Officially labeled the IBM eServer Rear Door Heat eXchanger, but dubbed by IBM with the spunkier moniker of "Cool Blue," the component is designed to fit onto the eServer Enterprise rack as a replacement for a standard rear cover.
Inside Cool Blue, sealed tubes filled with circulating chilled water remove up to 55 percent of the heat -- dissipating as many as 50,000 BTUs -- that's generated in a fully populated rack, said IBM. The water can be tapped from the datacenter's existing air conditioning system's water supply.
The four-inch-thick Cool Blue targets datacenters that have reached their cooling limits with traditional air conditioning. By adding the unit, said IBM, racks can be fully populated, saving potentially expensive floor space as well as eliminating the need to add more air conditioning capacity.
"The Heat eXchanger allowed us to get the density we've been aiming for without increasing our cooling requirements or costs," said Volker Machmeier, the technical director for HypoVereinsbank, Germany's second-largest bank, in a statement.
Cool Blue is available now in the U.S. at prices starting at $4,299.