Nvidia and software-defined cooling for AI

Nvidia is reclaiming cooling control in AI data centers with the introduction of the AI CDU (Cooling Distribution Unit), a system that promises software-defined thermal management. This approach could lead to greater energy efficiency and improved performance for artificial intelligence workloads, especially in on-premise contexts where cost control and resource maximization are crucial.

Thermal management has become an increasingly pressing challenge with the increase in power density in AI servers. The latest generation GPUs, needed for training large language models (LLM) and for inference, generate a significant amount of heat. An efficient cooling system is therefore essential to ensure the stability and optimal performance of the systems.

For those evaluating on-premise deployments, there are significant trade-offs between CapEx and OpEx related to the cooling infrastructure. AI-RADAR offers analytical frameworks on /llm-onpremise to evaluate these aspects.