Thermal testing of hybrid data center cooling systems

Abstract

Systems and methods for cooling in data centers are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, a heat load group (TLB) system for testing a hybrid data center cooling system includes one or more thermal features to generate heat within the TLB system, and includes one or more hybrid cooling features to provide an air and liquid cooling response to such heat generated by the one or more thermal features.

Description

[0001] Cross-references to related applications

[0002] This is PCT application No. 17 / 371,878, filed on July 9, 2021, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all intents and purposes. Technical Field

[0003] At least one embodiment relates to a cooling system, including systems and methods for operating such cooling systems. In at least one embodiment, such a cooling system can be used in a data center containing one or more racks or computing servers. Background Technology

[0004] Data center cooling systems use fans to circulate air through server components. Some supercomputers or other high-capacity computers may use water or other cooling systems, instead of air cooling systems, to draw heat from the server components or racks within the data center to areas outside the data center. Cooling systems may include coolers within the data center area, which may also include areas outside the data center itself. Additionally, areas outside the data center may include cooling towers or other external heat exchangers that receive heated coolant from the data center and dissipate the heat to the environment (or external cooling medium) via forced air or other means. The cooled coolant is then recirculated back to the data center. Coolers and cooling towers together form a cooling facility. Attached Figure Description

[0005] Figure 1 An exemplary data center cooling system is shown, which is deployed in part based on test results from a heat load group system to test the hybrid data center cooling system described in at least one embodiment;

[0006] Figure 2 Server-level features associated with a thermal load group system for testing a hybrid data center cooling system, according to at least one embodiment, are shown;

[0007] Figure 3 Rack-level features associated with a thermal load group system for testing a hybrid data center cooling system, according to at least one embodiment, are shown;

[0008] Figure 4 Data center-level characteristics associated with a thermal load group system for testing a hybrid data center cooling system, according to at least one embodiment, are illustrated.

[0009] Figure 5 The diagram illustrates a relationship according to at least one embodiment. Figure 2-4 Methods associated with data center cooling systems;

[0010] Figure 6 A distributed system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0011] Figure 7 An exemplary data center according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0012] Figure 8 A client-server network according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0013] Figure 9 A computer network according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0014] Figure 10A A networked computer system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0015] Figure 10B A networked computer system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0016] Figure 10C A networked computer system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0017] Figure 11 The illustration shows one or more components of a system environment according to at least one embodiment, in which the service can be provided as a third-party network service;

[0018] Figure 12 A cloud computing environment according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0019] Figure 13 This illustrates a set of functional abstraction layers provided by a cloud computing environment according to at least one embodiment;

[0020] Figure 14 A supercomputer at the chip level is illustrated according to at least one embodiment;

[0021] Figure 15 A supercomputer at the rack module level is shown according to at least one embodiment;

[0022] Figure 16 A supercomputer at the rack level is shown according to at least one embodiment;

[0023] Figure 17 A supercomputer at the entire system level is illustrated according to at least one embodiment;

[0024] Figure 18A The inference and / or training logic according to at least one embodiment is illustrated;

[0025] Figure 18BThe inference and / or training logic according to at least one embodiment is illustrated;

[0026] Figure 19 The training and deployment of a neural network according to at least one embodiment are illustrated;

[0027] Figure 20 The architecture of a network system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0028] Figure 21 The architecture of a network system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0029] Figure 22 A control plane protocol stack according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0030] Figure 23 A user plane protocol stack according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0031] Figure 24 The components of a core network according to at least one embodiment are shown;

[0032] Figure 25 Components of a system supporting Network Function Virtualization (NFV) according to at least one embodiment are shown;

[0033] Figure 26 A processing system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0034] Figure 27 A computer system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0035] Figure 28 A system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0036] Figure 29 An exemplary integrated circuit according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0037] Figure 30 A computing system according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0038] Figure 31 An APU according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0039] Figure 32 A CPU according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0040] Figure 33 An exemplary accelerator integration slice according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0041] Figures 34A-34B An exemplary graphics processor according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0042] Figure 35A A graphics core according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0043] Figure 35B A GPGPU according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0044] Figure 36A A parallel processor according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0045] Figure 36B A processing cluster according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0046] Figure 36C A graphics multiprocessor according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0047] Figure 37 A software stack of a programming platform according to at least one embodiment is shown;

[0048] Figure 38 The illustration shows an embodiment according to at least one of the embodiments. Figure 37 The CUDA implementation of the software stack;

[0049] Figure 39 The illustration shows an embodiment according to at least one of the embodiments. Figure 37 The ROCm implementation of the software stack;

[0050] Figure 40 The illustration shows an embodiment according to at least one of the embodiments. Figure 37 The OpenCL implementation of the software stack;

[0051] Figure 41 Software supported by a programming platform according to at least one embodiment is shown; and

[0052] Figure 42 A method for using at least one embodiment is shown. Figure 37-40 Compiled code executed on the programming platform. Detailed Implementation

[0053] In at least one embodiment, it is possible to utilize, such as Figure 1The exemplary data center 100 shown has a cooling system that has undergone the improvements described herein. In at least one embodiment, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding, but the inventive concept can be practiced without one or more of these specific details. In at least one embodiment, the data center cooling system can respond to sudden high thermal demands caused by varying computational loads in today's computing components. In at least one embodiment, because these demands vary or tend to range between minimum and maximum values ​​of different cooling demands, an appropriate cooling system must be used to meet these demands economically. In at least one embodiment, a liquid cooling system can be used for medium to high cooling demands. In at least one embodiment, high cooling demands are economically met through localized immersion cooling. In at least one embodiment, these different cooling demands also reflect different thermal characteristics of the data center. In at least one embodiment, the heat generated from these components, servers, and racks is cumulatively referred to as thermal characteristics or cooling demands, because the cooling demands must fully address the thermal characteristics.

[0054] In at least one embodiment, the heat feature of the computing device differs from the thermal feature because the thermal feature does not provide any computing, memory storage, or switching aspects. In at least one embodiment, such a heat feature generates heat through at least one heating element and therefore has a cooling requirement. In at least one embodiment, one or more hybrid cooling features of the TLB system include air cooling (using a fan, such as a fan wall) and liquid cooling (using a coolant that can be connected to an auxiliary or local cooling circuit with other coolant or refrigerant cooling circuits).

[0055] In at least one embodiment, information collected from such tests applied to a hybrid data center cooling system may include the rated cooling capacity or volume of one or more cooling functions used (such as air cooling, refrigerant-supported cooling, refrigerant-supported cooling, or a combination of such cooling functions). In at least one embodiment, such rated cooling capacity or volume may be associated with the heat generated from the individual heaters of the TLB rack, the amount of reduction in such heat generated, or any heat generated that cannot be reduced, to inform the limitations and capabilities of such a hybrid data center cooling system deployed in a production environment.

[0056] In at least one embodiment, a thermal load group (TLB) has thermal characteristics, while the TLB system has both thermal and hybrid cooling characteristics, disclosing the testing of a hybrid data center cooling system prior to deployment or commissioning in a production environment data center. However, in at least one embodiment, TLB and TLB system are used interchangeably to describe the heating and cooling characteristics as part of a test environment. In at least one embodiment, results from such testing can be used for a data center liquid cooling system that also includes air cooling in a production environment data center. In at least one embodiment, the TLB system can be a form factor of one or more TLB racks. In at least one embodiment, the TLB system includes a TLB that may include at least one thermal characteristic (such as a heating element) and at least one hybrid cooling characteristic (such as a flow controller, cold plate, and fan wall).

[0057] In at least one embodiment, testing using a TLB system can generate different levels of heat from one or more thermal features and achieve different types of air and liquid cooling responses to emphasize the hybrid data center cooling system in different ways within a test environment, for understanding its maximum cooling capacity or volume in terms of air and liquid cooling. Subsequently, in at least one embodiment, the hybrid data center cooling system can be used in a production environment with computing devices such as graphics processing units (GPUs), switches, dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs), or central processing units (CPUs), rather than thermal features. In at least one embodiment, the test results then allow for the establishment of a range of generated heat that can be addressed by the hybrid data center cooling system, so that aspects exceeding that range can be addressed in other ways, or plans can be developed to prevent such events from occurring.

[0058] In at least one embodiment, at least one power controller (such as one from a power distribution unit (PDU)) may be adjustable to generate heat output for the TLB system using one or more thermal features. In at least one embodiment, this can be achieved by providing more power to cause heating elements to generate more heat from the TLB system. In at least one embodiment, at least one cooling controller may include a flow controller or air controller adjustable to result in a cooling response to such heat. In at least one embodiment, such heat generation and such cooling response may enable the use of hybrid cooling features in a test environment to stress the hybrid data center cooling system to evaluate its capacity or capability before deployment to a production environment. In at least one embodiment, the TLB implements the replication of heat generation from computing devices in a production environment.

[0059] In at least one embodiment, the features of this paper address a problem addressed by rack-sized load groups that can be used to test liquid-cooled systems, but only for tuning across an entire data center in a production environment. In at least one embodiment, such testing can be handled differently for data center-sized cooling systems rather than rack-sized load groups. In at least one embodiment, such rack-sized load groups can be provided to test air-cooled systems, but a production data center can use a variety of different cooling media addressed by TLBs and hybrid data center cooling systems in the test environment. Furthermore, in at least one embodiment, the features of this paper provide the ability to test hybrid data center cooling systems ranging from server-level to multi-rack levels using a combination of liquid (coolant and aerosol) and air cooling.

[0060] In at least one embodiment, the features described herein are implemented in part based on their performance in a test environment to commission a hybrid of air cooling and liquid cooling for a data center. In at least one embodiment, the test environment has a TLB with a form factor of one or more TLB racks, the TLB rack having groups of heat loads capable of receiving both air and liquid cooling. In at least one embodiment, such a TLB is also an integrated commissioning TLB rack, which may include power supplies for one or more thermal features and for one or more hybrid cooling features. In at least one embodiment, a central power rack may be provided to power the TLB and one or more hybrid cooling functions. In at least one embodiment, the individual TLBs can then be powered via standard data center cabling or via a bus located at the center of such TLB racks.

[0061] In at least one embodiment, the air and liquid-cooled TLB includes sensors and control units for local and remote monitoring of generated heat and cooling response, as well as other aspects suitable for hybrid data center cooling systems. In at least one embodiment, the control unit has features via built-in hardware or network devices. In at least one embodiment, each TLB within the TLB rack may include a dedicated TLB rack-mounted coolant distribution unit (CDU) having a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger (L2LHX) for coolant or a liquid-to-refrigerant heat exchanger (L2RHX) for interfacing between coolant and refrigerant. Furthermore, in at least one embodiment, in addition to coolant-based cooling, the CDU may be associated with a fan wall for air cooling.

[0062] In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant may contact the coolant to allow the refrigerant to receive heat from the coolant, which previously circulated through the cold plates of the thermal feature; or to allow the main coolant to receive heat from auxiliary or local coolants in the corresponding cooling loop. In at least one embodiment, all such features represent a hybrid cooling feature for replicating the deployment of a hybrid data center cooling system with air- and liquid-cooled servers in a production data center. In at least one embodiment, network equipment and power distribution units (PDUs) may be present for controlling the thermal features and providing network and data center power connections to the control unit and such hybrid cooling features.

[0063] In at least one embodiment, the CDU is a rack server with a shape factor of 1 unit (U) – or 3 units (3U). In at least one embodiment, the CDU is supplied with coolant from a corresponding auxiliary coolant cooling circuit that interfaces with the main refrigerant or coolant cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, the corresponding auxiliary cooling circuit circulates through a cold plate to extract heat from at least one thermal feature.

[0064] In at least one embodiment, such a feature reduces the working fluid temperature between the refrigerant and coolant through refrigerant evaporation, as is used in CDUs with L2RHX. In at least one embodiment, such features allow for the removal of a greater amount of heat from the liquid-cooled cold plate without increasing the fluid rate beyond the limits specified for such cold plates, as such increases could corrode or damage the cold plate. In at least one embodiment, the OCU (Overhead Condenser Unit) allows for the removal of heat from the test environment, or a central cooler system with a main cooling circuit, an auxiliary cooling circuit, and one or more rack-mounted coolant distribution units (CDUs) can be used.

