Report of the Integrated Design Charrette

The report details a whole-systems approach to data center design, focusing on reducing 'native loads' (CPUs and servers) to create compounding energy savings upstream in cooling and power systems. It proposes a 'Hyperserver' concept that reduces power from 128W to 21W, advocates for liquid cooling to replace inefficient fans, and recommends onsite AC power generation with the utility grid as backup. The document argues that current industry incentives, such as charging by square footage, are perverse and should be replaced by metrics based on power density and actual lifecycle costs.

• Computer power supplies are identified as a major source of inefficiency, often operating at only 15–40 percent of full load, which results in efficiencies of 50–65 percent or lower.
• The report argues that the value of each watt delivered to a server is significantly higher than the cost of the electricity alone, ranging from $4/W to $20/W depending on the 'delivery factor' and local electricity rates.
• Liquid cooling is recommended as a necessary transition to handle increasing chip heat densities, as water can conduct approximately 3,467 times as much heat as the same volume of air.
• Cooling efficiency can be improved by 50–100 percent (reducing energy costs by 30–50%) with an annual return on investment of 40–400 percent, without decreasing reliability.
• The recommended facility power supply is an onsite AC generation system with minimum double redundancy, utilizing the utility grid only as a backup to eliminate 50 percent of current system losses.
• The report advocates for 'downstream-to-upstream' thinking, where reducing energy use at the native load (the server) creates compounding savings that allow all upstream support systems (cooling, power) to be smaller and cheaper.

APA

Eubank, H., Swisher, J., Burns, C., Seal, J., & Emerson, B. (2003). Report of the Integrated Design Charrette. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E03-08_HighPerformanceDataCenters.pdf

Chicago

Eubank, Huston, Joel Swisher, Cameron Burns, Jen Seal, and Ben Emerson. Report of the Integrated Design Charrette. RMI, 2003. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E03-08_HighPerformanceDataCenters.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Eubank |first1=Huston |last2=Swisher |first2=Joel |last3=Burns |first3=Cameron |last4=Seal |first4=Jen |last5=Emerson |first5=Ben |title=Report of the Integrated Design Charrette |publisher=RMI |date=2003 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E03-08_HighPerformanceDataCenters.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{eubank2003report, author = {Eubank, Huston and Swisher, Joel and Burns, Cameron and Seal, Jen and Emerson, Ben}, title = {{Report of the Integrated Design Charrette}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2003}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E03-08_HighPerformanceDataCenters.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }