Texas Instruments (TI) and NVIDIA have introduced a special, forward-looking partnership to create a new wave of engineering innovation within the energy and technology domains of artificial intelligence.
This combination will address the rapidly growing power needs of future AI data centers which is estimated to grow from current 100kW per rack to beyond 1 MW soon.
The joint effort will focus on the development and deployment of 800V high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power systems for data center servers.
This novel design is a radical departure from traditional 48V systems that would otherwise require a prohibitive amount of copper wiring—498 pounds for a 1MW rack—making them untenable for AI computational needs of the future.
Moving to an 800V HVDC rails design, TI and NVIDIA target higher power density and efficiency. The service will support both the growth of power-efficient racks as data center needs increase, while reducing the physical footprint, weight and complexity of power delivery infrastructure.
“This partnership is a game changer,” said Jeffrey Morroni, a TI Fellow and director of power management R&D at Kilby Labs. “AI data centers are stretching the boundaries of power as far as one can imagine,” he said. “TI’s power and conversion knowledge with NVIDIA’s AI leadership are revolutionizing what’s possible to maintain the phenomenal growth in AI computing with 800V high-voltage DC architectures.”
In a similar vein, Gabriele Gorla, VP of System Engineering at Nvidia, emphasized the importance of semiconductor power systems for constructing high-performance AI infrastructure.
“With suppliers, NVIDIA is in discussion to create an 800 volt High Voltage DC (HVDC) architecture for efficient supply for the next generation of high performance, large scale AI data centers,” Gorla noted.
“AI infrastructure partnership “This partnership is a significant milestone in the development of AI infrastructure. Efficient power distribution systems are critical to maintaining rapid progress in AI, without facing unsustainable energy consumption issues. TI’s successful power management knowledge and NVIDIA’s AI computing knowledge will bring about a new era of energy-efficient and scalable AI data centers, with potential to enable a range of innovations for the future.
