Fast Field Trips: Supercomputers

Narration:

Transcript:

So as you can tell, it's really loud in here. This is because of all the fans, all the servers and all the other equipment that generates a lot of noise. It’s best to wear some earplugs when you come inside of this area.

Here we have about five different computing systems that provide data analytics, climate simulation and various other instruments that scientists, engineers, and researchers use. These computers provide about 6.8 petaflops worth of data. To provide cooling for the immense computing power that generates a lot of heat, we have a cooling system, a chilled-water system, that provides about 43- to 46-degree Fahrenheit water that comes in, feeds the air handling unit and blows underneath of a raised floor. This component here is basically a heat exchanger. The chilled water will run through the servers, pick up the heat, come through this unit and return it back to the main system. So that cycles over and over and over, and that's how we're able to maintain these computers without overheating.