[0065] In at least one embodiment, the CDU, particularly L2RHX, uses a refrigerant or engineered fluid, such as... or some The engineering fluid includes an auxiliary coolant circulating through a cold plate and a condenser unit for removing heat from at least one thermal feature. In at least one embodiment, the CDU may be in server or rack form and allows refrigerant or coolant to flow directly therein to cool the auxiliary coolant flowing toward the cold plate. In at least one embodiment, the rack-mounted CDU may have at least one rack form factor.

[0066] In at least one embodiment, heat from at least one thermal feature is absorbed into a first coolant in a first coolant cooling circuit (with an auxiliary coolant), which then interfaces with a refrigerant or a second coolant cooling circuit (with a main coolant). In at least one embodiment, heat from the first coolant can be transferred to the refrigerant to circulate to the condenser unit of the refrigerant cooling circuit using a refrigerant pump. In at least one embodiment, such a refrigerant cooling circuit interfaces with a first coolant cooling circuit (or an auxiliary cooling circuit) within the CDU.

[0067] Multiple first coolant cooling circuits interface with evaporator portions of refrigerant cooling circuits within the CDU. In at least one embodiment, such evaporator portions facilitate the transfer of heat from the first coolant to the refrigerant in the refrigerant cooling circuits. In at least one embodiment, condenser units of such refrigerant cooling circuits cause at least a portion of the absorbed heat to be released into the surrounding environment, which may be located outside the data center. In at least one embodiment, sensors such as temperature, flow rate, humidity, leakage, pressure, and fluid or coolant chemistry allow the CDU to operate intelligently in the event of any problems with the respective auxiliary or main cooling circuit.

[0068] In at least one embodiment, the CDU is capable of supporting a cold plate, which is suitable for one or more types of refrigerants for cooling purposes. In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant undergoes a liquid-to-gas phase transition within the evaporator section of the L2RHX. In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant is in the gas phase when entering the condenser unit outside the L2RHX. In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant is in a fluid state when pumped to the corresponding evaporator section of the L2RHX. In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant pump can be used for fluid pumping or vapor displacement pumping.

[0069] In at least one embodiment, data center 100 may be one or more rooms 102 having racks 110 and auxiliary equipment for accommodating one or more servers on one or more server trays. In at least one embodiment, data center 100 is supported by a cooling tower 104 located outside data center 100. In at least one embodiment, cooling tower 104 dissipates heat from within data center 100 by acting on a main cooling circuit 106. In at least one embodiment, a cooling distribution unit (CDU) 112 is used between the main cooling circuit 106 and a second or auxiliary cooling circuit 108 to enable heat to be absorbed from the second or auxiliary cooling circuit 108 to the main cooling circuit 106.

[0070] In at least one embodiment, in one aspect, the auxiliary cooling circuit 108 can access different pipes entering the server tray as needed. In at least one embodiment, circuits 106, 108 are shown as line diagrams, but those skilled in the art will recognize that one or more pipe features may be used. In at least one embodiment, flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes may be used with the associated piping system to allow fluid to move along each provided circuit 106, 108. In at least one embodiment, one or more coolant pumps may be used to maintain pressure differentials within the coolant circuits 106, 108 to allow coolant to move according to temperature sensors in different locations, including in a room, in one or more racks 110, and / or in server cases or server trays within one or more racks 110.

[0071] In at least one embodiment, the coolant in the main cooling circuit 106 and the auxiliary cooling circuit 108 may be at least water and an additive. In at least one embodiment, the additive may be ethylene glycol or propylene glycol. In operation, in at least one embodiment, each of the main cooling circuit and the auxiliary cooling circuit may have its own coolant. In at least one embodiment, the coolant in the auxiliary cooling circuit may be dedicated to the needs of components in the server tray or associated rack 110. The CDU 112 is capable of complex control over the coolant provided in the coolant circuits 106, 108, either independently or simultaneously. In at least one embodiment, the CDU may be adapted to control the flow rate of the coolant so that the coolant is properly distributed to absorb heat generated within the associated rack 110. In at least one embodiment, additional flexible conduits 114 are provided from the auxiliary cooling circuit 108 to enter each server tray and supply coolant to the electrical and / or computing components therein.

[0072] In at least one embodiment, tubing 118 forming part of auxiliary cooling circuit 108 may be referred to as a room manifold. Additionally, in at least one embodiment, a separate tubing 116 may extend from tubing 118 and may also be part of auxiliary cooling circuit 108, but may be referred to as a row manifold. In at least one embodiment, coolant tubing 114 enters the rack as part of auxiliary cooling circuit 108, but may be referred to as a rack cooling manifold. In at least one embodiment, row manifold 116 extends along rows in data center 100 to all racks. In at least one embodiment, the piping of auxiliary cooling circuit 108, including coolant manifolds 118, 116, and 114, can be improved by at least one embodiment herein. In at least one embodiment, a cooler 120 may be provided in the main cooling circuit within data center 102 to support cooling prior to the cooling tower. In at least one embodiment, for the purposes of this disclosure, an additional cooling circuit, which may exist in the main control circuit and provide cooling outside the rack and outside the auxiliary cooling circuit, may be used with the main cooling circuit and is distinct from the auxiliary cooling circuit.

[0073] In at least one embodiment, during operation, heat generated within the server trays of the provided rack 110 can be transferred via flexible tubing of the row manifold 114 of the second cooling circuit 108 to coolant leaving one or more racks 110. In at least one embodiment, a second coolant from the CDU 112 for cooling the provided racks 110 (in the auxiliary cooling circuit 108) moves toward one or more racks 110 via provided piping. In at least one embodiment, the second coolant from the CDU 112 is transferred from one side of the chamber manifold having piping 118 via row manifold 116 to one side of the rack 110 and via different piping 114 through one side of the server tray. In at least one embodiment, used or returned second coolant (or departing second coolant that carries heat away from the computing components) exits from the other side of the server tray (e.g., after circulating through the server tray or through components on the server tray, entering the left side of the rack for the server tray and exiting the right side of the rack). In at least one embodiment, the used second coolant exiting the server tray or rack 110 exits from a different side (such as the outlet side) of the conduit 114 and moves to the parallel, also outlet side, of the row manifold 116. In at least one embodiment, the used second coolant moves from the row manifold 116 to the row manifold 118 in a parallel portion and travels in the opposite direction to the incoming second coolant (which may also be a newer second coolant) and toward the CDU 112.

[0074] In at least one embodiment, the used second coolant exchanges its heat with the main coolant in the main cooling circuit 106 via CDU 112. In at least one embodiment, the used second coolant can be refreshed (e.g., when relatively cooled compared to the temperature of the used second coolant stage) and prepared for recirculation through the auxiliary cooling circuit 108 to one or more computing components. In at least one embodiment, various flow and temperature control features in CDU 112 enable control of the heat exchange from the used second coolant or the inflow and outflow of the second coolant from CDU 112. In at least one embodiment, CDU 112 may also be capable of controlling the flow of the main coolant in the main cooling circuit 106.

[0075] In at least one embodiment, such as Figure 2 The TLB server-level feature 200 shown can be associated with a Thermal Load Group (TLB) system to test hybrid data center cooling systems. In at least one embodiment, the TLB server-level feature 200 includes a TLB server tray or box 202. In at least one embodiment, the TLB server tray or box 202 includes a server manifold 204 intermediately coupled between the provided cold plates 210A-D of the TLB server tray or box 202 and a rack manifold carrying the rack of the TLB server tray or box 202. In at least one embodiment, the server tray or box 202 includes one or more cold plates 210A-D associated with one or more thermal features 220A-D. In at least one embodiment, such thermal features 220A-D differ from computing devices because they do not have processing, memory, or switching capabilities. Instead, in at least one embodiment, such thermal features may include a heating element 220E with control features to control how much heat is generated, in part based on provided input. In at least one embodiment, the heating element 220E heats and dissipates heat through resistance to the current when power is applied, wherein such heat can be proportional to the applied power. In at least one embodiment, a fuse and control features can be disposed within the thermal feature.

[0076] In at least one embodiment, one or more TLB server-grade cooling loops 214A, B may be provided between server manifold 204 and one or more cold plates 210A-D. In at least one embodiment, each TLB server-grade cooling loop 214A; B includes an inlet line 210 and an outlet line 212. In at least one embodiment, an intermediate line 216 may be provided when cold plates 210A, B are configured in series. In at least one embodiment, one or more cold plates 210A-D may support auxiliary coolant for auxiliary cooling loops or different ports and channels for different fluids, such as local coolant for preloaded local cooling loops. In at least one embodiment, auxiliary coolant for cooling relevant thermal characteristics may be provided to server manifold 204 through provided inlets and outlets 206A, 206B. In at least one embodiment, local coolant for cooling may be provided to server manifold 204 through provided inlets and outlets 208A, 208B.

[0077] In at least one embodiment, the TLB rack may include testing of a TLB server tray 202, which is an immersion-cooled TLB server bracket that can be submerged in fluid. In at least one embodiment, the fluid used to immerse the TLB server tray may be a dielectric engineering fluid usable in immersion-cooled TLB servers. In at least one embodiment, an auxiliary coolant or refrigerant may be used to cool the engineering fluid. In at least one embodiment, a local coolant may be used to cool the engineering fluid when the main cooling circuit associated with the auxiliary cooling circuit circulating the auxiliary coolant fails or is failing. Therefore, in at least one embodiment, at least one cold plate has ports for the auxiliary cooling circuit and for the local coolant cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, the CDU may be used without an auxiliary cooling circuit, having a local cooling circuit connected to the main cooling circuit.

[0078] In at least one embodiment, at least one dual-cooling cold plate 210B; cold plate 250 can be configured to work in conjunction with conventional cold plates 210A, C, D. In at least one embodiment, a three-dimensional (3D) magnified view (cold plate 250) provides internal details of at least some features that may be included in the dual-cooling cold plate 210B. In at least one embodiment, a tear in a first portion 250B of the cold plate 250, which has microchannels 270 (also 270A), reveals a different second portion 250A with different microchannels 264. In at least one embodiment, the conventional cold plate may have one set of microchannels 264; 270 instead of the two sets illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the dual-cooling cold plate 250 has different paths 264, 270 (each path also referred to as a microchannel) for an auxiliary coolant for an auxiliary cooling circuit and a local coolant for a local coolant cooling circuit (also referred to as a local cooling circuit). In at least one embodiment, the auxiliary coolant or the local coolant may not be dielectric in nature. In at least one embodiment, in the use case of an immersion-cooled TLB server, the local coolant or auxiliary coolant may be a dielectric engineering fluid suitable for cold plate applications and immersion-cooled TLB server tray applications.

[0079] In at least one embodiment, some microchannels 270 are paths provided by fins 270A or other such aspects that rise internally perpendicular to the bottom of the cold plate portion 250B, thus creating gaps between them for fluid or coolant flow. In at least one embodiment, some microchannels 264 are fluid pathways in different cold plate portions 250A of the cold plate 250. In at least one embodiment, some microchannels 264 are adapted for localized coolant. In at least one embodiment, a flow controller 280 on the inlet side of the cold plate 250 can act on the coolant to circulate through the cold plate 250 and absorb heat from at least one thermal feature before leaving the cold plate 250. In at least one embodiment, unless otherwise stated, reference to the cold plate and its dual cooling features may mean reference to a cold plate that can support at least two types of cooling circuits. In at least one embodiment, both types of cooling plates can support coolant cooled by a main cooling circuit or a refrigerant cooling circuit (also referred to as a refrigerant circuit). In at least one embodiment, a standard coolant, such as facility water, can be used in the auxiliary cooling circuit.

[0080] In at least one embodiment, the local coolant may only support the use of the cold plate and may not be usable for cooling dielectric fluids for immersion cooling in an immersion-cooled server enclosure. In at least one embodiment, each type of cold plate receives a different coolant from its respective cooling circuit, such as an auxiliary or other cooling circuit that interfaces with the main cooling circuit or a refrigerant cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, different cooling circuits may be adapted for dual-cooling cold plates when different fluids (such as coolants) are used with different coolant distribution units (CDUs) for different auxiliary circuits, so that different channels can be used for each local coolant as well as different auxiliary coolants.

