Next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) chips routinely exceed 1000 W Thermal Design Power (TDP). Simply put, standard air cooling cannot manage these extreme heat loads. The alternative — retrofitting entire data center facilities with chilled water loops — requires extensive amounts of capital and time. To solve this problem, Google developed Brazos, a rack-mounted, closed-loop liquid-to-air cooling system that lets you deploy high-density, liquid-cooled equipment inside existing air-cooled environments. Brazos is generally available, and our manufacturing suppliers are ready to engage the broader industry to market and produce the Google Brazos design.
Data center facility updates can take months. Brazos breaks with this by allowing simple, one-rack-at-a-time installations. By separating the internal-to-IT liquid loop from the facility water supply, Brazos delivers high-performance liquid cooling with the operational simplicity of standard air systems.
Brazos functions as a self-contained liquid ecosystem, capturing heat via liquid at the component level and rejecting it into the data center's hot aisle using high-efficiency liquid-to-air heat exchangers. This plug-and-play architecture can be rapidly installed in any legacy facility that has sufficient power and standard air handling.
Brazos is a modular system that includes three cooling units and integrated rack manifolds, all engineered for high reliability. Each modular chassis occupies 11 Open Units (OU) of rack height and interfaces with standard Open Compute Project (OCP) ORv3 form-factor racks. Key design and performance parameters include:
The mechanical design prioritizes field serviceability. The chassis sits on low-friction slides so it can easily be extended for rapid component access. Crucial components like pumps and fans are designed as hot-swappable, field-replaceable units (FRUs) to minimize mean time to repair (MTTR).
In the coming months, we will formally open-source the technical specifications, design principles, and visual assets of Brazos through industry forums. As part of a broader infrastructure portfolio that continues to leverage waterless air-cooled systems alongside liquid cooling, Brazos represents one of many innovations we are contributing to the open hardware ecosystem. We invite system architects, manufacturers, and thermal engineers to evaluate these designs to scale rack-mounted cooling infrastructure for the high-power computing demands of the future.
To optimize your legacy data center infrastructure for liquid cooling, follow our upcoming open-source design submissions through the Open Compute Project forum.