- Microsoft Lab Try microfluidic cooling that triples efficiency compared to cold plates
- Researchers say the new system reduces the increased heat of the GPU by 65 percent in the trials
- Microfluid cooling promises dense and faster data centers while reducing energy costs for AI workloads
Microsoft has revealed that it is testing a new chips cooling approach called microfluidica, with the aim of solving one of the biggest challenges for artificial intelligence hardware.
As AI chips become more powerful, they generate more heat than previous generations, pushing traditional cooling methods near their limits.
Most of the data centers today use cold plates, where the liquid passes through a plaque attached to the chip. That system is separated from the heat source by multiple layers that catch heat, which limits its effectiveness. The new Microsoft design takes a different route.
Reliability tests
With the microfluidic, the small slots are recorded directly in the back of the chip, allowing the refrigerant to flow over the silicon and eliminate the heat more efficiently.
Judy Priest, corporate vice president and CTO for operations and cloud innovation in Microsoft, believes that the new approach could remodel how future chips are built.
“The microfluidic would allow dense energy designs that will allow more functions that care about customers and give a better performance in a smaller quantity of space,” he said in a blog post that announces the news.
Priest added that after having demonstrated the technology and shown the design worked, the next step was to prove its reliability.
In laboratory experiments, microfluidic eliminated heat up to three times better than cold plates, depending on the workload, and also reduced the increase in the temperature of the GPU by 65%.
When combining the design of the channel with AI that maps the unique access points in the chip, Microsoft could direct the refrigerant with greater precision.
Sashi Majety, Microsoft Senior Technical Programs Manager, said Heat is becoming a barrier. “If it still depends largely on the traditional technology of cold plates, it is stuck,” he said, adding that in five years the chips can work too hot to cool effectively with the current systems.
Microsoft believes that its advance shows how new approaches could allow faster and dense data centers while reducing energy use for cooling.
The technological giant is collaborating with the Swiss Startup Corintis to refine the chips design.
In an attempt to greatly reduce its water use, Microsoft previously revealed that it was working in a closed loop cooling system for data centers.
Several other technology companies, including Lenovo, Dell, Supermicro and Giga, are also running to develop advanced cooling systems, since overheating the risks of putting a roof in the rhythm of AI progress.
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