking its acclaimed, patented total liquid submersion technology to the server market, Hardcore Computer, Inc., announced the launch of Liquid Blade™, the first Total Liquid Submersion blade server.
The initial Liquid Blade™ server platform, which is powered by two Intel® 5500 or 5600 series Xeon® processors running on an Intel® S5500HV reference motherboard, addresses several major datacenter challenges, including: power, cooling and space. Hardcore Computer’s patented technology submerges all of the heat-producing components of the Liquid Blade™; eliminating the greatest barrier of performance and reliability in electronics — heat.
Hardcore’s® Core Coolant™ is 1350 times better than air at heat removal by volume. Not only does this help cool components better, Liquid Blade™ technology increases compute density because far less space is required between components with liquid cooling than air and much smaller chassis sizes are possible. With all the heat being rejected though liquid, there is no longer a need for fans on the rack level. With little heat escaping into the datacenter, the need for air conditioning and air moving equipment is minimized. The net result is a much smaller physical and carbon footprint for the datacenter. As an added benefit, no need for special fire protection systems to cover the servers. This because all of the blade components are submerged so there is no oxygen exposure. Without oxygen there is no potential for sustainable fire.
Cooler parts last longer. When parts stay well below the specified maximum thermal limit they are more likely to operate more consistently and voltage fluctuations that can lead to data errors and crashes are minimized. Because Liquid Blade™ technology keeps everything cool, demanding performance requirements are met with 24/7/365 reliability.
Liquid Blade™ can be configured with a graphics board, making it a perfect fit for datacenters requiring computational power and advanced video rendering capabilities, such as medical imaging, digital content render farms, computer-aided design, engineering simulation and modeling and distributed network gaming. Liquid Blade™ can also be configured with a network card or high density storage card for cloud computing and other datacenter applications.
In previewing Liquid Blade™ last week at Blade Systems Insight Summit 2010 to an audience of 70 pre-qualified IT and business executives from across North America, Hardcore Computer was presented the Best Datacenter Innovation Award.
“Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of our liquid submersion cooling technology in the datacenter is a 60% or more reduction in cooling cost compared to traditional air-cooling or air-conditioning-cooling,” said Chad Attlesey, CTO, Hardcore Computer. “Our Core Coolant® is 1350 times better than air, by volume. This minimizes the need for air conditioning and air moving equipment inside the datacenter.”
Attlesey also added, “As compared to cold plate, tube-connected, spot cooling using water or other electrically conductive liquids, Hardcore’s® system cools all components with Core Coolant™ that is electrically non-conductive and safe for use in the datacenter.”
“The Hardcore Computer® Liquid Blade™ features the Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 series, the industry’s first server chip based on Intel’s groundbreaking 32nm logic technology,” said Steve Thorne, Product Line Manager, Intel’s Datacenter Group. “Hardcore Computer is an Intel® Channel Partner Premier Member, and we are excited by the innovation, performance and efficiency of the Liquid Blade™ in combination with Intel silicon and platform ingredients.”
Liquid Blade™ Specifications
Intel® 5500 and 5600 series Xeon® processors, including 6-core (2 x FC-LGA 1366 sockets)
Intel® 5500 chip set
6 x DDR3 slots per CPU (3 x channel configuration with 2 expansion slots)
Embedded Intel® 82574L PHYs with Intel® I/O acceleration technology
2 x 1.0Gb/s LAN
4 x 3.0Gb/s SATA II slots for up to 4 x 2.5inch internal SSDs in RAID 0, 1, 5 or 10
2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x PCIE 2.0, x16 slots supports a graphics cards or other PCIE device
Integrated motherboard graphics via embedded Intel® ASPEED AST2050 with integrated 2D video controller and 8MB video memory
1 x 680W PSU
Onboard ASPEED AST2050 with integrated baseboard management controller
Baseboard management module with IPMI 2.0 serial-over-LAN support via dedicated 10/100Mbps management NIC
IPMI 2.0 Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
Telnet Access, SSH support, SMASH CLP (command line)
Remote update firmware
Remote reboot
Remote power on/off, PEF configuration
Intel® S5500HV (6.3inch x 16.7inch) reference design motherboard
Liquid submersion 2.6inch x 7.0inch x 32inch custom chassis (7 x blades per 5U shelf)
Patented full liquid submersion of all active components is 1350 times more effective than air at removing heat
Core Coolant™ dielectric fluid is clear, odorless, biodegradable and safe
Silent datacenter operation
Liquid Blade™ is currently available to approved early ship customers only. Positional orders are currently being accepted. To find out more visit www.hardcorecomputer.com
