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IBM Licenses Water-Cooling Technology to Global Manufacturer, Panduit Corporation; Expands Access to CoolBlue Innovations

Posted on: Thursday, 28 September 2006, 15:00 CDT

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an agreement to enable global networking and electrical manufacturer Panduit Corporation to license IBM's Rear Door Heat eXchanger water-cooling technology. The move will further increase access to IBM's CoolBlue portfolio of technologies to help clients better optimize the power consumption, management and cooling of infrastructure at the system, rack and datacenter levels.

Originally designed specifically for IBM server cabinets in 2005, the Rear Door Heat eXchanger is a five-inch deep cooling door that utilizes chilled water to dissipate heat generated from the back of computer systems. The simple design of the Rear Door Heat eXchanger requires no additional fans or electricity, and has shown to reduce server heat output in datacenters by up to 55 percent.

Independent research has indicated that water can remove far more heat, per volume unit than air. According to industry analyst firm Gartner, water cooling is significantly more efficient than air cooling, because water can carry 3,500 times more heat than air at sea level. Products that cool racks from a local supply of chilled water are emerging and can cut cooling demand from 100 percent to 30 percent of computing power. Gartner further contends that such a reduction could enable a 50 percent increase in datacenter equipment power capacity (1).

Panduit will collaborate with IBM's System x and Technology Collaboration Solutions teams to integrate IBM intellectual property, engineering and development skills into the manufacturing of Panduit's own product offerings.

"Thermal management in the datacenter has emerged as a key issue with our customers. As datacenter compute densities and switch power supplies increase and the kilowatts per cabinet continue to grow, so does the strain on infrastructure and ultimately the IT budget," said Jack Tison, vice president, Technology, Panduit. "We are excited to work with IBM and this innovative solution, which will compliment our product offerings and address this issue today and into the future."

IBM pioneered the concept of water cooling in computing with the first mainframe computers over 50 years ago. IBM was also the first systems vendor to bring water cooling back to computing datacenters with the introduction of its Rear Door Heat eXchanger in 2005.

"IBM pioneered liquid-cooling technology at the systems level and has successfully lowered heat emissions for customers with high-density IT environments such as Boehringer Ingelheim," said James Gargan, vice president, IBM System x. "IBM's Rear Door Heat eXchanger helps keep datacenters at cool temperatures and is designed to be easily installed and moved to help eliminate identified datacenter hot spots. We look forward to collaborating with Panduit to put CoolBlue technology inside datacenters around the globe."

About CoolBlue

The CoolBlue portfolio of IBM innovations includes comprehensive hardware and systems-management tools for computing environments, enabling clients to better optimize the power consumption, management and cooling of infrastructure at the system, rack and datacenter levels. The CoolBlue portfolio includes IBM PowerConfigurator, PowerExecutive, and Rear Door Heat eXchanger.

For more information about Panduit, visit: www.panduit.com

For more information about IBM, go to: www.ibm.com

(1) Findings for Why Chilled Water Is Coming to Large Data Centers, Gartner, Michael A. Bell, et al, 2 February 2006.

 Media contacts: Vineeta Durani IBM Media Relations 415-545-2350 vdurani@us.ibm.com

SOURCE: IBM

Source: MARKET WIRE

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