[Beowulf] re: power prediction and planning

[John Hearns]

2009/10/5 Mark Hahn <hahn at mcmaster.ca>:

> also, does anyone have thoughts about machineroom features that would
> support multiple generations, preferably without a lot of reno?
> for instance, we have mostly L6-30 power, which seems reasonably safe for
> commodity systems.  but how about rack-back water cooling systems? what are
> the chances of getting multiple generations out of that (at least the
> heat-rejection part, if not the pipes or server-side heat-exchangers.)

Oooh - good question.
The SGI rack-back water cooled system is excellent, however the racks
are SGI-size.
You would be able to get multiple generations of SGI kit in the same
racks - their IRU units are the same size, so you could go
IA64/ICE/Ultraviolet. But that's not really multi-vendor equipment!

On the cooling side, I heard that Imperial College went for a CO2
based cooling system - similar rack-back cooling radiators, but you
pump CO2 through them.