Fujitsu Deploys Liquid Immersion Cooling-based x86 Cluster for Japan Automobile Research Institute

TOKYO, Oct 23, 2017 – (JCN Newswire) – Fujitsu today
announced that it has provided the Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI)
with an x86 cluster that uses a liquid immersion cooling system, as a new
computational system to simulate automobile collisions. Operations have
commenced in October 2017.The cluster system consists of Fujitsu Server
PRIMERGY CX2550 M2 x86 servers in PRIMERGY CX400 M1 chassis, as well as a
PRIMERGY RX2530 M2 as a management server. The system is cooled by applying a
Fujitsu-developed liquid immersion cooling system, in which the servers are
directly immersed in a non-conductive fluid with high thermal transport
capacity.

This system runs software such as Fujitsu
Technical Computing Solution LS-DYNA, which performs nonlinear structural
dynamic analysis(1), currently in use at JARI, and is being used to develop
exceptionally elaborate and realistic models of the human body, enabling the
simulation of large-scale collisions at greater levels of energy saving. JARI
will provide simulation results and the human body models developed using this
system to the automobile industry to promote the manufacture of safer
automobiles.

Photo: An x86 cluster using a liquid immersion
cooling system in operation at JARI

Background

JARI conducts research into areas such as the
safety of passengers and pedestrians when a vehicle collision occurs and the
mechanisms of injuries, using both simulations which recreate vehicles and the
human body on computers and real world experiments using actual vehicles and
human body dummies. The results of this research are widely provided to the
automobile industry.

As computer simulations can provide more information
than experiments using physical dummies, they are expected to contribute
significantly to automobile development and improvement. For this reason, JARI
needed a system that could provide more accurate simulations while also
reducing power consumption, and so decided to adopt this Fujitsu cluster system
using a liquid immersion cooling system.

About the Newly Deployed System

1. System components

This cluster system uses 16 PRIMERGY CX2550 M2
x86 servers in PRIMERGY CX400 M1 chassis, each of which features two Intel Xeon
E5-2643 v4 (3.4GHz) processors (a total of 32 CPUs and 192 cores), as its
computational servers, with a PRIMERGY RX2530 M2 server as a management server.
For cooling, the system is equipped with a liquid immersion cooling system, where
the servers are directly immersed in non-conductive fluid.

2. Performance of the liquid immersion cooling
system

Compared with conventional air cooling systems,
the liquid immersion cooling system reduces burden on JARI in the following
ways:

1. Significantly reduced power consumption
By eliminating the need for cooling fans within
each server and air conditioning equipment for the server room, while also
enabling the water temperature in water cooling equipment to be increased, this
system can be expected to reduce power consumption by about 40% compared to
conventional systems.

2. Limited facility investment costs
Because liquid immersion cooling systems do not
require the air conditioned environment that ordinary air-cooled systems do,
both air conditioning equipment and thermal building insulation become
unnecessary, making a significant contribution to reducing facilities
investment costs.

3. Extremely low noise
Server cooling fans and air conditioning
equipment are not needed, making it possible to build a noise-free server room
environment.

4. Highly tolerant to various installation
environments
Servers are directly immersed in non-conductive
fluid, so they are not in contact with the surrounding environment. For this
reason, the system can be installed practically anywhere, because it is not
necessary to consider air quality issues, namely with regard to humidity,
salinity and dust, and the impact of other factors that must be taken into
account when installing conventional servers.

Future Plans

Going forward, Fujitsu has plans to offer the
liquid immersion cooling system worldwide as a product for cooling IT devices
in non-conductive fluid.

(1) Nonlinear structural dynamic analysis
software
Simulation software used for analysis of
physical events such as collisions and impacts, falls, plastic processing, and
piercing, tearing and other destruction.

About Fujitsu Ltd

Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and
communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products,
solutions, and services. Approximately 155,000 Fujitsu people support customers
in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape
the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported
consolidated revenues of 4.5 trillion yen (US$40 billion) for the fiscal year
ended March 31, 2017. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.