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2023.12.27
An immersion cooling method of cooling ICT equipment directly in a liquid has succeeded in optical transmission between servers.
～Energy-saving data centers for the realization of a decarbonized society～.
AIO Core Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "AIO Core "), in collaboration with NTT DATA and NTT Communications Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "NTT Com"). has succeeded in achieving stable optical transmission in a data center cooling system that uses an immersion cooling method (hereinafter referred to as "immersion cooling system"). The immersion cooling method is a method of directly cooling ICT equipment such as servers in a special liquid, which is more energy-efficient than conventional air cooling and is attracting attention as a next-generation method for the realization of a decarbonized society.
Optical transmission is used for high-speed transmission of data between ICT equipment, but there is a problem that common optical transceivers cannot be used in immersion cooling systems due to air gaps. AIO Core has developed IOCore®, the world's only optical transceiver that can be used for immersion cooling due to no air gap.
From April ~ August 2023, we conducted an actual verification of optical transmission between ICT equipment in two types of immersion cooling systems in order to confirm efficiency and operational performance and identify issues for commercialization. As a result, optical transmission between ICT equipment has been successfully achieved in both the "twophase type" (a method that utilizes the heat of vaporization caused by boiling liquid) owned by NTT DATA and the "one-phase type" (a method of cooling by circulation of liquid) owned by NTT Com. We have identified practical issues related to equipment operation, including maintenance related to optical transmission.
AIO Core will continue to work on the implementation and provision of IOCore®, which realizes optical transmission in various harsh environments, such as high temperatures, vibrations, and electromagnetic noise, including the immersion cooling system that was tested this time.
About this verification
1. Background
Due to the dramatic increase in the amount of information brought about by the digitalization of society as a whole, the power consumption of data centers is steadily increasing. While "decarbonization" is regarded as an important management issue, reducing power consumption has become one of the challenges for data centers. Improving the cooling efficiency of ICT equipment is effective in saving energy in data centers, and the immersion cooling method is attracting attention.
Optical transmission is used for high-speed transmission of data between ICT equipment, but there is a problem that common optical transceivers cannot be used in immersion cooling systems due to air gaps. AIO Core has developed IOCore® (Fig. 1), the world's smallest 5x5mm optical transceiver at low cost with no air gap, using silicon photonics technology. and has succeeded in optical transmission between ICT equipment in the immersion cooling system, which is attracting attention as a next-generation cooling method.
2. Verification Overview
Immersion cooling is a cooling method in which ICT equipment is immersed in an insulating liquid (such as an inert liquid or silicon oil) to achieve efficient cooling. It is said that the failure rate is reduced because high-heat generation servers can be operated in a closed environment at a constant temperature, and can be densely arranged, which makes it possible to save space compared to conventional methods that use air. In this verification, we conducted optical transmission tests using two types of cooling methods: a one-phase cooling system (NTT Com owns equipment, Fig. 2) that cools the liquid by circulating it, and a twophase cooling system that uses the heat of vaporization from the boiling of the liquid for cooling (NTT DATA owns equipment, Fig. 3).
Fig. 2 Single-phase immersion cooling system owned by NTT Com Optical Transmission Experiment of Immersed Server
Fig. 3 Two-phase immersion cooling system owned by NTT DATA Optical Transmission Experiment of Immersed Servers
Optical transmission is used for high-speed transmission of data between ICT equipment in data centers, but common optical transceivers have air gaps, so when the optical path is filled with liquid, the optical properties deteriorate, and they cannot be used in immersion cooling systems. Optical transceivers with enhanced airtightness specifically for immersion cooling have problems such as high costs and reliability issues. AIO Core has solved this problem by developing IOCore®, the world's only optical transceiver that can be used for immersion cooling with no air gap and equipped with a reliable quantum dot laser.
3. Results
・In accordance with the QSFP28 electrical interface, which is a common module standard between ICT equipment in data centers, we tested the optical connection of a server and a switch immersed in refrigerant in two types of immersion cooling system, one phase and one two-phase, using an optical module equipped with IOCore®. We have succeeded in achieving an error-free optical transmission with a transmission rate of 25 Gbps per channel, 100 Gbps per transceiver (4 channels), and a distance of 30 m for two types of immersion cooling system.
・In contrast to optical fiber cables, which are capable of high-speed data transmission over long distances, conventional copper cables are limited to a few meters in length for high-speed data transmission, making it difficult to configure flexible systems between servers, switches, and storage for immersion cooling. Conventional optical transceivers cannot be used for immersion cooling, but in this verification, it was confirmed that optical fiber cables can be used for immersion cooling by applying a module equipped with an optical transceiver IOCore® that can be used for immersion cooling, and it is possible to flexibly arrange connections between ICT equipment in the same way as in a normal data center.
