IDT CoolRAC Boosts Server Power Efficiency

For existing data centers, coolRAC offers the ability to add computing power while using the same amount of electricity.

Integrated Device Technology, a specialist in developing system-level solutions designed to optimize its customers' applications, announced coolRAC technology, a power architecture for enterprise data centers that is engineered to increase energy efficiency and lower operating cost. IDT's technology does not require a data center redesign or changes to the physical architecture, which helps minimize the effort and cost to upgrade.

IDT coolRAC utilizes an approach for converting and distributing the AC input power of an enterprise computing data center to the DC inputs of the servers' electronics. Using low-voltage point-of-load conversion and AC distribution, coolRAC achieves end-to-end power efficiency of nearly 90 percent-a 10 percent improvement over traditional solutions, which in turn lowers energy and cooling costs. The company said the solution is designed to provide a low-cost and high availability cabinet-level power solution for server, network and storage products, such as those used in massive cloud computing facilities. Investment costs can be recovered through energy savings, an IDT release stated.

"IDT's new coolRAC technology offers unprecedented power savings in a market where every small increase in efficiency is crucial," said Arman Naghavi, vice president and general manager of the analog and power Division at IDT. "By offering nearly 90 percent end-to-end efficiency with no physical architecture changes, and using existing AC inputs and standard components, coolRAC is an undeniable breakthrough in green technology. While our competition strives to make incremental improvements with a narrow focus at the device level, IDT's system-level approach changes the paradigm to realize huge benefits for its customers. Our growing power management portfolio is setting the stage for the next generation of high-efficiency cloud computing platforms."

Naghavi said IDT coolRAC is already generating interest from high performance computing and network product suppliers looking to offer a competitive advantage. For existing data centers, coolRAC offers the ability to add computing power while using the same amount of electricity, which is especially important for facilities with fixed power limits. In addition, because key elements of the control mechanisms are to be implemented in advanced silicon ICs, the topology creates an opportunity for data centers to fully leverage the continuing advances in silicon process cost and performance to realize further energy savings. Such benefits in power management are not accessible to data centers using traditional DC distribution architectures, making IDT's coolRAC technology more favorable for future improvements, Naghavi noted.