[0081] In at least one embodiment, the dual cooling plate 250 is adapted to receive two types of fluids (such as auxiliary coolant and local coolant) and is adapted to keep the two types of fluids distinct from each other through their different ports 252, 272; 268, 262 and their different paths 264, 270, such as by different portions separated by gaskets and plates (such as in a gasket-type cooling plate). In at least one embodiment, each different path is a fluid path. In at least one embodiment, fluid (e.g., local coolant) from a local coolant source and auxiliary coolant can be provided simultaneously to address additional cooling requirements.

[0082] In at least one embodiment, the dual cooling plate 250 includes ports 252, 272 for receiving local coolant into and discharging local coolant from the cooling plate 250. In at least one embodiment, the dual cooling plate 250 includes ports 268, 262 for receiving auxiliary coolant into and discharging auxiliary coolant from the cooling plate 250. In at least one embodiment, ports 252, 272 may have valve covers 254, 260, which may be oriented. In at least one embodiment, valve covers may be associated with all provided ports. In at least one embodiment, the provided valve covers 254, 260 are mechanical features of the associated flow controller and also have corresponding electronic features (such as at least one processor for executing instructions stored in an associated memory and controlling the mechanical features of the associated flow controller).

[0083] In at least one embodiment, each valve may be driven by electronic features of an associated flow controller. In at least one embodiment, the electronic and mechanical features of the provided flow controller are integrated. In at least one embodiment, the electronic and mechanical features of the provided flow controller are physically distinct. In at least one embodiment, reference to the flow controller may refer to one or more or a combination of the provided electronic and mechanical features, but at least to the ability to control the flow of coolant through each cold plate or immersion-cooled server tray or box.

[0084] In at least one embodiment, the electronic features of the provided flow controller receive control signals and assert control over mechanical features. In at least one embodiment, the electronic features of the provided flow controller may be actuators or other similar electromechanical features or other electronic components. In at least one embodiment, a flow pump may be used as the flow controller. In at least one embodiment, an impeller, piston, or bellows may be a mechanical feature, and an electric motor and circuitry form the electronic features of the provided flow controller.

[0085] In at least one embodiment, the circuitry of the provided flow controller may include a processor, memory, switches, sensors, and other components that collectively constitute the electronic features of the provided flow controller. In at least one embodiment, the provided ports 252, 262, 272, and 268 of the provided flow controller are adapted to allow immersion fluid to enter or exit. In at least one embodiment, a flow controller 280 (capable of acting as an expansion valve) may be associated with a fluid line 276 (or 256, 274) that enables refrigerant to enter and exit the cold plate 210B. In at least one embodiment, other flow controllers may similarly be associated with coolant lines 210, 216, and 212 (or 266 and 258) to enable auxiliary coolant to enter and exit the cold plate 210B.

[0086] In at least one embodiment, higher cooling requirements may necessitate higher coolant flow rates or volumes. In at least one embodiment, such cooling requirements can be addressed by pumps or other flow controllers to prevent excessive heat buildup in the CDU, but can also be addressed by additional pumps in series between the cold plate 210B and the coolant source. In at least one embodiment, the size of the pumps or other flow controllers can be determined by the type of coolant used and its thermal characteristics (such as its lowest temperature in the liquid phase and highest temperature in the gas phase, and the highest temperature of all thermal characteristics associated with such a system). In at least one embodiment, this information can be used to determine the coolant capacity of the pumps or other flow controllers in a particular area before ambient heat, resulting in their inability to effectively remove heat from the associated thermal characteristic 220B.

[0087] In at least one embodiment, fluid or local coolant enters the provided fluid line 276 via dedicated fluid inlet and outlet lines 208A, B. In at least one embodiment, server manifold 204 is adapted with passages therein (shown by dashed lines) to support different paths to different fluid lines 276 (also 256, 274) and to any remaining loops 214A, B associated with auxiliary coolant inlet and outlet lines 206A, B. In at least one embodiment, multiple manifolds may be present to differentiate between local coolant and auxiliary coolant. In at least one embodiment, multiple manifolds may be present to differentiate between the inlet and outlet of each of the local coolant and auxiliary coolant. In at least one embodiment, if local coolant is used alone without an auxiliary cooling loop, fluid can flow through one of the provided fluid paths (at least within the cold plate or TLB server tray) to a local coolant source or fluid line (such as lines 370A, B, different from...). Figure 3 (Auxiliary coolant manifold 350).

[0088] In at least one embodiment, a first flow allows auxiliary coolant to flow through one or more provided ports 252, 272 and associated paths 270. In at least one embodiment, the dual cooling plates 250 may have partition plate segments 250A, 250B submerged in local coolant and / or auxiliary coolant, while being kept separate from each other by gaskets or seals. In at least one embodiment, a second flow allows local coolant to flow through provided ports 268, 262 and associated paths 264 through fins or microchannels 270A penetrating the bottom of the cooling plate portion 250B.

[0089] In at least one embodiment, the flow controller 278 may be associated with the fluid inlet 276 and outlet portions at the server manifold 204, rather than providing the flow controller 280 at their respective cold plates. In at least one embodiment, the first flow uses only localized coolant and may be activated when a fault is identified in the auxiliary or main cooling circuit, such that the auxiliary coolant cannot effectively absorb heat from at least one thermal feature. In at least one embodiment, the fault may be that the auxiliary coolant is not adequately cooled via the CDU, and therefore it may not be able to absorb sufficient heat from at least one thermal feature through its associated cold plate.

[0090] In at least one embodiment, such as Figure 3The TLB rack-level feature 300 shown can be associated with a heat load group system to test a hybrid data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, the rack-level feature 300 includes a TLB rack 302 having supports 304, 306 for suspending cooling manifolds 314A, B. In at least one embodiment, although the TLB rack 330 is shown separately from the TLB rack 302, this TLB rack 330 can show a rear perspective view of the TLB rack 302. Therefore, in at least one embodiment, the brackets 334, 336 provided on the TLB rack 330 are perspective views of the brackets 304, 306 provided on the TLB rack 302. In at least one embodiment, the supports 304, 306 provided for the TLB rack are planar structures resting against the inner wall of the rack. In at least one embodiment, the supports 304, 306 provided for the TLB rack extend from the inner wall of the rack. In at least one embodiment, the brackets 304, 306 provided for the TLB rack are fixed to the inner wall of the rack and have multiple mounting points facing one or more directions, including inside the rack or towards the rear of the rack.

[0091] In at least one embodiment, cooling manifolds 314A, B may be provided to enable TLB server-level features 200 (and in Figure 3 The diagram shows a TLB server tray or box (308, 308A) and a CDU (such as) in the auxiliary cooling loop of a data center cooling system. Figure 4 The auxiliary coolant is transferred between CDUs (406). In at least one embodiment, different CDUs may serve different TLB racks. In at least one embodiment, different TLB rack cooling manifolds may be distinctly part of an auxiliary cooling circuit and a local coolant cooling circuit.

[0092] In at least one embodiment, row manifold 350 may be part of an auxiliary cooling circuit to supply inlet rack manifold 314A via provided lines 310A, 310. In at least one embodiment, auxiliary coolant enters cold plate 326 via provided line 316 to extract or absorb heat from associated thermal features 324 within TLB server 308; and enters outlet rack manifold 314B via provided line 318, and returns to the same or different row manifold 350 via provided lines 312, 312A.

[0093] In at least one embodiment, the CDU can operate independently of the auxiliary cooling circuit and can cool at least one thermal feature via lines 312B, 310B provided for the refrigerant cooling circuit and refrigerant cooling lines 370A, B associated with the L2RHX 360, which is associated with a refrigerant-activated (dual-cooling or single-cooling) cold plate 326, the L2RHX 360 being located at least partially within the CDU (e.g., Figure 4 (either of the two CDUs shown, 424; 406).

[0094] In at least one embodiment, the TLB system within rack-level feature 300 may have one or more TLB racks 302 for testing hybrid data center cooling systems having one or more thermal features 324 and one or more hybrid cooling features 326. In at least one embodiment, the hybrid cooling feature may include each aspect of the cooling loop for coolant described herein, and includes at least one fan wall 382 (or forming...) Figure 4 In the air cooling system aspect supported by other fan features of the air cooling system 438, the fan wall 382 has one or more fans 384 for blowing air across the system tray or box 308 or drawing air through the system tray or box 308. In at least one embodiment, the air cooling system cools air from the hot aisle into the cold aisle, or uses conditioned outside air for the cold aisle. In at least one embodiment, one or more thermal features may generate heat within the TLB system, and one or more hybrid cooling features may provide an air and liquid cooling response to such heat generated by one or more thermal features.

[0095] In at least one embodiment, the TLB system (such as one or more TLB racks 302) may include heating elements within one or more thermal features 220A-D, the heating elements having an adjustable level of heat to be generated. In at least one embodiment, such heating elements may be located near a cold plate. In at least one embodiment, the cold plate has inlet and outlet ports for providing liquid cooling as part of the air and liquid cooling response from the hybrid data center liquid cooling system.

[0096] In at least one embodiment, the TLB system (such as one or more TLB racks 302) may include local cooling loops and / or auxiliary cooling loops, which may be associated with a main cooling loop or a refrigerant cooling loop to form part of one or more hybrid cooling features, and may additionally include fan walls 382 or other air-based cooling features. In at least one embodiment, the fan walls are associated with the rear of the TLB rack 302 and may be closed to allow air to be drawn in or blown out through the TLB server trays or boxes 308. In at least one embodiment, the local refrigerant cooling loops and auxiliary cooling loops may provide different liquid cooling as part of the air and liquid cooling response of the hybrid data center liquid cooling system. In at least one embodiment, a control unit 308B within the TLB server tray or box 308A may result in different heat levels associated with different temperatures set for one or more thermal features 324. In at least one embodiment, such a control unit may receive sensor input and may differentially or in combination elicit air and liquid cooling responses to address such different levels of heat.

[0097] In at least one embodiment, the TLB system (such as one or more TLB racks 302) may include at least one processor for receiving sensor inputs from sensors associated with one or more thermal characteristics. In at least one embodiment, the at least one processor may adjust the hybrid cooling characteristics of the hybrid data center liquid cooling system and may cause changes in the air and liquid cooling responses. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks of the at least one processor may receive sensor inputs and may infer the cooling requirements of the hybrid data center liquid cooling system. In at least one embodiment, the cooling requirements may be addressed by using one or more hybrid cooling characteristics of one or more of a local coolant, an auxiliary coolant, or air.

[0098] In at least one embodiment, the TLB system (such as one or more TLB racks 302) may include at least one processor that enables one or more flow controllers to implement two or more of the following: one or more main refrigerant cooling loops for cooling auxiliary or local coolant, one or more main and auxiliary cooling loops, or air cooling as part of the provided air and liquid cooling response. In at least one embodiment, the TLB system (such as one or more TLB racks 302) may include one or a combination of local or auxiliary coolant as a liquid response to such air and liquid cooling response from a hybrid data center cooling system.

[0099] In at least one embodiment, the TLB system (such as one or more TLB racks 302) may include one or more flow controllers as part of one or more hybrid cooling features. In at least one embodiment, such flow controllers may direct the flow of one or more refrigerants (a refrigerant cooling loop for cooling an auxiliary or local coolant) or coolants (such as an auxiliary or local coolant) to provide a liquid response to such air and liquid cooling from the hybrid data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, the TLB system (such as one or more TLB racks 302) may include at least one processor for implementing a first mode of the hybrid data center cooling system for providing cooling using a local coolant cooling loop or an auxiliary cooling loop cooled by a refrigerant cooling loop, and implementing a second mode of the hybrid data center cooling system for providing cooling using an auxiliary cooling loop cooled by a main cooling loop. In at least one embodiment, a third mode provides air cooling. In at least one embodiment, this enables different liquid cooling responses for testing within the hybrid data center cooling system.

[0100] In at least one embodiment, although shown as a separate unit above a rack, this is merely illustrative, and such L2RHX 360s are essentially within a CDU, such as in a 1U to 3U TLB server tray or box 308A at the very bottom. In at least one embodiment, at least one condenser unit 374 may be associated with the L2RHX 360 and may be external to the CDU 308A for dissipating heat to the surrounding environment. In at least one embodiment, provided lines 312B, 310B for localized coolant are coupled to a separate cold plate via direct lines 320, 354, 322 and via one or more flow controllers 368. In at least one embodiment, a pump or other flow controller 368 for controlling the coolant flow may be located on the inlet side of the cold plate 326. In at least one embodiment, local coolant may be supplied from L2RHX 360 to inlet line 386A of CDU 308A, and then distributed via outlet line 386A to rack inlet line 310B, via supplied line 320 to cooling plate 326, and from supplied lines 354, 322, 312B to the outside of L2RHX 360. In at least one embodiment, auxiliary coolant from L2LHX of a CDU different from the CDU having L2RHX is distributed using manifold 350 via inlets 310A, 316, rack manifolds 314A, 314B, and via outlets 318, 312A. In at least one embodiment, if such coolants have the same or similar chemical composition, the piping for auxiliary or local coolant may be the same.

