Advanced Energy (NASDAQ: AEIS) announced that its Artesyn Embedded Power product group is introducing a new Open Compute Project Open Rack version 3 (OCP ORv3) power shelf, designed to support the move to 48-volt data center infrastructure.
As observed by the company, "Traditionally, data center racks have used 12-volt power shelves, but higher performance compute and storage platforms demand more power, which results in very high current. Moving from 12-volt to 48-volt power distribution reduces the current draw by a factor of four and reduces conduction losses by a factor of 16. This results in significantly better thermal performance, smaller busbars and increased efficiency."
The company says its power shelf's new standards-based design has been developed in collaboration with major OCP users, and is intended to create a common power platform for multiple customers across deployments, with the hope of increasing adoption and creating economies-of-scale to benefit the whole OCP community.
The company expects its new OCP ORv3 power shelf will be a key technology enabler in the growing adoption of 48-volt rack power distribution in hyperscale data centers. Artesyn products deliver rack power solutions in the $1.9 billion data center computing embedded power market, which is fast-growing thanks to the acceleration of data generation and use, growing cloud adoption across enterprise IT, and an increased workload driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“We are highly engaged in the development of OCP Open Rack standards and specifications, with input from multiple leading hyperscale data center customers,” said Brian Korn, senior director, data center solutions for Advanced Energy’s Artesyn Embedded Power product group. “We are enabling the market adoption of this next generation 48-volt power distribution architecture through collaboration across multiple companies to address shared challenges, offering OCP compatible solutions while retaining our differentiating intellectual property.”
The launch of the new ORV3 power shelf is aligned with the OCP Virtual Summit, from May 12 to 15, 2020. The company has been heavily involved in the development of previous Open Rack interoperability specifications and OCP compatible solutions.
This is the fourth year the company will be participating in the OCP Summit event. This year, its senior technical marketing director, Harry Soin, will be presenting on the 1OU Shelf Architecture in the session, “Deep Dive on Open Rack V3 Power Shelves” at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 14.