LG CNS will install graphics processing unit (GPU) liquid cooling equipment at a Naver Cloud data center, marking the first time the company has built a liquid cooling system in its data center business.
LG CNS said on the 26th that it will apply direct-to-chip (DTC) cooling, a form of liquid cooling technology, at Naver Cloud's Samsong data center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. LG CNS is the contract operator of the Samsong facility. DTC technology controls heat by attaching cooling plates, through which coolant flows, directly onto GPU chips. LG CNS will use its DTC technology to cool Vera Rubin servers set to be introduced at the Samsong data center.
Liquid cooling such as DTC offers superior power efficiency compared with the air-cooling method, which uses cold air to dissipate server heat. Air cooling is sufficient when a server rack's density is around 30 to 40 kilowatts (kW). Vera Rubin servers, however, are expected to exceed 190 kW per rack. Liquid cooling therefore allows operators to manage the lifespan of GPU resources and ensure stable server operation.
In this Samsong data center operation project, LG CNS will integrate DTC liquid cooling, the GPU server operating environment, the power supply system and an artificial intelligence (AI) platform operating base. Naver Cloud will use the GPU resources at the Samsong data center to provide high-performance AI services to domestic public institutions and companies. The two companies plan to build and begin operating the liquid cooling infrastructure by next year.
Cho Heon-hyuk, an executive vice president at LG CNS, said data center cooling technology is becoming a core competitive edge for the quality and operational efficiency of AI services.
