In a bid to keep up with AI’s ever-increasing storage demands, the company believes that relying on traditional air cooling is as outdated as a 56k modem.

With AI servers guzzling more power than ever, the industry is finally realising that blowing hot air around is not the best way to keep things cool. AI servers are now growing at a compound annual growth rate of four to five times faster than the general-purpose variety, with each unit requiring 30TB of storage.

Until now, liquid-cooled AI servers have been hindered by SSD cooling issues, which involve cooling only one side while the other overheats.

Solidigm, however, has buddied up with Nvidia to create what they claim is the industry’s first cold-plate-cooled SSD, the D7-PS1010 E1.S. The company believes that attaching a proprietary cooling plate to the SSD will allow for fully liquid-cooled AI servers without the usual serviceability concerns.

According to Solidigm, this new technology will significantly reduce HVAC costs for AI server farms. The new SSD form factor will allow for hot swapping without the usual complications of draining the system.

The removal of fans will enable compact 1U server designs, eliminating the need for traditional air cooling. By completely embracing liquid cooling, data centres will no longer sound like airport runways.

The company’s proprietary casing ensures that even parts not directly in contact with the cold plate remain cool by efficiently dissipating heat throughout. If this technology works as advertised, it will eliminate the issue of SSDs overheating and failing under heavy workloads.

Solidigm is touting this latest liquid-cooled SSD as the next big thing in AI infrastructure. The D7-PS1010 E1.S will be available in two versions: a 9.5mm model with a liquid cooling plate and a bulkier 15mm air-cooled version for those who still prefer fans.