[0101] In at least one embodiment, such a pump or other flow controller 368 may be located prior to the intake manifold 314A, such as reference Figure 2 As shown and described. In at least one embodiment, such feature 360 ​​may be within CDU 308A. In at least one embodiment, coolant flows from rack manifold 314B via coil 366 or plate 362 to gasket or other heat exchanger 360. In at least one embodiment, refrigerant flows through evaporator section 372 for absorbing heat from the coolant via conductive heat transfer in L2RHX. In at least one embodiment, fan 364 may further facilitate this heat transfer using radiative heat transfer. In at least one embodiment, a vapor pump 380 may be provided for delivering gaseous refrigerant to condenser 374 via a supply line provided by line 376 to dissipate heat to the surrounding environment. In at least one embodiment, compressor 378 may compress such refrigerant in liquid phase for circulation back to CDU 308A via a return line provided by line 376.

[0102] In at least one embodiment, one or more splitter flow controllers 310C, 312C isolate each of the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant cooling circuit (also referred to as the local cooling circuit). In at least one embodiment, one or more fans 364 may be associated with the piping or gasket plate 364 of the evaporator section 372 to achieve efficient heat transfer from the coolant coil 366 or coolant plate 362 to the refrigerant. In at least one embodiment, no fan 364 is present, but the evaporator section 372 may be connected via a gasket heat exchanger interface, wherein heat from the coolant is transferred to the refrigerant via conduction between the gasket plate separating such refrigerant and the coolant.

[0103] In at least one embodiment, the CDU 308A can supply coolant for cooling to the boxes 308 of the TLB server trays or TLB racks 302, 330 via direct connection lines 370A, B, 320, 322 or via rack manifolds 314A, B and their associated lines 316, 318. Therefore, in at least one embodiment, the hybrid data center cooling system has a coolant distribution unit (CDU) 308A, either inside or outside the rack, which can distribute coolant to one or more cooling plates. In at least one embodiment, such a CDU 308A may have an associated flow controller or pump 368 for implementing this coolant distribution.

[0104] Therefore, in at least one embodiment, the L2RHX 360 of CDU 308A implements conduction and convection for heat transfer, extracts heat using a cold plate, and dissipates it via condenser unit 372 after it is transferred to the refrigerant cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, such heat from the refrigerant transferred to the evaporator section 372 can be transferred to condenser unit 374 via one of the provided lines 376 for dissipation into the surrounding environment. In at least one embodiment, the lines 320, 322, 354 of the provided TLB rack 302 can be associated with a local coolant, rather than with an auxiliary coolant using different lines 316, 318 associated within the server manifold. In at least one embodiment, such provided lines 320, 322, 354 can be associated with inlet 310B and outlet 312B for engagement with L2RHX 360 and associated lines 370A, B and associated components 360-380. In at least one embodiment, this can differ from using different CDUs (such as...) Figure 4 The auxiliary coolant (CDU406) is passed through and received via a cooling manifold 350, which is different from that of CDU 308A.

[0105] In at least one embodiment, the hybrid data center cooling system includes an L2RHX 360 partially located within the CDU 308A and associated with a fan 364, a condenser unit 374, and one or more refrigerant pumps or compressors for the cooling cycle. In at least one embodiment, the CDU includes heat exchange tubes 366 or gasket plates 362. In at least one embodiment, portions, components, or assemblies 360-380 of the CDU may be integrated together into a single unit. In at least one embodiment, portions, components, or assemblies 360-380 of such a system may be integrated between TLB racks and may be associated with the TLB rack at a bracket area provided on the TLB rack 330 or via its brackets 334, 336.

[0106] In at least one embodiment, a pump or other flow controller may be used when a coolant or refrigerant cooling circuit is suddenly required. In at least one embodiment, such a pump pumps refrigerant through its cooling circuit to cool the coolant, pumps auxiliary or local coolant through a cold plate to absorb more heat from the cold plate, or pumps main coolant to cool the auxiliary or local coolant. In at least one embodiment, the L2RHX 360 of the CDU 308A is part of or contained within a TLB rack 302 (or 330). In at least one embodiment, a separate facility or main pipeline provides refrigerant between one or more L2RHX 360s and a condenser unit 374 located outside the rack 302 and potentially outside the data center. In at least one embodiment, the L2RHX 360 includes a channel, rather than a pipe, for delivering refrigerant to cool the auxiliary or local coolant in the CDU380A. In at least one embodiment, the hybrid data center cooling system is able to address the primary cooling needs of the TLB rack 330 (or 302) in a first mode via the L2RHX 360 of the TLB rack 330 (and its supporting infrastructure, such as compressors or pumps 378, 380).

[0107] In at least one embodiment, in a first mode, the L2RHX 360 can be used to dissipate heat from auxiliary or localized coolant transferred to the refrigerant. In at least one embodiment, circulating air from a fan can contribute to this heat dissipation without the use of refrigerant. In at least one embodiment, this heat dissipation can be achieved using the main coolant via the L2LHX in a second mode of hybrid data center cooling system testing. In at least one embodiment, this heat dissipation via the L2LHX can be used in a CDU406 (CDU 308A) in a data center different from one with the L2RHX or associated with the L2RHX. Figure 4 ) is executed.

[0108] In at least one embodiment, a heat dissipation second condenser unit 374 is included. In at least one embodiment, a refrigerant cooling circuit (such as...) is also included. Figure 4 The refrigerant cooling circuit 434 in the L2RHX360 can be used to remove heat from the L2RHX360 and utilize its own condenser unit ( Figure 4434B) dissipates this type of heat outside the data center. In at least one embodiment, the hybrid data center cooling system is able to address the second cooling requirement of TLB rack 330 (or 302) in a second mode via an auxiliary cooling loop that interfaces with the CDU, main coolant, and cooling facilities. In at least one embodiment, both operating modes are applicable to any cooling requirement determined for the rack for high-density computing components. In at least one embodiment, flow of refrigerant, auxiliary coolant, main coolant, or air occurs by default, but can be further implemented via provided pumps 368, 378, 380, which can even be compressors. In at least one embodiment, the compressor can be associated with condenser unit 374 and can be located together with CDU 308A. In at least one embodiment, a third cooling requirement can involve heat lower than that generated by the first and second cooling requirements, which can be addressed in testing by both the first and second operating modes of the hybrid data center cooling system, and this can be addressed by a third operating mode using only air from one or more fans 384 of fan wall 382.

[0109] In at least one embodiment, the first cooling requirement and the second cooling requirement may relate to different thermal characteristics of the data center. In at least one embodiment, the first cooling requirement may be associated with heat generated by one or more thermal characteristics, which can be addressed by a refrigerant used to address such a first cooling requirement. In at least one embodiment, the second cooling requirement may also be associated with heat generated by one or more thermal characteristics, which is dissipated, for example, by being retained in the refrigerant and / or auxiliary coolant via cold plates, and may require dissipation by one or more L2RHX and / or by using the primary coolant of the CDU of L2LHX. In at least one embodiment, the heat generated, absorbed, extracted, or retained may be a temperature value that needs to be below the operating value or operating range; or it may need to be maintained at the operating value or range (such as at least one thermal characteristic). In at least one embodiment, such operating values ​​or ranges can then be used to rate the maximum cooling capacity or capacity of one or more hybrid cooling characteristics of the hybrid data center cooling system to achieve a cooling response, which can then be deployed in a production environment with computing equipment.

[0110] In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may be provided to determine the temperature associated with thermal feature 324 in TLB rack 330 (or 302). In at least one embodiment, at least one processor is capable of causing the hybrid data center cooling system to operate in a first or second mode, at least in part, based on the temperature associated with or determined by thermal feature 324. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may implement a first mode of the hybrid data center cooling system for providing cooling using L2RHX. In at least one embodiment, such at least one processor may implement a second mode of the hybrid data center cooling system for providing cooling using L2LHX. In at least one embodiment, such a mode is part of different cooling stress tests performed on the hybrid data center cooling system using TLB racks. In at least one embodiment, air cooling may be provided in a third mode of the hybrid data center cooling system during stress testing.

[0111] In at least one embodiment, the immersion-cooled TLB server 352 within TLB rack 302 (or 330) can simultaneously address its cooling needs with those of the air-cooled, coolant-cooled, or refrigerant-cooled TLB server 308 within TLB rack 302 (or 330). In at least one embodiment, the immersion-cooled TLB server 352 may include a dielectric engineering fluid surrounding a thermal feature. In at least one embodiment, the immersion-cooled TLB server 352 may include a second heat exchanger for exchanging heat between the dielectric engineering fluid and the coolant to circulate back to the L2RHX 360 or L2LHX.

[0112] In at least one embodiment, at least one TLB server tray or box 308 (such as the bottommost TLB server tray or box 308A in TLB rack 302) may have a designated control system or unit 308B for controlling CDUs, thermal characteristics, and at least some mixed cooling characteristics, such that TLB rack 302 can be isolated from external cooling loops for testing purposes. In at least one embodiment, a power distribution unit (PDU) may be provided for CDU 308A (or Figure 4 The control system or unit 308B, thermal features, and any hybrid cooling features are powered by 406, 306, 308B, 406, 308B, 308B. In at least one embodiment, the control system in the TLB server tray or frame 308 may include security features (such as sensors for providing sensor data or appropriate functionality), communication features (for communicating with at least one flow controller to enable active mode and for communicating with an external monitor), power features for powering one or more flow controllers and at least one processor (and their associated features), and control features provided by at least one processor that may be associated with at least one flow controller.

[0113] In at least one embodiment, the cold plate 326 may be associated with a thermal feature 324 having a heating element, such as Figure 2 As shown. In at least one embodiment, the cold plate may have a first port for a first portion of the microchannel for supporting auxiliary coolant, which is different from a second portion of the microchannel supporting the refrigerant of the condenser unit 362. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may be adapted to receive sensor input from a sensor associated with thermal feature 324. In at least one embodiment, the sensor may also be associated with one or more of a rack, auxiliary coolant, or refrigerant. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may be adapted to determine a first cooling requirement and a second cooling requirement in part based on the sensor input. In at least one embodiment, as described, the sensor input may be temperature sensing from the sensor at one or more time intervals.

[0114] In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks are adapted to receive sensor input from provided sensors and to infer first and second cooling requirements for a hybrid data center cooling system, such as a refrigerant cooling loop for a hybrid data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, a flow controller for such a refrigerant cooling loop enables refrigerant flow therethrough. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor can enable at least one flow controller to allow refrigerant flow through the L2RHX and can be adapted to prevent auxiliary refrigerant flow into an auxiliary cooling loop for auxiliary or localized refrigerant testing of refrigerant cooling. In at least one embodiment, one or more shunt flow controllers 310C, 312C can be implemented to cause such flow and prevent auxiliary refrigerant flow. In at least one embodiment, provided lines 310B, 312B can be fluidly coupled to the inlet and outlet lines 370A, B of the L2RHX 360. In at least one embodiment, additional flow controllers 380, 378 can be implemented to prevent or cause refrigerant flow through the L2RHX 360.

[0115] In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may be associated with a CDU for receiving sensor input from a sensor associated with at least one thermal feature. In at least one embodiment, the at least one processor may implement a refrigerant cooling circuit or a main cooling circuit to provide cooling for auxiliary or localized coolant for one or more cold plates associated with at least one thermal feature. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks of the at least one processor may receive sensor input and infer cooling requirements for the refrigerant cooling circuit, localized coolant cooling circuit, auxiliary cooling circuit, and main cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, the cooling requirement may be responsive to the temperature associated with one or more cold plates, as sensed by the sensor. In at least one embodiment, the cooling requirement may be provided from localized or auxiliary coolant associated with the refrigerant cooling circuit or main cooling circuit, or by providing air cooling.

