Supermicro L2A Sidecar CDU — Liquid-to-Air Rack Cooling Without Facility Water

Specifications

Overview

The Supermicro Liquid-to-Air (L2A) Sidecar CDU is a coolant distribution unit that closes the liquid cooling loop into the air rather than into a facility water system. Coolant carries heat away from the cold plates; the sidecar then rejects that heat to the surrounding air, using the data center's existing air-cooled infrastructure instead of a cooling tower or a primary facility water loop.

The practical effect is that an operator can liquid-cool high-TDP racks without a facility water project: there is no chiller plant to add, no facility loop to plumb and no water treatment to plan. Supermicro offers the L2A sidecar alongside in-rack CDUs, in-row CDUs and rear door heat exchangers, so it can be deployed as a bridging step between pure air cooling and a full facility-water liquid deployment.

Key Benefits

Liquid-to-air rejection removes the dependence on facility water. No cooling tower or water loop means no civil or plumbing project. Sidecar form factor deploys next to an existing rack. Bridges air and liquid cooling so dense racks can be added without a full plant rebuild.

Applications

Air-cooled data centers adding their first high-density AI or HPC racks, edge and colocation sites without facility water, deployments where permitting or water availability rules out a cooling tower, and phased transitions to full liquid cooling.

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