Power Electronics Europe April/May Issue 2022

26 COVER STORY https://hiro-microdatacenters.nl , www.vicorpower.com Issue 2 2022 Power Electronics Europe www.power-mag.com integrate any type and quantity of CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs and NVMe® (Non-Volatile Memory Express) media into platforms from 1.5 kW shoeboxes to 500 kW containerized edge installations. Fully solid- state and modular, these platforms require little maintenance and no energy for cooling. Heat can be dissipated via a fan- supported dry-cooler (see Figure 1) or a completely passive dry-cooler making the EMDC passive. The high-bandwidth, dual- switching fabric (PCIe, Ethernet) and scalable design gives customers complete freedom to compose the EMDC with any combination or quantity of CPUs, accelerators, and flash storage. Real applications with community impact HIRO has a special commitment to building an edge infrastructure distributed across academic hospitals in Europe to support lareg data set and even real time procedures. Hospitals rely on large data sets that go beyond their own data sets to train AI models that can help detect and cure cardiovascular diseases, cancer, tumours, and other complex disorders. Additionally some hospitals are leveraging edge computing in the operating rooms. Intra-operative functional Ultrasound (IOfUS) has the potential of improving surgical effectiveness and patient safety while expanding the surgeon’s view by directly visualizing neural structures and supporting the surgical procedure (see Figure 2). IOfUS is the most affordable and least invasive modality for intra-operative imaging of the brain. Ultrasound is portable, flexible and provides real time intra-operative imaging whenever needed during the procedure. The progress of surgery can therefore be closely monitored without major delays or interruptions in the workflow by employing edge micro data centres. HIRO is also working on the € 16 million BRAINE project, which received € 8.5 million EU’s ECSEL Joint Undertaking funding. Four test-bed locations across the EU – two in the Netherlands, one in Italy, and one development platform in Hungary – will serve several test applications addressing Smart City, Smart Hospital, Smart Manufacturing and Robotics, and Smart Supply Chain. High power density leads to cost efficiency HIRO is able to build highly compact EMDCs and solve the technical bottlenecks of signal integrity over shorter electrical traces, highly compact and efficient power conversion and energy efficient cooling and engineering. In addition to being device-agnostic, flexible and scalable, the EMDC is high-performing and saves at least 40 % on energy consumption compared to legacy systems. Its solid-state design (no moving parts) improves availability and reduces callout incidence – particularly valuable for edge installations in remote or unattended locations. Highly compact and efficient power conversion is achieved by designing hardware running from 48 VDC power distribution, instead of 12 VDC (see Figure 3). The higher voltage reduces I?R losses across the power delivery network (PDN). While 48 VDC distribution is common in telecoms and industry, it is only now beginning to find acceptance in data centre and associated edge environments. Vicor high-density, high-efficiency power modules contribute to HIRO’s solid-state, thermally adept, compact, energy-efficient EMDC designs. Legacy solutions using standard COM Express modules (computer-on-module), for example, draw 150 W per card. This equates to approximately 3 kW within one 3U chassis. The ability to handle this high-density power conversion is unique to Vicor in the market. HIRO has been using Vicor DCM modules for 48-to-12 V conversion. In their view, the Vicor power modules, with their flexible cooling options, offer world- leading volumetric power density. The flexibility lends itself to renewable energy opportunities. The HIRO EMDCs will eventually be able to be positioned by a solar farm or wind farm and connect safely and reliably into the renewable energy supply. The first step for HIRO is to enable 48 V systems, while providing infrastructure for legacy 12 V designs. Next will come support for chips like PGAs, converting down from 48 V to around 1V at the point-of-load. In the HIRO system, Vicor owns the DC power conversion from the chip level all the way up to edge data centre level. This Figure 2: Intra-operative functional Ultrasound improves surgical effectiveness and patient safety while expanding a surgeon’s view by directly visualizing neural structures and supporting the surgical procedure