PETER DYKES DATA CENTRE SWITCHING
being developed for switch and the server cooling and there are many types of liquid cooling. He added, “The reason we adopted cold plate cooling is that most of the data centres are still using the rack and chassis infrastructure setup, and with cold plate liquid cooling, you can minimise the changes needed, to achieve better performance. Having collaborated with a number of OIF members, Ragile Networks is demoing it’s new 51.2Tbps Liquid Cooling Co- Packaged Ethernet Switch TP-B6940- 64X2 at OFC 2022. The switch has double the capacity of the previous version and offers up to 64 × 800GbE or 128 × 400GbE ports in 1RU box with Senko SN-MT
for what it calls ‘cold plate’ technology, which uses a coolant circulation to maintain the switch’s components at the favorable temperature. In a rack full of the switches, various technical cooling systems can be linked to provide rack-level liquid temperature control. Explaining how the technology works, Lai said, “In our system, the metal cold plate is attached to the core electronics power components to absorb the heat, and nonconducting liquid is used as the heat transfer medium. As we’re using the open-loop design, the cooling system within the rack is a Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU). The heat is transferred from the switches to the CDU through the manifold, and then to the upper-level technical cooling systems. Beside using non-conducting liquid with “belt and brace” manifold, the built-in leakage sensors are also adopted to aware even a minimal leakage.” He added, “Compared to traditional air cooling system, the cold-plate liquid cooling system is smaller in size, yet higher in heat-exchange rate. This is also a major reason why Vernal can fit 64 400G ports in 1RU size. Meanwhile cold plate is just one option, we are open to other cooling technologies as well in future
optic interface. It also supports both integrated-laser- source type and external-laser- input type optical modules. For more information, visit Ragile
The Vernal switch with the cold plate installed. Image: Ragile Networks
projects according to cooling, cost and space demands.” Lai, who wrote a technical paper on cooling systems for co-packaged optics in 2021, observed that many types of cooling systems are
Networks on Booth #5042.
Grant Lai, Director of Product, Ragile Networks
www.opticalconnectionsnews.com
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ISSUE 28 | Q1 2022
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