Power Electronics Europe April/May Issue 2022

https://hiro-microdatacenters.nl , www.vicorpower.com COVER STORY 25 www.power-mag.com Issue 2 2022 Power Electronics Europe Edge Computing Leverages Modular Power in Scalable Micro Data Centres Edge computing is essential to realizing the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and internet of things (IoT). These technologies are being infused into every corner of our lives—autonomous driving, smart buildings, robotics, supply chain management and healthcare. To deliver on the promise of these smart technologies, faster computation and data transfer speeds are needed closer to smart devices, closer to “the edge.” HIRO, a Dutch entrepreneurial technology company, leverages modular power in scalable micro data centres for low latency applications, powered by DCM power modules from Vicor. Lev Slutskiy, Vicor EMEA Business Development Manager HPC, UK Edge computing is the invisible driver to this smart world, designed to make our lives easier and better in ways we never imagined. But what does it look like, and what’s driving it? Just as importantly, how do you reliably and efficiently power the edge? HIRO, a Dutch entrepreneurial technology company, develops innovative high-performance, reliable edge infrastructures (hardware and software) that can deliver intelligent edge as a service for industrial and other end users. They have seen steadily-increasing demand for intelligent edge services that can run autonomously and support analysis of large data streams in real time for multiple tenants (groups of users sharing access to a software instance), while safely sharing the analysis results across multiple locations. Why edge computing? Edge computing serves as a faster (middle layer) relay for data to enable mission critical, real time responses in devices. Edge computing can dramatically boost services and applications by supporting AI natively, instead of relying on AI in the cloud. Edge computing technologies integrate the limited memory, storage and computation of nodes that are closer to where data are generated into the cloud architecture. They facilitate intelligent decisions on when to move computation from the edge to the cloud, while allowing for the network capabilities as well as the security and sensitivity of data. This industry-preferred approach enables long-awaited developments, including Factory 4.0 and smart manufacturing, 5G, internet of things (IoT), self-driving vehicles, smart cities, smart hospitals, robotics, machine vision and others. The success of edge computing depends on the availability of suitable hardware; systems that can economically provide the necessary processing speed and power, while being able to survive in the less-regulated and more unpredictable environments encountered away from the conventional data centre. The edge computing hardware must comprise compact, energy-efficient solutions that can be widely deployed, even in space-constrained and harsh environments, to locate computing closer to sensors and other data sources. The hardware includes the power delivery networks and conventional bulky low- voltage power solutions are not able to support the increasing power density and small form factors at the edge and are a major bottleneck for edge computing innovation. An efficient and scalable solution HIRO makes Edge Micro Data Centre (EMDC) – a highly scalable, compact, edge computing resource that can thrive outside in harsh environments. It can Figure 1: Micro Data Centre examples EMDC8 (1.5 kW), EMDC16 (3 kW), and EMDC24 (4.5 kW)