・Once the ICT equipment is immersed in the refrigerant in the immersion cooling system, the equipment is immersed in silicon oil, etc., so it is not easy to replace the equipment and perform maintenance. For this reason, optical transceivers must be highly reliable. It has been confirmed that the transmission characteristics of IOCore® do not change even after immersion for one year, and in the future, we will conduct further reliability evaluations to show that IOCore® has high reliability.
2023.10.16
JAE and AIO Core begin capital and business alliance.
JAE (Japan Aviation Electronics Industry) will acquire a stake in AIO Core through underwriting AIO Core's fourth round of capital increase and jointly develop an automotive AOC (active optical cable) in anticipation of the future shift to optical in-vehicle networks.
(News Release: https://www.jae.com/en/topics/detail/id=115676)
(CEATEC2023: https://www.jae.com/files/user/topics/2023/pdf/Automotive_AOC.pdf)
2023.8.29
Roadmap (Product release) is updated.
- IOCore® 32Gbps×4ch Engineering Sample for PCIe Gen5 up to 85℃ operation
- IOCore® 28Gbps×4ch mass production for volume discount up to 85℃ operation
- EOM and Evaluation board for each IOCore®
Can be placed near heatd-up HotChips (CPU, FPGA, ASICs), and can be applied to Immersion Cooling system without any change.
2023.3.7
Exhibited the latest technology at OFC2023 (7-9 March, Sandiego Convention Center)
PCIe G.5 optical link demo with Anritsu
Optical Modules with Kyocera and IPEX
Immersion cooling demo with Shell
2022.8.15
Article: Development of Silicon Photonic Micro-Transceiver Chip
An interview by EPiC, has been published at Novus Light.
https://www.novuslight.com/development-of-silicon-photonic-micro-transceiver-chip_N12504.html
2022.2.25
NEDO's Green Innovation Fund Project: Next-Generation Green Data Center Technology Development
AIO Core Co., Ltd., together with Fujitsu Limited (the managing company), NEC Corporation, Kioxia Corporation, Fujitsu Optical Components Co., Ltd., and Kyocera Corporation, are selected for the "Development of Next-Generation Green Data Center Technology" in the "Green Innovation Fund Project/Construction of Next-Generation Digital Infrastructure" sponsored by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
2022.2.10
ISO 9001: 2015 certification acquired
International standards for quality management systems (QMS)
AIO Core acquired ISO 9001: 2015 certification on February 10, 2022.
2021.11.19
Paper: Silicon Photonic Micro-Transceivers for Beyond 5G Environments
by Kazuhiko Kurata, Luca Giorgi, Fabio Cavaliere, Liam O’Faolain, Sebastian A. Schulz, Kohei Nishiyama, Yasuhiko Hagihara, Kenichiro Yashiki, Takashi Muto, Shigeru Kobayashi, Makoto Kuwata and Richard Pitwon
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(22), 10955
2021.08.30
"Next Generation Optical Interconnection from Academia for Practical Application of Optical Pins." news release from JST.
2021.3.30
Joined OSA virtual workshop “OIDA Workshop on Developments in Co-Packaging Technologies for Data Centers”
2021.2.28
NEDO Project for “Silicon-Photonics 32G Optical Transmitter/Receiver Development” successfully finished.
2020.10.19
At CEATEC 2020, NEDO announced server performance improvements using optical I/O cores: "Accomplished one order of magnitude faster computing at data center servers"（youtube）
2020.10.16
NEDO in collaboration with PETRA has implemented a switching function for switching data transfer destinations on server boards, and has completed the world's first rack-type server system in which all server boards are directly connected by optical wiring. It is also expected to promote the use of big data and AI, which require large amounts of power and computation time.
2020.6.29
AIO Core was selected by NEDO, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, as the responsible company developing the next generation optical transceiver that works in high temperature more than 100 degree C as ambient temperature applicable to millimeter wave band 5G base station. The term of project is three years.
2019.10.3
I-PEX has developed ultra-thin active optical cable plug module with silicon-photonics chip.
DAI-ICHI SEIKO has developed ultra thin active optical cable plug module with silicon-photonics chip: Succeeded in 100 Gbps (25 Gbps x 4ch) long distance transfer of 300 m | News Release | I-PEX Inc. (i-pex.com)
2019.3.26
AIO Core is honorably awarded of JEITA Venture Award.
2019.3.6
COBO compliant commercial product release and module demo at orc 2019.
2018.7.24
NEDO project "Silicon-Photonics 32G Optical Transmitter/Receiver Development"
AIO Core proposed 32 Gbps optical transceiver was accepted as a NEDO grant and started its activities.