'Wet' computer server wins Green Enterprise IT award

A revolutionary liquid-cooled computer server that could slash the carbon footprint of the internet was tested at the University of Leeds earlier this year.

It has received the Green Enterprise IT Award in Facility Product Deployment.

UK company Iceotope designed and built its new server working with team of researchers led by Dr Jon Summers from the University of Leeds’ School of Mechanical Engineering. The first production was recently installed at the University after two years of testing prototypes.

More about the server

While most computers use air to cool their electronics, all of the components in the new server are completely immersed in liquid. The power-hungry fans of traditional computing are replaced by a silent next-generation liquid cooling process that relies on the natural convection of heat.

But the significance of the new Iceotope server lies less in the novelty of its design than in the bite it could take out of the huge electricity demands of the internet servers that form the fabric of our online lives.

Its designers calculate that the server cuts energy consumption for cooling by between 80 percent and 97 percent.