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Edge in a Box
A containerized micro data center: white space, cooling, power and uplink as pre-integrated modules.
What it is
A containerized micro data center — white space, cooling, power and uplink as pre-integrated modules.
A containerized micro data center: white space, cooling, power and uplink as pre-integrated modules. It is the smallest unit on the Xalant ladder and the one every larger unit is built out of.
The bottleneck this answers is not chips. It is the three things a chip needs and cannot get quickly: a site, power on that site, and a path off it. A conventional build treats those as three programmes with three timelines, and the longest of them sets the date. Integrating them into one enclosure is what moves the date.
Every element ships as a factory-integrated container — site work is pads, conduit and connections, not construction.
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
- Enclosure
- Factory-integrated, on a container footprint
- Cooling
- N+1 precision air, pre-piped for liquid
- Power
- Ride-through, dual-feed distribution
- Fire
- Early detection, clean-agent suppression
- Security
- Access control and camera coverage
- Path off site
- Meet-me room, satellite first, fibre later
- Site work
- Pads, conduit and connections
- Utility
- Nothing on the pad is designed to depend on one
- IT design loadThe load the whole container is sized around, from the rack line to the switchgear.
- White spaceThe footprint a site host has to find room for on a pad.
- RacksHow much of a rack line fits in one container before a second one is needed.
- Per-rack design loadWhat can go in a rack before the cooling line has to change.
- Design PUEHow much electrical load the site needs for every unit of IT load.
- Free-cooling thresholdThe outside temperature below which the plant is designed to cool on ambient air alone.
- UPS ride-throughHow long the hall is designed to hold up while power transfers.
Design rule
Every element ships as a factory-integrated container — site work is pads, conduit and connections, not construction.
That is the whole design. A conventional build treats site, power and the path off it as three programmes, and the longest one sets the date. Integrating them into one enclosure is what moves the date.
Design intent, not an operating record
Against a conventional build
The difference is what is on the critical path
No duration is compared here. That comparison needs a public source for the interconnection queue and for the fibre lead time in each market, and there is not one in this repository yet — so what is compared is how the two are built.
| Aspect | A conventional build | Edge in a Box |
|---|---|---|
| What sets the date | The grid interconnection queue, and it is set by the utility rather than by the project. | The local approval path. Everything else is designed to be inside the fence line. |
| What happens on the pad | Construction — shell, fit-out, plant, commissioning, in sequence. | Pads, conduit and connections. The enclosure arrives integrated. |
| Where the risk sits | On site, where a delay in one trade delays the trades after it. | In the factory, where the same build is repeated and the site work is short. |
| Growing it later | A second project, with its own design and its own approvals. | Another module on the same spine, from the same drawings. |
| If the load changes | The building is already the size it is. | The unit is the container, so the step size is one container. |
| Power | A utility connection, with a queue position and a tariff. | On-site generation. Nothing on the pad is designed to depend on a public utility. |
The pod
What ships in every container
IT white space
The rack line with hot and cold aisle containment. Everything else in the enclosure is sized from it.
N+1 precision air
Redundant cooling, designed for free cooling on ambient air below the design threshold and pre-piped for direct-to-chip liquid.
UPS and battery room
Ride-through and dual-feed distribution, with early smoke detection and clean-agent suppression in the same room.
Switchgear and genset tie-in
Where on-site generation lands. Gensets, storage and solar are designed onto one bus.
Meet-me room and uplink
Where the satellite path meets the terrestrial network, and where fibre lands in a later phase.
Deployment
Five steps to a running pad
Steps two and three are where the time goes, and only one of them is ours.
Assess the pad
Ground, access, setbacks and where the power lands. A day on site, not a survey programme.
Permit
The local approval path. Its duration belongs to the jurisdiction and sits outside every figure Xalant quotes.
Prepare
Pads, conduit and connections. This is the only construction on the critical path.
Land the module
The enclosure arrives integrated. What happens on the pad is connection, not assembly.
Commission
Cooling and the rack line are commissioned together, then acceptance is run against the published design specification.
Questions
Asked and answered
- Is this a shipping container with racks in it?
- It is a purpose-built enclosure on a container footprint. White space, cooling, power distribution, ride-through and the meet-me room are all integrated in the factory, so what happens on the pad is pads, conduit and connections rather than construction.
- What does the site have to provide?
- A prepared pad, a route for conduit, and a power connection from the on-site generation. Nothing on the pad is designed to depend on a public utility.
- Can it take liquid-cooled racks?
- The cooling is specified as N+1 precision air with the pipework and floor loading for direct-to-chip liquid. A rack line that needs liquid from the start is the Edge Campus tier rather than this one.
- Do the published figures mean a site is running today?
- No. Xalant is pre-formation and has no live sites. Every figure on this page is a design target, and none of them is published here until its basis and its as-of date are cleared.
- Is there a datasheet?
- The one-pager is ungated and published as soon as the spec figures clear. Until then, ask and we will send what is settled and say plainly what is not.
Reference render
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