Option 2 · direct-to-chip liquid cooling

100 MW data center — heat captured at the silicon

The hall is quiet. Almost no air is moving, because the heat never enters the room: it goes from die to cold plate to pipe, and only surfaces again as a warm updraft above the outdoor fluid coolers.

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Mild day · dry mode
FacilityTen high-density halls, in-hall CDUs, facility-water headers, and a bank of dry/hybrid fluid coolers.
1.0×
TCS supply / return42 / 52 °C
Facility water supply36 °C
Facility water return46 °C
Heat rejectionDry coolers
Liquid / air split85 / 15 %
Cool coolant into server Across the cold plate Heated coolant leaving Facility water supply Facility water return Residual air (~15%)
CPU / GPU→ Cold plate→ TCS water→ CDU→ Facility water→ Dry / hybrid cooler→ Atmosphere

Cold plate

Coolant runs through machined channels in a plate clamped to the die. Heat conducts out of the silicon and into the water within centimetres of where it was made.

Processor → cold plate → coolant

TCS loop

Flexible hoses tie each server to the vertical rack manifolds. Warm return water from thousands of processors gathers into one closed technology loop.

CDU → manifold → server → manifold → CDU

CDU

A plate heat exchanger separates the technology loop from the facility loop. The two never mix; only heat crosses the metal. Several CDUs per hall keep the design modular.

TCS → heat exchanger → FWS

Warm-water rejection

Facility water runs at roughly 35–40 °C supply. That is warm enough to dump straight to ambient air for most of the year, so the compressors mostly sit idle.

FWS → dry / hybrid cooler → air

Why the warm water matters. An air-cooled hall needs supply air in the low twenties, which means mechanical cooling whenever the outdoor wet bulb climbs. A cold plate is happy with 40 °C water, and 40 °C water can be cooled by simply blowing outside air over a coil. The chiller becomes emergency equipment rather than the core of the plant. Temperatures and the 85/15 split shown here are illustrative and depend on the server architecture.