Supermicro's DLC-2, the Next Generation Direct Liquid-Cooling Solutions, Aims to Reduce Data Center Power, Water, Noise, and Space, Saving on Electricity Cost by up to 40%, and Lowering TCO by up to 20%
Faster time-to-deployment and reduced time-to-online by providing end-to-end liquid-cooling solution
Up to 40% reduced water consumption with warm water cooling now available at an inlet temperature of up to 45°C, reducing the necessity of chillers
Enabling quiet data center operation at ~50dB
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a Total IT Solution Provider for AI/ML, HPC, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is announcing several improvements to its Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) solution that incorporate new technologies for cooling various server components, accommodate warmer liquid inflow temperatures, and introduce innovative mechanical designs that enhance AI per watt. The Supermicro DLC-2 solution reduces data center power consumption by up to 40% compared to air-cooled installations. These advanced technologies enable faster deployment and reduced time-to-online for cutting-edge liquid-cooled AI infrastructure. Additionally, the total cost of ownership decreases by up to 20%. The comprehensive cold plate coverage of components allows for lower fan speeds and fewer required fans, significantly reducing data center noise levels to approximately 50dB.
Supermicro's Next-Generation Direct Liquid-Cooling Solutions (DLC-2)
"With the expected demand for liquid-cooled data centers rising to 30% of all installations, we realized that current technologies were insufficient to cool these new AI-optimized systems," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "Supermicro continues to remain committed to innovation, green computing, and improving the future of AI, by significantly reducing data center power and water consumption, noise, and space. Our latest liquid-cooling innovation, DLC-2, saves data center electricity costs by up to 40%."
Supermicro aims to save 20% of data center costs and apply DLC-2 innovations as part of data center building block solutions to make liquid-cooling more broadly available and accessible.
A significant component of the new liquid-cooling architecture is a GPU-optimized Supermicro server, which includes eight NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and two Intel® Xeon® 6 CPUs, all in just 4U of rack height. This system is designed to support increased supply coolant temperatures. This unique and optimized design incorporates cold plates for CPUs, GPUs, memory, PCIe switches, and voltage regulators. This design reduces the need for high-speed fans and rear-door heat exchangers, thereby lowering cooling costs for the data center.
The new Supermicro DLC-2 solution stack supports the new 4U front I/O NVIDIA HGX™ B200 8-GPU system, and the in-rack Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU) has an increased capacity of removing 250kW of heat generated per rack. The Supermicro DLC-2 solution also utilizes vertical coolant distribution manifolds (CDMs) to remove hot liquid and return cooler liquid to the servers for the entire rack. The reduced rack space requirements enables more servers to be installed, increasing computing density per unit of floor space. The vertical CDM is available in various sizes, precisely matching the number of servers installed in the rack. The entire DLC-2 solution stack is fully integrated with Supermicro SuperCloud Composer® software for data center-level management and infrastructure orchestration.
The efficient liquid circulation and nearly full liquid-cooling heat capture coverage, at up to 98% per server rack, allow for an increase in the inlet liquid temperature at up to 45°C. The higher inlet temperature eliminates the need for chilled water, chiller compressor equipment cost, and additional power usage, saving up to 40% of data center water consumption.
Combined with liquid-cooled server racks and clusters, DLC-2 also offers hybrid cooling towers as well as water towers as part of data center building blocks. The hybrid cooling towers combine the features of standard dry and water towers into a single design. This is especially beneficial in data center locations with strong seasonal temperature variation to reduce usage of resources and costs further.
Supermicro serves as a comprehensive one-stop solution provider with global manufacturing scale, delivering data center-level solution design, liquid-cooling technologies, networking, cabling, a full data center management software suite, L11 and L12 solution validation, onsite deployment, and professional service and support. With production facilities across San Jose, Europe, and Asia, Supermicro offers unmatched manufacturing capacity for liquid-cooled rack systems. This ensures timely delivery, reduced total cost of ownership (TCO), and consistent quality.
About Super Micro Computer, Inc.
Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first-to-market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro's motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next-generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Taiwan, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions® allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).
Supermicro, Server Building Block Solutions, and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc.
All other brands, names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
