In short, Immersion-1 is a massive immersion cooled FPGA cluster with 6048 Spartan®-6 LX150 FPGA chips from Xilinx. The FPGA chips sit on 1512 hot swappable boards and get power and communications from backplanes that are connected to the outside world.
While Immersion-1 is a fully functional unit that does indeed crunch numbers 24/7, it is also proof of concept that 2-phase immersion cooling is not just a dream of the future, it is a viable and elegant solution right here and right now.
Most importantly, our 2-phase immersion cooling approach cuts down engineering inefficiencies of legacy designs, lowers development and operational costs and results in a drastically lower carbon foot print. And all this while enabling us to pack the hardware in a never before seen density, keep the supporting infrastructure at a minimum and use our existing premises, instead of investing our life savings into large and remote co-location data center facility. In fact, with all that space saved, we could place our tanks at an ergonomic height for easy access - with plenty of headroom left.
Most of the time the only sound you hear is the hum of our high current main power cables. Once in a while, we work around the cluster and that's when it gets really "noisy": we have to turn on the air condition (Hong Kong has a hot and humid climate). Compare that with a modern data center facility where noise and dust is usually a real problem (typically 70-80 dB, using ear protectors in air cooled data centers is recommended).
Hong Kong is one of the fastest-paced cities in the world. It has remained the world's freest economy since 1995, with low tax, no import and export restrictions, free trade and travel. Being located in the financial powerhouse and tech hub of Asia, we are well equipped to work on global projects. No matter how big, or small.
Most would consider Hong Kong's cramped living conditions, sky high property prices, and hazy skies as very challenging. When it comes to data centers, hot and humid climates are one of the biggest problems too. Hong Kong's power hungry infrastructure is a major disaster for the people's wallet and the environment. On the bright side, it's habitats like this that push companies to go the extra mile and make a change.