[0116] In at least one embodiment, when at least one processor is cooling in a first mode within the L2RHX 360, refrigerant flow may occur, which differs from cooling via the main cooling loop in the L2LHX. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may cause one or more flow controllers 368 to control the refrigerant flow in a second mode, which may have a higher cooling demand (e.g., higher cooling demand) than the first mode, which has a lower cooling demand. In at least one embodiment, one or more flow controllers 368 may allow more or less refrigerant to flow through them. In at least one embodiment, electrical coupling may be provided to power at least one component of the flow controller. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may be adapted to receive sensor input from a sensor associated with at least one thermal feature, such as thermal feature 324. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may determine changes in the refrigerant state in part based on the sensor input. In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant state may relate to the temperature, flow rate, flow rate, or state (e.g., flowing or not flowing) of the refrigerant (or coolant).

[0117] In at least one embodiment, CDU 308A is connected or associated with at least one cold plate to absorb heat from at least one thermal feature using a coolant connected to a refrigerant cooling circuit, and dissipates such heat within L2RHX 360 to the refrigerant in such a refrigerant cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, L2RHX 360 is further interfaced or associated with condenser unit 374 for dissipating heat from the refrigerant to the surrounding environment. In at least one embodiment, refrigerant pumps and / or displacement pumps 378, 380 may be used to assist refrigerant flow. In at least one embodiment, condenser unit 374 may cause at least a portion of the heat from the refrigerant to be dissipated to areas outside or inside the data center, such as the data center's thermal aisles. In at least one embodiment, the condenser unit may have associated flow controllers (such as valves and micropumps) and piping 376 before being associated with or interfaced with the heat exchange pipes of L2RHX 360.

[0118] In at least one embodiment, such as Figure 4 The data center-level feature 400 shown can be associated with a heat load group system to test a hybrid data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, the data center-level feature 400 within the test environment data center 402 may include racks 404 for housing one or more TLB server trays or boxes; one or more CDUs 406, 424 for exchanging heat between auxiliary cooling loops 412 and main cooling loops 422; one or more row manifolds 410A, B for distributing coolant from CDUs 406; and various associated flow controllers 420 and inlet and outlet lines 412, 414, 416, 418.

[0119] In at least one embodiment, the area above the TLB rack 404 is a region for housing a condenser unit 434B for dissipating heat associated with the L2RHX (displayed as unit 432 together with CDU 424) during a first operating mode of the hybrid data center cooling system. This heat originates from at least one thermal feature in at least one server tray or box 404A of at least one TLB rack 404. In at least one embodiment, the condenser unit 434B is associated with the L2RHX 432 located within the CDU 424. In at least one embodiment, the L2RHX 432 performs heat transfer from the coolant to the refrigerant cooling loop and subsequently removes heat from at least one cold plate to a second condenser unit outside the cold plate. In at least one embodiment, the air cooling system 43 performs air cooling in at least a third mode or an auxiliary cooling mode. In at least one embodiment, the air cooling system 438 regulates outside air for air cooling or regulates at least a portion of the air from a hot aisle that is transferred to a cold aisle for one or more TLB racks 404.

[0120] In at least one embodiment, a refrigerant cooling circuit is located between one or more CDU424s and one or more condenser units 434B, which may terminate within one or more L2RHX432s of the CDU424. In at least one embodiment, such a refrigerant cooling circuit 434 is supported by one or more evaporator sections 434A, which may be located within one or more L2RHX432s of the CDU424. In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant within such one or more evaporator sections 434A absorbs heat from plates or coils 432A-N in which it carries the refrigerant. In at least one embodiment, such one or more evaporator sections 434A may dissipate this heat through one or more condenser units 434B.

[0121] In at least one embodiment, one or more pumps or other flow controllers 436 for controlling the refrigerant flow may be provided associated with (e.g., within) a CDU 424. In at least one embodiment, different plates or coils 432A-N may be provided for each L2RHX 432 within one or more CDUs 424, but multiple such L2RHXs may be associated with a single external condenser unit 434B or a single refrigerant cooling circuit 434. Therefore, in at least one embodiment, multiple refrigerant cooling circuits terminate in a region that allows different plates or coils to transfer or dissipate heat to or from the refrigerant at the evaporator portion 434A within one or more CDUs 424, thus such multiple refrigerant cooling circuits may be associated with multiple refrigerant circuits within the CDU 424. In at least one embodiment, multiple refrigerant cooling circuits may be provided via multiple L2RHXs and multiple refrigerant cooling circuit interfaces within such CDUs 424. In at least one embodiment, the different TLB racks 404 of the hybrid data center cooling system may collaboratively have one or more CDUs 406 for liquid cooling using auxiliary or local coolant interfaced with the main coolant from the cooling facility 408. In at least one embodiment, the different CDUs 424 may include one or more refrigerant pumps between L2RHX and condenser unit 434B, one or more condenser units 434B, one or more plates or coils 432A-N for coolant, and other cooling systems such as filters, refrigerant filters, and charging ports.

[0122] In at least one embodiment, different manifolds 410A, B may be associated with different TLB racks for coolant or refrigerant purposes. In at least one embodiment, the different coolants may be chemically matched or mismatched relative to the auxiliary coolant. In at least one embodiment, different fluid sources are provided as redundant features to different CDUs, depending on the chemical properties of the different auxiliary coolants used with each of the different CDUs provided. In at least one embodiment, one or more TLB racks 404 do not require auxiliary cooling circuits and CDUs; instead, the CDUs within the racks may be sufficient to provide cooling for the TLB racks 404. In at least one embodiment, these TLB racks, independent of the auxiliary cooling circuits, can be fully addressed by one or more L2RHXs within the CDUs mounted on the racks.

[0123] In at least one embodiment, the processor has one or more circuits and is associated with a thermal load group (TLB) system, such as TLB rack 404, for testing hybrid data center cooling systems. In at least one embodiment, the one or more circuits can enable one or more thermal features to generate heat within the TLB system. In at least one embodiment, the processor can enable one or more hybrid cooling features to provide an air and liquid cooling response to such heat generated by one or more thermal features.

[0124] In at least one embodiment, the output of such a processor can signal heating elements having one or more thermal characteristics and one or more flow controllers. In at least one embodiment, the first signal can realize different levels of heat from within the TLB system. In at least one embodiment, the second signal can realize one or more of a refrigerant cooling circuit, a local coolant cooling circuit, an auxiliary cooling circuit associated with the main cooling circuit, or air cooling, as part of an air and liquid cooling response to different levels of heat generated within the TLB system.

[0125] In at least one embodiment, the processor may receive sensor inputs from sensors associated with one or more thermal features. In at least one embodiment, the processor may determine different cooling requirements associated with one or more mixed cooling features. In at least one embodiment, a coolant cooling circuit associated with a primary coolant, which is connected to a refrigerant cooling circuit, is capable of handling higher cooling requirements than a primary coolant cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, a refrigerant cooling circuit for a cooling auxiliary or localized coolant is capable of handling higher cooling requirements than air cooling.

[0126] In at least one embodiment, one or more hybrid cooling features include one or more of a refrigerant cooling circuit, a local coolant cooling circuit, an auxiliary cooling circuit, a main cooling circuit, or air cooling. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks can receive sensor input and can infer such different cooling requirements. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks can infer the temperature associated with one or more thermal features from previous temperatures associated with one or more computing devices. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks can enable one or more thermal features to generate heat according to such temperatures. In at least one embodiment, distinctly, one or more different neural networks can receive sensor input to infer the temperature associated with thermal features and can provide a cooling response in part based on previous cooling responses trained to such neural networks.

[0127] In at least one embodiment, the TLB rack 404 may be associated with at least one processor for operating CDUs. In at least one embodiment, the processor may include one or more circuits. In at least one embodiment, one or more circuits of the processor may be adapted to determine the cooling requirements of the hybrid data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, the processor may enable a first mode, a second mode, or a third mode, or a combination of these operating modes of the hybrid data center cooling system to address a first cooling requirement, a second cooling requirement, a third cooling requirement, or a combination of such cooling requirements via air cooling or via one or more CDUs that cause L2RHX and / or L2LHX to exchange heat between coolant from the cold plate and refrigerant or main coolant.

[0128] In at least one embodiment, if only a rack-mounted CDU with L2RHX and associated components is used, such operation can be independent of the auxiliary coolant and the main coolant from cooling facility 408. In at least one embodiment, the processor can enable an auxiliary cooling operation mode of the hybrid data center cooling system to meet further cooling needs (rather than first, second, or third cooling needs). In at least one embodiment, such an auxiliary cooling mode can be a combination of two or more modes discussed for an auxiliary cooling loop having row manifold 410A, flow controllers 416, 418, and CDU 406, which is coupled to the main cooling loop 422 having cooling facility 408; or for an auxiliary cooling loop having row manifold 410B, flow controller 436, and CDU 424, which is sequentially coupled to condenser unit 434B.

[0129] In at least one embodiment, unlike the auxiliary coolant manifold 410A, the local coolant manifold 410B distributes the local coolant of the L2RHX 432 to one or more cold plates. In at least one embodiment, other cooling manifolds, such as those within a TLB rack or TLB server, may interface with the local coolant manifold 410B. In at least one embodiment, such a local coolant manifold 410B may directly supply local coolant to the cold plates of the TLB server within the rack. In at least one embodiment, for the provided TLB rack 404, all cooling modes occur simultaneously. In at least one embodiment, gaskets or pipe heat exchangers may be used as cold plates to support both the auxiliary and local coolant.

[0130] In at least one embodiment, the processor used with the CDU includes an output for signaling one or more flow controllers 436, 412, 420. In at least one embodiment, the flow controllers 436, 412, 420 can enable refrigerant flow through the CDU's L2RHX and can prevent auxiliary refrigerant from flowing to the auxiliary cooling loop in a hybrid data center cooling system mode, so that the CDU provides a single cooling source in the rack. In at least one embodiment, this feature allows the CDU to be used independently without the auxiliary cooling loop, main cooling loop, CDU, and associated cooling tower. In at least one embodiment, this cooling can be provided for a period of time until any problems in the main cooling loop are resolved. In at least one embodiment, this cooling can have a capacity defined by downtime in a Service Level Agreement (SLA).

[0131] In at least one embodiment, the processor used with the CDU includes an input for receiving sensor input from a sensor associated with at least one thermal characteristic of the TLB rack 404. In at least one embodiment, the sensors may be associated simultaneously or individually with the rack, auxiliary or local coolant, associated cold plate, or server tray or box of the rack. In at least one embodiment, the processor may determine a first cooling requirement and a second cooling requirement in part based on sensor input from these associated sensors. In at least one embodiment, in part based on sensor input from these associated sensors, the flow rate (for refrigerant) may be adjusted for one or more of the following: primary coolant, auxiliary coolant, or refrigerant via cold plate (or for auxiliary or local coolant), via CDU (for primary coolant), or via L2RHX.

[0132] In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks may be provided within at least one processor to receive sensor inputs and infer a first cooling demand and a second cooling demand from thermal characteristics or aspects of the data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks may infer a failure in an auxiliary cooling loop or a primary cooling loop. In at least one embodiment, based in part on sensor inputs associated with pressure, flow rate, volume, temperature, humidity, and leakage, one or more circuits of the processor may enable one or more flow controllers to support a first, second, or auxiliary cooling mode. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor associated with the CDU may enable one or more flow controllers to enable two or more of the following: refrigerant, primary or auxiliary cooling loop, or air cooling, as part of an air and liquid cooling response.

[0133] In at least one embodiment, the processor used with the TLB rack 404 and the CDU includes one or more circuits. In at least one embodiment, the one or more circuits of the processor can cause a first mode, a second mode, or auxiliary cooling of different operating modes of the hybrid data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, causing a first mode, a second mode, or an auxiliary cooling mode means causing the hybrid data center cooling system to operate in the first mode, the second mode, or the auxiliary cooling mode.

