zEnterprise mainframe can be water-cooled

IBM’s new, huge mainframe that becomes available tomorrow is cooling data center hotspots with water – something that an IBM mainframe hasn’t seen in 15 years.

The zEnterprise or z196 can be shipped with the water cooling heat exchanger as an optional add-on, and IBM says that the system can reduce overall energy consumption by up to 12% and won’t change the data center’s footprint. In addition, according to IBM, the water cooling connects directly to existing chilled water systems and does not require an external water conditioning system. The mainframe is the first since the ES/9000 family to utilize water cooling. Big Blue launched its Rear Door heat exchangers for distributed servers back in June 2005.

Take a virtual tour of the water-cooled z196, and learn more about the z196 mainframe.

Below is the rear of the z196 (image courtesy of IBM) showing the water cooling unit: