Amazon debuts tools to make data centres less power hungry

AMAZON.COM’s cloud unit is rolling out components it says will make data centres run more efficiently, a move that could help address the growing strain power-hungry server farms are putting on the electrical grid.

Amazon Web Services’s (AWS) latest data centre designs include more efficient cooling, renewable diesel for backup generators and an optimised server rack layout that reduces the amount of power left unused. Some components are already deployed, while others will arrive in new data centres as they come online, the company said on Monday (Dec 2).

AWS is also introducing liquid cooling systems to keep the most powerful chips from the likes of Nvidia running smoothly. Such chips cannot be effectively cooled by fans alone.

Amazon expects to pour about US$75 billion into capital expenditures this year, much of it for servers, chips and cooling systems that power AWS’s on-demand computing services. The sum also covers the purchase of homegrown chips, including new artificial intelligence products designed to compete with Nvidia.

AWS is expected to announce this week at its re:Invent conference that those chips are now available to customers. BLOOMBERG

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