With the rapid development of the digital economy, the amount of data has exploded. As the core productivity of the digital economy, computing power has become the new focus of global strategic competition. The national major strategic project “Calculating the East and the West” came into being, and started the construction of national hub nodes of the computing power network in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia. Zhangjiakou and other 10 national data center clusters [1] .
The “number” in “East and West Calculation” refers to data, and “calculation” refers to computing power, that is, the ability to process data [2] . Guide the computing power in the east to the west in an orderly manner, and promote the coordinated linkage between the east and the west.
In terms of computing power, “East and West Calculation” has achieved very gratifying results: since the beginning of this year, among the 10 national data center clusters across the country, 25 new projects have been started, and the scale of the data center has reached 540,000 standard racks. The computing power exceeds every 135 billion floating-point operations per second, driving investment in all aspects of more than 190 billion yuan [3] .
However, in addition to the construction of computing power, “East and West Calculation” also has the goal of achieving green energy: the power utilization efficiency index of the data center is controlled within 1.25, and the utilization rate of renewable energy is significantly improved [4] . To achieve this, power architecture is critical.
Electricity is the core issue
Behind the “calculation of the east and the west” is not only the scale of investment and the industrial development opportunities it brings, but also the overall optimization of the energy efficiency of the data center [5] .
At present, most of the domestic data centers are located in the eastern region. Due to the increasing shortage of resources such as land and energy, the increasingly large-scale data centers are unsustainable in the eastern region. The western region of China is rich in resources, especially in renewable energy [6] .
However, the core problem of “East and West” is electricity. According to the forecast of relevant institutions, the current power consumption of data centers in China accounts for about 2% of the total electricity consumption of the whole society. It is estimated that by 2030, the energy consumption of data centers in China will increase from 160.9 billion kWh in 2018 will grow to 411.5 billion kWh in 2030 [7] .
It is also estimated that in 2025, the total electricity consumption of data centers in China will reach 385.2 billion kWh, accounting for about 4% of the electricity consumption of the whole society in China [8] .
Rui Chen, regional sales manager of Texas Instruments (TI), said that due to historical reasons, most of the current data centers are located in the developed regions of the central and eastern regions. Due to the natural lack of green energy supplies (hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, and solar energy) in the central and eastern regions, this is a problem for the central and eastern regions. The greening of data centers brings challenges of physical distance.
“The country is currently promoting the ‘East and West’ project, which is conducive to promoting green development. Increasing the layout of data centers in the west will greatly increase the proportion of green energy use, and consume green energy in the west.” Rui Chen said.
A link that is easily overlooked
The data center power system is often overlooked as a vital part of the “calculation of the east and the west”, but it is very important and directly affects the energy efficiency. So what is a data center power architecture?
The data center power architecture is divided into two distinct phases. The first stage is to transfer from the mains 220V or 380V AC to the power supply (12V or 48V DC) required by the IT system motherboard. This part is generally realized by a special PSU. The power level of the server PSU generally ranges from 550W to more than 3000W. The internal structure is divided into PFC and DCDC. The output voltage is generally 12V, and some specifications are 48V output.
The second stage is the onboard power supply required on the motherboard of the IT system. It can be composed of different power systems according to the different loads of the rear stage. If the latter stage is a high-power load such as CPU/GPU/FPGA/ASIC, it is generally powered by a multi-phase power supply system. If it is some smaller load points, the power supply is generally powered by DC/DC or LDO.
Many new power technologies, such as GaN, will also take the lead in data centers. Taking the server PSU as an example, compared with the traditional industrial AC-DC power supply, the specifications and topology are very similar, but there are three main technical differences.
First, higher efficiency is required. A stable and efficient power supply system is the basic guarantee to ensure the normal and continuous operation of the data center. Since the power consumption of a data center is staggering, a 1% increase in power efficiency corresponds to a considerable savings in the operating cost of the data center. The change in efficiency requirements from Platinum to Titanium (80PLUS specification) has gradually become a hard requirement for a new generation of server PSUs.
Second, the power density is greater. As the computing power of the data center becomes higher and higher, the demand for supporting power will also increase significantly. For server PSU suppliers, if the power can be increased within the same power supply size, it can be achieved without expanding the computer room. Meet higher computing power requirements. Therefore, under the same form factor, TI has greatly improved the power density, expanding the power range to 1800W~3600W, and even a server power supply of up to 5000W.
Third, the load response is faster. As the computing power of the server CPU gradually increases, the response speed to transient current is also getting higher and higher, so the server PSU is required to support higher load jumps, from the past 1A/us to the current 2.5A/us, or even higher.
The important power of “numbering the east and counting the west”
Infrastructure is the key in “calculating the east and the west”, and there are also many challenges in the construction of the power system of the data center. Improved power efficiency has led to the development of power supply units (PSUs) to provide high energy efficiency, fast transient response, high power density, and greater power supply capacity, which requires more complex power supply topologies, higher real-time control performance In order to speed up the execution of control loops, reduce power consumption when using wide bandgap power devices such as GaN, while maintaining higher switching frequencies.
Therefore, in order to better serve the “East and West”, the world’s advanced companies are contributing to this. Texas Instruments has three R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in China. Many of its power products are in line with the needs of data centers.
Jack Chen, regional sales manager of Texas Instruments, emphasized that Texas Instruments not only listens to the needs of local customers, but also has TI branches in central and western regions such as Chengdu and Xi’an, and insists on timely, efficient and reliable on-site technical support services to empower customers to succeed. .
Texas Instruments is a leading global semiconductor company specializing in the design, manufacture, test and sales of analog and embedded semiconductors, with a portfolio of approximately 80,000 products that help approximately 100,000 customers efficiently manage power, sense and transmit accurately data and provide core control or processing in its design.
Texas Instruments, as one of the main suppliers of power supply for server boards in the industry, its C2000 
Real-time MCUs offer features such as low-latency signal chains, high pulse-width modulation (PWM) flexibility and resolution, high control loop speeds, and high switching frequencies; the digital approach to multiphase power products allows for greater flexibility in design and debugging, unique Some DCAP+ topologies have improved the dynamic performance of the converter, and the efficiency has increased to more than 95%; the new generation of PoL products have significantly improved in terms of product size and switching efficiency; PCle redriver products have low power consumption and high cost performance, ranging from PCIE Gen3 to Gen5 There are corresponding products; eFuse products have many advantages over traditional physical fuses, such as faster protection action, more accurate current limit points, and recoverable protection. They are mainly used for the protection of hard disks, fans and PCIE peripherals in servers. Improve system reliability.
It is worth mentioning that Texas Instruments supports all over the world, with 11 wafer fabs and 7 assembly and test plants in 15 manufacturing sites around the world, so it can reliably deliver the high-quality products customers need, when they need them. Quality product. Over the past few decades, Texas Instruments has been advancing IC technology and improving the ability to reliably manufacture ICs in high volume. Making chip technology smaller, more efficient, more reliable, and more affordable will help the layout and development of Eastern Digital and Western Computing.
Author: Fu Bin
References:
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