A sizzling potato: Information facilities and server farms devoted to coaching and serving AI algorithms eat huge quantities of energy, and Massive Tech corporations are scrambling to attenuate outages and rationing occurrences. Infineon is proposing its personal answer to the AI energy drawback with new PSUs designed to adapt to each present and future servers.
German semiconductor producer Infineon Applied sciences lately introduced a brand new era of energy provide items, promising unprecedented energy supply capabilities for knowledge facilities targeted on cloud servers and AI algorithms. Infineon’s new server PSUs can ship as much as 12 kW, integrating three completely different semiconductor supplies right into a single module.
In response to Infineon, these new PSUs are the world’s first items able to delivering as much as 12 kW of energy. Nevertheless, the primary fashions may have an influence ranking of 8 kW and will likely be obtainable within the first quarter of 2025. There is no such thing as a established launch date for the 12 kW mannequin in keeping with the corporate’s PSU roadmap.
Infineon is integrating silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC), and gallium nitride (GaN) into the identical module, which can considerably improve energy efficiency, effectivity, and reliability. The 12 kW PSUs will obtain a 97.5 p.c effectivity degree, whereas the 8 kW PSUs can assist “AI racks” with an output of 300 kW and extra.
Gallium nitride is a cloth that has helped client chargers shrink lately, whereas silicon carbide can present increased effectivity at increased voltage ranges. SiC is used for DC-to-DC inverters in electrical automobiles, however it may well additionally work in PSUs designed to ship extra electrical vitality to GPUs designed for AI algorithm acceleration.
Because of the proliferation of chatbots and AI companies, knowledge facilities are experiencing fast development of their vitality necessities. Infineon said that the brand new PSUs will assist these huge server farms cut back energy consumption because of their elevated effectivity, whereas additionally slicing down greenhouse emissions and reducing working prices.
In response to current predictions, knowledge facilities might account for seven p.c of worldwide electrical energy consumption by 2030. Trendy, high-performing server GPUs require as much as 1 kW per single chip, and they’re going to possible attain 2 kW “and past” by the top of the last decade. Main tech and AI corporations are already feeling the impression of this ever-growing demand for energy, with Amazon being compelled to ration sources to keep away from grid outages in its Dublin knowledge facilities.