[0134] In at least one embodiment, the hybrid data center cooling system includes an L2RHX within the CDU for a refrigerant cooling loop. In at least one embodiment, one or more circuits of the processor may be provided to train one or more neural networks to infer cooling requirements from sensor inputs of sensors associated with racks, thermal features, auxiliary coolant, local coolant, or refrigerant. In at least one embodiment, these may be cooling requirements for one or more cooling loops and / or air cooling. In at least one embodiment, the processor may cause the cold plate to use local or auxiliary coolant within the cold plate and / or use air through heat sinks 282 located externally (such as at the top) to provide cooling for the thermal features. In at least one embodiment, air cooling may be provided for the heat sink with heat sinks 282 while coolant is provided for the cold plate. In at least one embodiment, any coolant or refrigerant cooling loop may provide cooling between these cooling loops at a default flow rate, but the processor may use a flow controller to allow additional flow through for further cooling, or such a flow controller may be used to allow additional coolant flow through the cold plate.

[0135] In at least one embodiment, such cooling may be achieved by removing heat from the thermal feature through a coolant or air flowing across or over a cold plate. In at least one embodiment, such a coolant may be an auxiliary or local coolant cooled by a refrigerant or main coolant. In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant flows through an evaporator section that interfaces with the auxiliary or local coolant to cool it. In at least one embodiment, as the coolant absorbs or removes heat from the thermal feature, it transfers such heat to the refrigerant or main coolant. In at least one embodiment, when a refrigerant is used, such a refrigerant becomes vaporized with pressure changes there.

[0136] In at least one embodiment, air cooling may always be provided. In at least one embodiment, coolant may always be provided, even as heat generation decreases, thus reducing cooling demand. In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant cooling circuit always operates at a default flow rate or flow rate. In at least one embodiment, implementing flow or implementing the refrigerant cooling circuit means changing the default flow rate or flow rate from the flow rate or the default flow rate within the refrigerant cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, the output of the processor used with the CDU may be adapted to provide signals to one or more flow controllers.

[0137] In at least one embodiment, such an output can be used to control the flow rate of refrigerant from the refrigerant reservoir of the CDU. In at least one embodiment, the auxiliary cooling circuit is not used with such a CDU; however, when used, at least one flow controller can be used to cause localized refrigerant flow between the cold plate and L2RHX, or to cause auxiliary refrigerant flow between the cold plate and L2LHX of the CDU, for use simultaneously or alone with the CDU. In at least one embodiment, one or more flow controllers can be controlled by such an output to support different flow rates of refrigerant passing through them.

[0138] In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks of the processor may be adapted to receive sensor inputs. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks may be trained to infer a first cooling demand and a second cooling demand as part of an analysis of previous sensor inputs and previous cooling demands. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks may be trained using correlated data from previous sensor inputs and previous cooling demands, such that new sensor inputs within a threshold of previous sensor inputs can be correlated with previous cooling demands or changes thereof.

[0139] In at least one embodiment, the output of the processor used with the CDU may be adapted to provide signals to adjust one or more flow controllers in a first or second mode, such that in the first mode, refrigerant flow occurs to cool an auxiliary or local coolant, and in the second mode, main coolant flow occurs to cool the auxiliary or local coolant, which is different from the auxiliary coolant flow cooled by both main and refrigerant, which may occur in an auxiliary cooling mode, where air cooling may also coexist. In at least one embodiment, the refrigerant flow rate or volume may be increased or decreased to L2RHX depending on the activated mode.

[0140] In at least one embodiment, the inputs of the processor used with the CDU are adapted to receive sensor inputs associated with at least one thermal feature, the temperature of the main coolant used for cooling auxiliary or local coolant, the temperature of the auxiliary coolant, the temperature of the local coolant, or the refrigerant used for cooling auxiliary or local coolant. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks of the processor may be trained to infer a change in coolant state in part based on at least one thermal feature, the temperature of the auxiliary coolant or refrigerant, and a previous temperature. In at least one embodiment, one or more circuits of the processor may be adapted to cause operation of a first mode, a second mode, or an auxiliary cooling mode (a combination of modes) of the hybrid data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, one or more loops may enable or disable a refrigerant cooling loop to cool the auxiliary or local coolant.

[0141] In at least one embodiment, the processor used with the CDU includes one or more circuits for mixing a first mode, a second mode, or an auxiliary cooling operation mode of the data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, one or more circuits or the processor will include one or more neural networks for inferring cooling requirements from sensor inputs of sensors associated with the TLB rack 404 or with auxiliary or local coolant from at least one cold plate. In at least one embodiment, the processor may be adapted to address the first or second cooling requirement by causing the refrigerant to flow through a liquid-refrigerant heat exchanger at one or more flow rates to cool the auxiliary or local coolant, resulting in a first mode, a second mode, or a third mode addressing the first or second cooling requirement. In at least one embodiment, the processor may also be adapted to cause an auxiliary cooling mode to address further cooling requirements by cooling the fluid circulating from the cold plate via the auxiliary cooling loop and the CDU.

[0142] In at least one embodiment, such a processor may include an input for receiving sensor input from a sensor associated with at least one thermal feature or with one or more cold plates. In at least one embodiment, the processor may determine a first cooling demand associated with an auxiliary cooling circuit cooled by a refrigerant cooling circuit; a second cooling demand associated with air cooling; or a third cooling demand associated with an auxiliary cooling circuit cooled by a main cooling circuit.

[0143] In at least one embodiment, such a processor includes one or more neural networks for receiving sensor inputs and inferring a first cooling demand and a second cooling demand. In at least one embodiment, such a processor has one or more neural networks for inferring a failure in an auxiliary cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, one or more circuits may cause one or more flow controllers to activate an auxiliary cooling circuit that interfaces with a refrigerant cooling circuit or a main cooling circuit to provide auxiliary coolant for cooling the cold plate.

[0144] In at least one embodiment, such a processor includes one or more neural networks for inferring temperatures associated with one or more thermal features based on previous temperatures associated with one or more computing devices. In at least one embodiment, the at least one processor can then implement the one or more thermal features to generate heat based on such inferred temperatures. In at least one embodiment, this allows the thermal features to replicate heat generation based on one or more computing devices. In at least one embodiment, the temperature set of one or more thermal features differs from the temperature sensed or determined by sensors and is addressed by one or more hybrid cooling features. In at least one embodiment, this achieves separation between the thermal features and the hybrid cooling features and allows cooling stress to be applied to such hybrid cooling features to maximum rated values.

[0145] In at least one embodiment, Figure 1-4Each of the at least one processor described herein has inference and / or training logic 1815, which may include, but is not limited to, code and / or data storage device 1801 for storing forward and / or output weights and / or input / output data, and / or other parameters for configuring neurons or layers of a neural network being trained and / or used for inference in aspects of one or more embodiments. In at least one embodiment, training logic 1815 may include or be coupled to code and / or data storage device 1801 for storing graph code or other software to control timing and / or order, wherein weight and / or other parameter information may be loaded to configure logic, including integer and / or floating-point units (collectively referred to as arithmetic logic units (ALUs)). In at least one embodiment, code (such as graph code) loads weight or other parameter information into the processor ALU based on the architecture of the neural network to which such code corresponds. In at least one embodiment, the code and / or data storage device 1801 stores the weight parameters and / or input / output data of each layer of a neural network, which is trained or used in conjunction with one or more embodiments during forward propagation of the input / output data and / or weight parameters during training and / or inference using aspects of one or more embodiments. In at least one embodiment, any portion of the code and / or data storage device 1801 may be included together with other on-chip or off-chip data storage devices, including L1, L2, or L3 cache memory of the processor or system memory.

[0146] In at least one embodiment, the inference and / or training logic 1815 of at least one processor may be part of a building management system (BMS) for controlling flow controllers at one or more locations at the TLB server level, rack level, and row level. In at least one embodiment, determining which flow controllers associated with auxiliary cooling loops, CDUs with L2LHX, cold plates, or other cooling manifolds are connected to the inference and / or training logic 1815 may be provided to one or more neural networks to enable the one or more neural networks to infer which flow controllers can smoothly connect or disconnect from the coolant requirements of one or more cold plates, TLB servers, or TLB racks, or auxiliary cooling loops of a mixed data center cooling system, from L2RHX, air cooling, or other cooling systems.

[0147] In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may be associated with a local cooling loop and an auxiliary cooling loop. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may be associated with a CDU. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor includes control logic, such as inference and / or training logic 1815, and is associated with at least one flow controller. In at least one embodiment, at least one flow controller may have its own processor or microcontroller. In at least one embodiment, the processor or microcontroller executes instructions sent to it from the control logic. In at least one embodiment, the control logic may be used to determine changes in the coolant state, such as a failure in an auxiliary cooling loop (such as a CDU and a cooling manifold) or a main cooling loop (such as a cooling facility, a cooling manifold, and an associated CDU). In at least one embodiment, a failure may also occur in a cooling manifold that needs to be replaced. In at least one embodiment, the control logic may cause at least one flow controller to provide a response, such as by engaging a CDU with multiple cooling loops, by engaging air cooling, and / or by engaging L2RHX to cool the coolant, all of which provide cooling for at least one thermal feature.

[0148] In at least one embodiment, the control logic may cause a first signal to be sent to at least one flow controller to stop the supply of auxiliary coolant from the auxiliary cooling circuit as part of a coolant response. In at least one embodiment, as part of a response, the control logic may cause a second signal to be sent to at least one flow controller to allow the supply of refrigerant from the refrigerant cooling circuit. In at least one embodiment, the control logic may receive sensor input from a sensor associated with the auxiliary coolant, refrigerant, and / or at least one thermal characteristic of the CDU. In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may determine changes in the coolant state in part based on the sensor input. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks of the inference and / or training logic 1815 may be adapted to receive sensor input and infer changes in the coolant state.

[0149] In at least one embodiment, at least one processor may include one or more loops for one or more neural networks, such as inference and / or training logic 1815. In at least one embodiment, the inference and / or training logic 1815 may be adapted to infer changes in coolant state from sensor inputs associated with at least one TLB server or at least one rack, such as coolant ineffectiveness from the CDU or excessive heat retention upon entering the rack. In at least one embodiment, one or more loops may be adapted to cause at least one flow controller to provide a response from a refrigerant cooling loop to cool auxiliary or local coolant or from an auxiliary cooling loop to be cooled by the main cooling loop.

[0150] In at least one embodiment, control logic associated with one or more circuits may send a first signal (along with any associated signals) to at least one flow controller to enable a response—from an auxiliary cooling loop, a main cooling loop, a refrigerant cooling loop, or air cooling. In at least one embodiment, a second signal may be provided to at least one flow controller, and L2LHX or L2RHX may be enabled only in different modes with or without an auxiliary cooling loop, but the auxiliary cooling loop may be engaged or activated instead of the refrigerant cooling loop if further cooling is required. In at least one embodiment, the distributed or integrated architecture is implemented by one or more loops of at least one processor. In at least one embodiment, the distributed architecture may be supported by loops with different locations of one or more loops.

[0151] In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks of the inference and / or training logic 1815 may be adapted to infer an increase or decrease in the cooling demand of at least one computing component of at least one TLB server. In at least one embodiment, one or more loops may be adapted to enable cooling loops to economically address a decrease in cooling demand or supplement an increase in the cooling demand of at least one computing component. In at least one embodiment, enabling a cooling loop represents a response from a refrigerant cooling loop to cool auxiliary or local coolant, a response from an auxiliary cooling loop interfaced with the main cooling loop, and / or a response with air cooling, all partly based on the workload sent to at least one computing component, preempting a corresponding increase or decrease in the cooling demand of at least one computing component of at least one TLB server.

[0152] In at least one embodiment, at least one processor includes one or more circuits, such as inference and / or training logic 1815, for training one or more neural networks to infer from provided data. In at least one embodiment, the inference and / or training logic 1815 can infer changes in coolant state from sensor inputs associated with at least one TLB server or at least one rack. In at least one embodiment, inference can be used to implement one or more loops causing at least one flow controller of the refrigerant cooling loop to provide a response by cooling an auxiliary coolant that is to be circulated to the cold plate instead of the main coolant. In at least one embodiment, the response may be a refrigerant response from the refrigerant cooling loop that absorbs heat from the auxiliary coolant into the refrigerant and exchanges the absorbed heat to the environment through a condenser unit with a fan, instead of or in addition to the air cooling or main cooling loop of the CDU.

[0153] In at least one embodiment, one or more circuits may be adapted to train one or more neural networks to infer an increase or decrease in the cooling demand of at least one computing component of at least one TLB server. In at least one embodiment, one or more circuits may be adapted to train one or more neural networks to infer an increase or decrease in the flow output from the auxiliary cooling loop as a correlation with improper flow of the auxiliary coolant due to a faulty CDU or a corresponding increase or decrease in the power demand of at least one computing component of at least one TLB server.

