Global environmental challenges IBM supercomputer reuses heat to
warm buildings High-tech giants from Microsoft to Google are
eager to cut the huge amounts of power used to run their data
centers, particularly now that the recession has companies
leaving no stone unturned to slash costs and global warming is
driving them to think green. Developed by IBM jointly with the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) — a sort of Swiss
version of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — the new
supercomputer’s microchips avoid cooling with energy-sucking air
conditioning. Thanks to a network of water-carrying “micro-
capillaries” that take water very close to the microchips, the
system is cooled at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius, rather
than a “normal coolant” that requires a temperature of about 20
degrees Celsius, or air at around 6 to 12 degrees Celsius,
according to IBM researcher Dr. Thomas Brunschwiler. “Typically
you would use air conditioning, which is very intensive, and
this is eliminating that by