IDT’s coolRAC technology boosts server power efficiency over 10 percent in cloud computing data center apps

SAN JOSE, USA: Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDT) announced coolRAC technology, a breakthrough power architecture for enterprise data centers that dramatically increases energy efficiency and lowers operating cost. IDT’s technology is the most efficient and cost-effective solution for enterprise data center applications, and does not require a data center re-design or changes to the physical architecture, minimizing the required effort and cost to upgrade.

IDT coolRAC utilizes an innovative 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, dramatically lowering energy and cooling costs.

This solution provides 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. The return on investment of coolRAC versus existing power architectures is extremely attractive, since investment costs can be recovered through energy savings.

“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.”

IDT coolRAC is already generating significant 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 datacenters 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.