[0154] In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks can be trained to infer based on thermal characteristics, previous relevant thermal characteristics or cooling requirements of the TLB server or TLB rack, and cooling capacity or capability indicated by the fluid source of a local cooling loop, such as a CDU having a specific cooling capacity higher than forced air cooling capacity but possibly lower than auxiliary cooling loop cooling capacity. In at least one embodiment, previous cooling requirements can be met using a coolant interfaced with a refrigerant or main cooling loop, causing one or more neural networks to engage the refrigerant cooling loop or main cooling loop by adjusting one or more flow controllers at different pressures and at different flow rates or velocities to cool the auxiliary or local coolant, thereby meeting future similar cooling requirements (accommodating minor variations).

[0155] Figure 5 The diagram illustrates a relationship according to at least one embodiment. Figure 2-4 A method 500 associated with a hybrid data center cooling system. In at least one embodiment, method 500 includes step 502 for providing a heat load group (TLB) system having one or more thermal features and one or more hybrid cooling features. In at least one embodiment, step 504 of such method 500 is used to determine a temperature associated with one or more thermal features of the TLB. In at least one embodiment, step 506 of such method 500 is used to verify whether the temperature (as described in step 504) has been determined. In at least one embodiment, step 504 may be repeated in part based on the result from step 506. In at least one embodiment, step 508 of such method 500 is used to realize that one or more thermal features of the TLB system generate heat in the TLB system.

[0156] In at least one embodiment, step 510 of such method 500 is used to implement one or more hybrid cooling features to provide an air and liquid cooling response to the heat generated by one or more thermal features. Therefore, in at least one embodiment, coolant (supported by refrigerant and / or main cooling) and / or air cooling can be provided differentially and synergistically at different flow rates and pressures to achieve cooling stress on a hybrid data center cooling system.

[0157] In at least one embodiment, this allows ratings to be associated with each hybrid cooling characteristic within a hybrid data center cooling system in a test environment. In at least one embodiment, such ratings can then be used to determine whether to deploy such a hybrid data center cooling system with similar hybrid cooling characteristics in a production environment, as used in the test environment. In at least one embodiment, the maximum cooling demand met by each of the coolant (auxiliary or local) cooling loops interfaced with the refrigerant cooling loop or the main cooling loop, as well as air cooling from the fan walls, can be recorded. In at least one embodiment, flow rates, flow volumes, fan speeds, flow patterns, cooling modes, and other such characteristics can be recorded and studied for use in a production environment.

[0158] In at least one embodiment, method 500 may include another step or sub-step for determining a temperature associated with one or more thermal features using at least one processor. In at least one embodiment, method 500 may include another step or sub-step for implementing a heating element having one or more thermal features, including adjustable heat levels. In at least one embodiment, such a heating element can therefore dissipate different levels of heat, at least depending on the applied power. In at least one embodiment, method 500 may include another step or sub-step for determining cooling requirements using temperature. In at least one embodiment, method 500 may include another step or sub-step for implementing one or more mixed cooling features, partially based on cooling requirements, to provide one or more refrigerants from a refrigerant cooling circuit, a coolant for cooling an auxiliary or local cooling circuit, an auxiliary coolant from an auxiliary cooling circuit associated with a main cooling circuit, or air from an air cooling system.

[0159] In at least one embodiment, method 500 may include another step or sub-step for receiving sensor input from sensors associated with one or more thermal features in at least one processor. In at least one embodiment, method 500 may include another step or sub-step for using at least one processor to determine, adjust, the hybrid cooling features of the hybrid data center liquid cooling system, and cause a change in the air and liquid cooling response provided for a sensed or determined temperature, the sensed or determined temperature being from the thermal feature, near the thermal feature, or through fluid via a cold plate associated with the thermal feature.

[0160] In at least one embodiment, method 500 may include another step or sub-step for using a control unit to cause different heat levels associated with temperatures asserted for one or more thermal features. In at least one embodiment, the temperature asserted for one or more thermal features may be different from the temperature sensed or determined by sensors associated with one or more hybrid cooling features. In at least one embodiment, this enables the hybrid data center cooling system to independently address the heat generated by the TLB. In at least one embodiment, method 500 may include another step or sub-step for differentially or in combination inducing air and liquid cooling responses for different levels of heat dissipated by such one or more thermal features.

[0161] In at least one embodiment, method 500 may include another step or sub-step for using one or more flow controllers of one or more hybrid cooling features to achieve the flow of one or more of a refrigerant, engineered fluid, or coolant to provide a liquid response of air and liquid response from a hybrid data center cooling system.

[0162] In at least one embodiment, a performance chart can be generated that correlates the generated heat with the cooling response from one or more such provided hybrid cooling features. In at least one embodiment, such a chart can detail the capabilities or capacities of different and combined hybrid cooling features. In at least one embodiment, such performance charts and any other resulting information can be used to deploy such a hybrid data center cooling system, having similarities or variations in hybrid cooling features from a test environment to a production environment, and assessed as generating heat within the range of thermal features in the test environment, taking into account the computing equipment to be deployed.

[0163] Servers and data centers

[0164] The following figures illustrate, but are not limited to, systems based on exemplary network servers and data centers that can be used to implement at least one embodiment.

[0165] Figure 6 A distributed system 600 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the distributed system 600 includes one or more client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and 608 configured to execute and operate client applications, such as web browsers, proprietary clients, and / or variations thereof, on one or more networks 610. In at least one embodiment, a server 612 may be communicatively coupled to remote client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and 608 via network 610.

[0166] In at least one embodiment, server 612 may be adapted to run one or more services or software applications, such as services and applications that manage session activity for single sign-on (SSO) access across multiple data centers. In at least one embodiment, server 612 may also provide other services or software applications, which may include non-virtual and virtual environments. In at least one embodiment, these services may be provided as web-based services or cloud services or under a Software as a Service (SaaS) model to users of client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and / or 608. In at least one embodiment, users operating client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and / or 608 may in turn use one or more client applications to interact with server 612 to utilize the services provided by these components.

[0167] In at least one embodiment, software components 618, 620, and 622 of system 600 are implemented on server 612. In at least one embodiment, one or more components of system 600 and / or the services provided by these components may also be implemented by one or more client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and / or 608. In at least one embodiment, a user operating a client computing device can then utilize one or more client applications to use the services provided by these components. In at least one embodiment, these components may be implemented using hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. It should be understood that various different system configurations are possible and may differ from the distributed system 600. Therefore, Figure 6 The embodiments shown are at least one embodiment of a distributed system for implementing the system of the embodiments, and are not intended to be limiting.

[0168] In at least one embodiment, client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and / or 608 may include different types of computing systems. In at least one embodiment, the client computing device may include a portable handheld device (e.g., Cellular phone Computing tablets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or wearable devices (e.g., Head-mounted display), running software (such as...) And / or various mobile operating systems (such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 10, PalmOS, and / or variants thereof). In at least one embodiment, the device may support different applications, such as various Internet-related applications, email, short message service (SMS) applications, and may use various other communication protocols. In at least one embodiment, the client computing device may also include a general-purpose personal computer, in at least one embodiment of which includes various versions of Personal computers and / or laptops running Linux operating systems.

[0169] In at least one embodiment, the client computing device can be running various commercially available operating systems. The client computing device may be a workstation computer operating system similar to UNIX, including but not limited to various GNU / Linux operating systems such as Google ChromeOS. In at least one embodiment, the client computing device may further include electronic devices capable of communicating over one or more networks 610, such as thin client computers, internet-enabled gaming systems (e.g., with or without...). Gesture input devices include Microsoft Xbox game consoles and / or personal messaging devices. Despite Figure 6 The distributed system 600 is shown as having four client computing devices, but can support any number of client computing devices. Other devices (such as devices with sensors) can interact with the server 612.

[0170] In at least one embodiment, network 610 in distributed system 600 can be any type of network capable of supporting data communication using any of the various available protocols, including but not limited to TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol), SNA (System Network Architecture), IPX (Internet Packet Switching), AppleTalk, and / or variations thereof. In at least one embodiment, network 610 can be a local area network (LAN), an Ethernet-based network, Token Ring, a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, a virtual network, a virtual private network (VPN), an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), an infrared network, or a wireless network (e.g., in the IEEE 802.11 protocol suite). Networks operating under any of the wireless protocols (and / or any other wireless protocols), and / or any combination of these and / or other networks.

[0171] In at least one embodiment, server 612 may consist of one or more general-purpose computers, dedicated server computers (including PC (personal computer) servers in at least one embodiment), Servers (including mid-range servers, mainframe computers, rack servers, etc.), server farms, server clusters, or any other suitable arrangement and / or combination thereof. In at least one embodiment, server 612 may include one or more virtual machines running a virtual operating system or other computing architectures involving virtualization. In at least one embodiment, one or more flexible pools of logical storage devices may be virtualized to maintain virtual storage devices for the server. In at least one embodiment, the virtual network may be controlled by server 612 using software-defined networking. In at least one embodiment, server 612 may be adapted to run one or more services or software applications.

[0172] In at least one embodiment, server 612 can run any operating system, and any commercially available server operating system. In at least one embodiment, server 612 can also run any of a variety of additional server applications and / or mid-level applications, including HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) servers, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers, CGI (Common Gateway Interface) servers, etc. Servers, database servers, and / or variations thereof. In at least one embodiment, exemplary database servers include, but are not limited to, those commercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, IBM (International Business Machines), and / or variations thereof.

[0173] In at least one embodiment, server 612 may include one or more applications for analyzing and merging data feeds and / or event updates received from users of client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and 608. In at least one embodiment, data feeds and / or event updates may include, but are not limited to, data received from one or more third-party information sources and continuous data streams. feed, Updates or real-time updates may include real-time events related to sensor data applications, financial quotes, network performance measurement tools (e.g., network monitoring and business management applications), clickstream analysis tools, vehicle traffic monitoring, and / or their changes. In at least one embodiment, server 612 may also include one or more applications for displaying data feeds and / or real-time events via one or more display devices of client computing devices 602, 604, 606, and 608.

[0174] In at least one embodiment, the distributed system 600 may further include one or more databases 614 and 616. In at least one embodiment, the databases may provide mechanisms for storing information such as user interaction information, usage pattern information, adaptation rule information, and other information. In at least one embodiment, databases 614 and 616 may reside in various locations. In at least one embodiment, one or more of databases 614 and 616 may reside on a non-transitory storage medium local to server 612 (and / or within server 612). In at least one embodiment, databases 614 and 616 may be located remotely from server 612 and communicate with server 612 via a network-based connection or a dedicated connection. In at least one embodiment, databases 614 and 616 may reside in a storage area network (SAN). In at least one embodiment, any necessary files for performing functions belonging to server 612 may be appropriately stored locally on server 612 and / or remotely. In at least one embodiment, databases 614 and 616 may include relational databases, such as databases adapted to store, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands.

[0175] Figure 7 An exemplary data center 700 according to at least one embodiment is shown. In at least one embodiment, the data center 700 includes, but is not limited to, a data center infrastructure layer 710, a framework layer 720, a software layer 730, and an application layer 740.

[0176] In at least one embodiment, such as Figure 7 As shown, the data center infrastructure layer 710 may include a resource coordinator 712, grouped computing resources 714, and node computing resources (“nodes CR”) 716(1)-716(N), where “N” represents any complete positive integer. In at least one embodiment, nodes CR 716(1)-716(N) may include, but are not limited to, any number of central processing units (“CPUs”) or other processors (including accelerators, field-programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), graphics processors, etc.), memory devices (e.g., dynamic read-only memory), storage devices (e.g., solid-state drives or disk drives), network input / output (“NWI / O”) devices, network switches, virtual machines (“VMs”), power modules, and cooling modules, etc. In at least one embodiment, one or more nodes CR 716(1)-716(N) may be servers having one or more of the aforementioned computing resources.

