Quantum technology specialist SDT is introducing a single-phase immersion cooling system with cooling capacity increased to 100kW. SDT said on November 3 that it would unveil its new AquaRack 42U product for the first time at Data Center Korea 2026, held for three days from November 4 at the aT Center in Yangjae, Seoul. AquaRack cools servers by immersing them directly in nonconductive cooling fluid. Following its existing 50kW 21U model, the company is adding a 100kW 42U model to address growing demand for cooling high-density servers in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) environments. Single-phase immersion cooling absorbs heat from servers while the cooling fluid remains liquid without vaporizing, then circulates the fluid through a heat exchanger. SDT emphasized that AquaRack can reduce cooling electricity consumption by up to 90% compared with conventional air cooling. An existing AquaRack installed at the Pangyo HPC Innovation Hub through a National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) demonstration project recorded a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.072 during a 72-hour continuous operation test and passed verification testing by the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA). PUE is the ratio of total data center electricity consumption to IT equipment electricity consumption. A value closer to 1 means a smaller share of electricity is consumed by auxiliary equipment such as cooling systems. AquaRack provides redundant coolant distribution units (CDU) and circulation pumps to improve cooling reliability, as well as real-time monitoring. SDT also plans to target research and industrial markets, drawing on its experience supplying customized equipment for semiconductor thermal management research to a government-funded research institution. It will also introduce AquaCell, which integrates data center infrastructure, including cooling, power and networks, into a single module. Factory-prefabricated modules are installed on site and can be added according to computing demand. SDT CEO Yoon Ji-won said, "The competitiveness of AI infrastructure depends on how much computation can be processed reliably using the same amount of electricity," adding, "Our design and manufacturing capabilities tailored to customer environments will offer an alternative for reducing the cooling burden of AI data centers."
Original Korean article: ETNews
English brief by Korea Wind Intelligence, koreawindintel.com
