Infineon promises 12kW PSUs for next generation of power-hungry AI servers

Not long ago an entire rack of systems might consume 10kW or less of power. Today, that's barely enough to run a single GPU server, and those systems are only expected to get hotter and greedier for power amid the AI boom. To keep those GPUs adequately fed, Infineon is developing new, high-efficiency power supply units (PSUs) …

[lnLog]

The sooner this 'AI' bubble bursts the better, and dumps the ~80% of cryptocurrency-esk wastefulness of proposed inane use cases.

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps a tax on all energy use that cannot be demonstrated to objectively be for the greater good? It would be quite modest for the home user but very painful for the techbros.

[hoola]

The waste of energy and resources on this AI shite is just beyond belief. It is far worse than what is wasted storing cat videos and pointless messages. There are so many better things that could be done.

[Evil Scot]

Don't Dis the Cats...

Not me that downvoted.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Out?

What does the output look like? If there's an intermediate 12V, that's going to be 1000 Amps. If it's piped right into the GPU, about 10000 Amps total. Those are big wires to manage. Imagine not torquing everything down properly and having an instant pool of molten metal burning through the floor.

[short]

Re: Out?

Intermediate is almost certainly 48V (ish) not 12V, and the wires are sodding great busbars. You can drop from 48V to sub-Volt for processors in a single step and at good efficiencies.

A thousand Amps is troubling and needs doing carefully, but it's easy enough to get the connector systems for that.

Looking at the Infineon press release - this isn't anything that magical, they say the 8 and 12Kw PSUs have the same power density as the exiting 3.3kW ones (100W per cubic inch, compared with the existing 95W/in^3). So yeah, they're bigger, and no doubt incrementally better, but they're not another step forwards like using GaN got us.

https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/promopages/AI-PSU/

Still a brutal amount of power, mind.

[A Non e-mouse]

The 5 x 60A supplies isn't too hard to solve: You just start sending three-phase power to your racks. Of course, you do start to get more fun with 415v appearing across terminals. But if you've got thousands of amps flowing around, 415v is the least of your worries.

[Neil Barnes]

Nah, you're not thinking this through... 33kv distribution cables aren't thick; you just need ten to twenty thousand systems - depending on operating voltages - in series...

[Paul Crawford]

A big factor in both SiC and GaN devices is they can run hotter than Si or similar, and that makes it easier to get the heat away at a rate they don't burn out over.

[Androgynous Cow Herd]

I had a power supply that size for years

But it was labeled “TIG welder”

[ITMA]

Re: I had a power supply that size for years

I've seen one of those used by a guy fabricating some bench frames for a company I used to work for out of 25mm square tubular stock.

Was only a small one which plugged into a standard UK 13A socket.

Unfortunately, the nearest socket wasn't close enough and he didn't fully unwind the small 13A drum extension he had.

Oh boy, was the ensuing spontaneous combustion of the extension drum fun to watch!!! LOL