Latest Invention: New Hot-Water Cooling System for IBM's Supercomputer

The tech giant IBM has recently announced that it managed to successfully install a supercomputer that is cooled by hot water. It is worth mentioning that the supercomputer, called Aquazar, was mounted at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich).

IBM's latest invention is a new cooling system that consumes 40 percent less energy compared to air-cooled system used in most machines. In addition, the direct usage of waste heat in the heating system of the building is an equivalent of 85 percent cut in CO2 emissions.

The IBM's latest invention was developed as part of the company's initiative to develop new technologies that would help solve business problems.

Although the idea of using warm water for cooling might sound strange, the testing results are quite promising. It was discovered that warm water allows the processors of the supercomputer to work properly well below the highest point of allowed operating temperature. According to the developers, the new system cools processors "4,000 times more efficiently than air", reports Gizmag.

During the high performance LINPACK benchmark testing, the new supercomputer managed to reach a performance of 6 teraflops, with the level of energy efficiency being around 450 megaflops per watt. It also gave back about 9 kilowatts of thermal power to the heating system of the Institute.