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Edge Campus
Modular data halls on one power and coolant spine, designed to be repeated rather than enlarged.
What it is
The mature-site tier — modular data halls on one power and coolant spine, designed to be repeated rather than enlarged.
The mature-site tier. Modular data halls on one power and coolant spine, designed to be repeated rather than enlarged.
The design rule underneath it is that nothing about the module changes as the campus grows. The hall, the coolant plant, the distribution and the commissioning sequence are the same at the first module and the last. What grows is the spine they sit on — which is why the second module is planned to take a fraction of the time the first one does.
Compute is designed to stay local. Only results and control traffic are designed to cross the uplink, which is what makes an off-grid site with satellite backhaul a workable place to put a dense rack line in the first place.
Specification
What is settled, and what is not
The list below is what the unit is. The figures that go with it are held back until each one has a named basis and an as-of date — Xalant is pre-formation with no live sites, so a number here would be a design target dressed as a measurement. Each row appears on this page the day its figure clears.
What the specification will describe
- Cooling
- Direct-to-chip liquid
- Growth
- Another module on the same spine
- Load stated at
- District total, never per hall
- Power
- Co-located on-site generation
- Path off site
- Satellite gateway on the same parcel
- Rack class
- Withheld until a vendor spec can be cited
- First module
- The containerized unit, unchanged
- Utility
- Nothing on the pad is designed to depend on one
- Module sizeThe block a campus grows by. Growth is another module, never a bigger one.
- Mature campus IT loadThe district total a mature site is designed toward. Stated for the district, never per hall.
- Liquid-cooled rack design loadWhat a direct-to-chip rack is designed to take, which is what sets the coolant plant.
- Design PUEThe liquid-cooled figure, which is lower than the precision-air figure the pod uses.
Design rule
A campus is not a bigger data hall. It is the same hall, more times.
Everything about the module is fixed at the first one — the enclosure, the coolant plant, the distribution, the commissioning sequence. What grows is the spine they land on, which is why the second module is planned to take a fraction of the time the first one does.
Design intent, not an operating record
Density
How a campus grows
A liquid-cooled rack line is what lets a hall carry a dense workload without the hall getting bigger. The rack class Xalant designs around names a third party’s commercial product, so it is withheld: naming it here would imply a supply relationship that has not been agreed. It is published the day it can ship with that vendor’s own published specification, a link to it, and a fetch date.
The first module
The same enclosure as Edge in a Box, on a pad with generation beside it. The site is earning before the spine is fully built out.
The spine
Power and coolant runs, sized for the mature campus from the start. This is the part that is expensive to change later, so it is the part that is not changed later.
Another module
Growth is another module on the spine. The hall does not get bigger and the coolant plant is not redesigned.
A mature campus
A block of the same hall. The load is stated for the district as a whole, because that is the number that means something.
Questions
Asked and answered
- How does a campus grow?
- By adding another module to the same spine. The hall does not get bigger and the coolant plant is not redesigned; the power and coolant run is extended and a module lands on it.
- Why is the load stated for the district and not per hall?
- Because a per-hall figure invites a reader to multiply it by the number of halls they can see in a drawing. The district total is the number that means something, so it is the only one published.
- Which rack class is this designed around?
- The rack class is withheld. Naming a vendor's commercial product as the class Xalant builds implies a supply relationship that has not been agreed, so it ships only with that vendor's own published specification, a link to it and a fetch date — or not at all.
- Is the campus liquid-cooled throughout?
- The campus tier is designed direct-to-chip liquid. The containerized tier is designed N+1 precision air with the pipework for liquid. Which one a site gets follows from the rack density the workload needs.
- Can a campus start as one containerized unit?
- Yes, and that is the usual route. The first module is the same enclosure as Edge in a Box, so the site is earning before the spine is fully built out.
Reference render
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