Schneider Electronics and NVIDIA have co-developed solutions for a new data centre reference design capable of powering the latest AI demands.
These will enable the energy management and automation leader’s data centres to support liquid-cooled, AI clusters of up to 132 kW per rack, as well as solving liquid cooling deployment challenges in hyperscale, colocation, and enterprise data centres settings.
On top of this, Schneider has introduced its latest Galaxy VXL uninterruptible power supply (UPS), which it describes as the industry’s “most compact, high-density UPS” designed for AI, data centre, and electrical workloads.
Together, these solutions will meet the energy and sustainability requirements to meet the rising number of AI systems.
Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA, commented on its technological partnership with Schneider: “Building the future of accelerated computing and AI requires speed and a bedrock foundation.
“Our work with Schneider Electric enables customers to design the world’s technological advances on stable and resilient infrastructure.
“Together, we’re creating AI data centres that are purpose-built for accelerated computing, supporting complex architectures that are essential to deliver digital intelligence to every company and industry.”
NVIDIA Partnership
Created for NVIDIA’s GB200 NVL72 and Blackwell chips, the design eases planning and deployment through proven architectures, according to Schneider.
The reference design includes options for liquid-to-liquid Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs) and direct-to-chip cooling.
It also shares full mechanical and electrical plans to develop more energy efficient and sustainable operations for “AI data centres of the future”.
The design was created utilising Schneider’s software tools like Ecodial and EcoStruxure IT Design CFD, which can be tailored to meet the precise needs of the AI workload and help users to take advantage of the energy efficient infrastructure for high-density apps.
Schneider also recently signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Motivair Corporation, further strengthening its liquid cooling portfolio and direct-to-chip liquid cooling and high-capacity thermal solutions.
Galaxy VXL
The Galaxy VXL UPS provides 52 percent space savings when compared with the average UPS in the industry.
With a power density of as much as 1042 kW/m2, the 1.25 MW modular UPS can offer more efficient power within a smaller, high-density footprint, Schneider says.
Galaxy VXL UPS is the newest entry to Schneider’s end-to-end, advanced infrastructure portfolio.
Pankaj Sharma, Executive Vice President, Data Centres & Networks at Schneider Electric, explains how it plans to keep up with the rate of AI growth:
“The energy and environmental impact of AI is growing at unprecedented pace, and it’s paramount we bend the energy curve downward by finding new ways to decarbonise data centres and the digital infrastructure.
“At Schneider Electric, we are committed to pushing boundaries, setting new standards, and shaping the future of AI, whilst protecting the environment. This requires a strategic approach from the grid to the chip, to the chiller, and beyond.”
AWS Upgrades Data Centre
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has also unveiled new datacentre components this month that will ultimately be able to power more customer AI solutions.
By making updates to the power, cooling, and hardware designs within its datacentres, Amazon’s cloud computing platform is able to increase compute power by 12 percent and reduce energy consumption by 46 percent.
AWS’s datacentres support millions of customers around the world, including the hundreds of thousands of customers leveraging AI, machine learning services, as well as Amazon Bedrock, which can be used to build generative AI applications.
