Comparative analysis of data center design showing the benefits of server level simulation models

There is a large disconnect between the design of electronic equipment and the design of the data centers that house them, and yet as the industry is well aware, they are intricately related. A novel simulation method to join these two systems is presented here. A conceptual design data center is created in a simulation tool, then comparisons are made between designs that use generic server information and a simplified server model (SSM). SSMs are created using an innovative black box approach for determining inlet and exit heat and flow parameters, which are obtained from a detailed server model. It can be seen that using server details rather than the traditional generic models commonly used today generate different results.