[0177] In at least one embodiment, the grouped computing resources 714 may include individual groups (not shown) of node CRs housed in one or more racks, or a plurality of racks (also not shown) housed in data centers in various geographic locations. The individual groups of node CRs within the grouped computing resources 714 may include computing, networking, memory, or storage resources that can be configured or allocated to support groups of one or more workloads. In at least one embodiment, several node CRs, including CPUs or processors, may be grouped within one or more racks to provide computing resources to support one or more workloads. In at least one embodiment, the one or more racks may also include any number of power modules, cooling modules, and network switches, in any combination.

[0178] In at least one embodiment, resource coordinator 712 may configure or otherwise control one or more nodes CR716(1)-716(N) and / or grouped computing resources 714. In at least one embodiment, resource coordinator 712 may include a Software Design Infrastructure (“SDI”) management entity for data center 700. In at least one embodiment, resource coordinator 712 may include hardware, software, or some combination thereof.

[0179] In at least one embodiment, such as Figure 7As shown, the framework layer 720 includes, but is not limited to, a job scheduler 732, a configuration manager 734, a resource manager 736, and a distributed file system 738. In at least one embodiment, the framework layer 720 may include a framework of software 752 supporting the software layer 730 and / or one or more applications 742 of the application layer 740. In at least one embodiment, the software 752 or application 742 may respectively include web-based service software or applications, such as services or applications provided by Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. In at least one embodiment, the framework layer 720 may be, but is not limited to, a free and open-source software web application framework, such as Apache Spark™ (hereinafter referred to as "Spark") which can utilize the distributed file system 738 for large-scale data processing (e.g., "big data"). In at least one embodiment, the job scheduler 732 may include a Spark driver to facilitate the scheduling of workloads supported by the various layers of the data center 700. In at least one embodiment, the configuration manager 734 may be able to configure different layers, such as the software layer 730 and the framework layer 720 including Spark and the distributed file system 738 for supporting large-scale data processing. In at least one embodiment, resource manager 736 is capable of managing cluster or group computing resources mapped to or allocated to support distributed file system 738 and job scheduler 732. In at least one embodiment, cluster or group computing resources may include group computing resources 714 on data center infrastructure layer 710. In at least one embodiment, resource manager 736 may coordinate with resource coordinator 712 to manage these mapped or allocated computing resources.

[0180] In at least one embodiment, the software 752 included in the software layer 730 may include software used by at least a portion of nodes CR716(1)-716(N), grouped computing resources 714, and / or the distributed file system 738 of the framework layer 720. One or more types of software may include, but are not limited to, Internet web page search software, email virus scanning software, database software, and streaming video content software.

[0181] In at least one embodiment, one or more applications 742 included in the application layer 740 may include one or more types of applications used by at least a portion of nodes CR716(1)-716(N), grouped computing resources 714, and / or the distributed file system 738 of the framework layer 720. One or more types of applications may include, but are not limited to, CUDA applications, 5G network applications, artificial intelligence applications, data center applications, and / or variations thereof.

[0182] In at least one embodiment, any of the configuration manager 734, resource manager 736, and resource coordinator 712 can implement any number and type of self-modification actions based on any amount and type of data acquired in any technically feasible manner. In at least one embodiment, self-modification actions can mitigate potentially poor configuration decisions by data center operators of data center 700 and can prevent underutilization and / or poor performance of the data center.

[0183] Figure 8 A client-server network 804, formed by a plurality of interconnected network server computers 802, is illustrated according to at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, each network server computer 802 stores data accessible to other network server computers 802 and client computers 806 and networks 808 linked to the wide area network 804. In at least one embodiment, the configuration of the client-server network 804 may change over time when client computers 806 and one or more networks 808 connect and disconnect from the network 804, and when one or more backbone server computers 802 are added to or removed from the network 804. In at least one embodiment, the client-server network includes client computers 806 and networks 808 when they are connected to network server computers 802. In at least one embodiment, the term "computer" includes any device or machine capable of accepting data, applying prescribed processes to the data, and providing the results of those processes.

[0184] In at least one embodiment, the client-server network 804 stores information accessible to the network server computer 802, the remote network 808, and the client computer 806. In at least one embodiment, the network server computer 802 is formed from a mainframe computer, a minicomputer, and / or a microcomputer, each having one or more processors. In at least one embodiment, the server computer 802 is linked together via wired and / or wireless transmission media (such as wires, fiber optic cables) and / or microwave transmission media, satellite transmission media, or other conductive, optical, or electromagnetic wave transmission media. In at least one embodiment, the client computer 806 accesses the network server computer 802 via similar wired or wireless transmission media. In at least one embodiment, the client computer 806 can be linked to the client-server network 804 using a modem and standard telephone communication networks. In at least one embodiment, alternative carrier systems (such as cable and satellite communication systems) can also be used to link to the client-server network 804. In at least one embodiment, other private or time-sharing carrier systems can be used. In at least one embodiment, network 804 is a global information network, such as the Internet. In at least one embodiment, the network is a private intranet using protocols similar to the Internet but with added security measures and restricted access controls. In at least one embodiment, network 804 is a private or semi-private network using proprietary communication protocols.

[0185] In at least one embodiment, the client computer 806 is any end-user computer, and may also be a mainframe computer, minicomputer, or microcomputer with one or more microprocessors. In at least one embodiment, the server computer 802 may sometimes be used as a client computer to access another server computer 802. In at least one embodiment, the remote network 808 may be a local area network (LAN), a network added to a wide area network via an independent service provider (ISP) for the Internet, or another group of computers interconnected via wired or wireless transmission media with fixed or time-varying configurations. In at least one embodiment, the client computer 806 may independently or via a link to and access network 804.

[0186] Figure 9A computer network 908 connecting one or more computing machines is illustrated according to at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, network 908 can be any type of electrically connected group of computers, including, for example, the Internet, intranet, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), or an interconnection combination of these network types. In at least one embodiment, the connection within network 908 can be a remote modem, Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), Token Ring (IEEE 802.5), Fiber Distributed Data Link Interface (FDDI), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), or any other communication protocol. In at least one embodiment, the computing devices linked to the network can be desktop computers, servers, portable, handheld, set-top boxes, personal digital assistants (PDAs), terminals, or any other desired type or configuration. In at least one embodiment, depending on their functionality, the network-connected devices can vary widely in terms of processing power, internal memory, and other performance characteristics.

[0187] In at least one embodiment, communication within the network, as well as communication to or from computing devices connected to the network, can be wired or wireless. In at least one embodiment, network 908 may at least partially comprise the worldwide public Internet, which typically connects multiple users according to the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) specification based on a client-server model. In at least one embodiment, a client-server network is the dominant model for communication between two computers. In at least one embodiment, a client computer (“client”) issues one or more commands to a server computer (“server”). In at least one embodiment, the server fulfills client commands by accessing available network resources and returning information to the client in accordance with the client commands. In at least one embodiment, client computer systems and network resources residing on the network server are assigned network addresses for identification during communication between network elements. In at least one embodiment, communication from other network-connected systems to the server will include the network address of the relevant server / network resource as part of the communication, such that the appropriate destination of the data / request is identified as the recipient. In at least one embodiment, when network 908 includes the global Internet, the network address is an IP address in TCP / IP format, which can at least partially route data to email accounts, websites, or other Internet tools residing on the server. In at least one embodiment, information and services residing on the web server can be made available to the web browser of the client computer via a domain name (e.g., www.site.com) (which maps to the IP address of the web server).

[0188] In at least one embodiment, multiple clients 902, 904, and 906 are connected to network 908 via respective communication links. In at least one embodiment, each of these clients can access network 908 via any desired form of communication, such as via dial-up modem connection, cable link, digital subscriber line (DSL), wireless or satellite link, or any other form of communication. In at least one embodiment, each client can communicate using any machine compatible with network 908 (e.g., personal computer (PC), workstation, dedicated terminal, personal data assistant (PDA), or other similar device). In at least one embodiment, clients 902, 904, and 906 may or may not be located in the same geographical area.

[0189] In at least one embodiment, multiple servers 910, 912, and 914 are connected to network 918 to serve clients communicating with network 918. In at least one embodiment, each server is typically a powerful computer or device that manages network resources and responds to client commands. In at least one embodiment, the server includes computer-readable data storage media, such as hard disk drives and RAM memory, that store program instructions and data. In at least one embodiment, servers 910, 912, and 914 run applications that respond to client commands. In at least one embodiment, server 910 may run a web server application for responding to client requests for HTML pages and may also run a mail server application for receiving and routing emails. In at least one embodiment, other applications, such as an FTP server or media server for streaming audio / video data to clients, may also run on server 910. In at least one embodiment, different servers may be dedicated to performing different tasks. In at least one embodiment, server 910 may be a dedicated web server for managing website-related resources for different users, while server 912 may be dedicated to providing email management. In at least one embodiment, the other servers may be dedicated to a combination of two or more services typically available or provided over a network, such as media (audio, video, etc.), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), or other services. In at least one embodiment, each server may be located in the same or different location as the other servers. In at least one embodiment, multiple servers may exist to perform mirroring tasks for users, thereby mitigating congestion or minimizing traffic directed to and from a single server. In at least one embodiment, servers 910, 912, and 914 are under the control of a web hosting provider that maintains and delivers third-party content over network 918.

[0190] In at least one embodiment, the web hosting provider delivers services to two different types of clients. In at least one embodiment, one type, which may be referred to as a browser, requests content such as web pages, email messages, video clips, etc., from servers 910, 912, 914. In at least one embodiment, a second type (which may be referred to as a user) hires the web hosting provider to maintain network resources (such as websites) and make them available to the browser. In at least one embodiment, the user contracts with the web hosting provider to make memory space, processor capacity, and communication bandwidth available to the network resources they desire, according to the amount of server resources the user expects to utilize.

[0191] In at least one embodiment, in order for a web hosting provider to serve both clients, the application managing network resources hosted on the server must be properly configured. In at least one embodiment, the program configuration process involves defining a set of parameters that at least partially control the application's response to browser requests and also at least partially define the server resources available to a particular user.

[0192] In one embodiment, intranet server 916 communicates with network 908 via a communication link. In at least one embodiment, intranet server 916 communicates with server manager 918. In at least one embodiment, server manager 918 includes a database of application configuration parameters used by servers 910, 912, and 914. In at least one embodiment, a user modifies database 920 via intranet 916, and server manager 918 interacts with servers 910, 912, and 914 to modify application parameters so that they match the contents of the database. In at least one embodiment, a user logs into intranet 916 by connecting to intranet 916 via computer 902 and entering authentication information such as a username and password.

[0193] In at least one embodiment, when a user wishes to log in to a new service or modify an existing service, the intranet server 916 authenticates the user and provides the user with an interactive screen display / control panel that allows the user access to configuration parameters for a specific application. In at least one embodiment, multiple modifiable text boxes describing aspects of the user's website or other network resources are presented to the user. In at least one embodiment, if the user desires to increase the storage space reserved for their website on the server, a field is provided where the user specifies the desired storage space. In at least one embodiment, in response to receiving this information, the intranet server 916 updates the database 920. In at least one embodiment, the server manager 918 forwards the information to the appropriate server and uses the new parameters during application operation. In at least one embodiment, the intranet server 916 is configured to provide the user with access to configuration parameters of network resources (e.g., web pages, email, FTP sites, media sites, etc.) that the user has contracted with a web hosting service provider.

[0194] Figure 10A A networked computer system 1000A according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the networked computer system 1000A includes a plurality of nodes or personal computers (“PCs”) 1002, 1018, 1020. In at least one embodiment, the personal computer or node 1002 includes a processor 1014, memory 1016, a camera 1004, a microphone 1006, a mouse 1008, a speaker 1010, and a monitor 1012. In at least one embodiment, PCs 1002, 1018, 1020 may each run one or more desktop servers, such as those on an internal network within a given company, or may be servers on a general network not limited to a specific environment. In at least one embodiment, each PC node in the network has one server, such that each PC node in the network represents a specific network server with a specific network URL address. In at least one embodiment, each server defaults to a default webpage for the user of that server, and the default webpage itself may contain embedded URLs pointing to further subpages for that user on that server, or to pages on other servers on the network or on other servers.

[0195] In at least one embodiment, nodes 1002, 1018, 1020 and other nodes of the network are interconnected via medium 1022. In at least one embodiment, medium 1022 may be a communication channel such as Integrated Services Digital Network (“ISDN”). In at least one embodiment, the individual nodes of the networked computer system may be connected via various communication media, including a local area network (“LAN”), a simple old-fashioned telephone line (“POTS”) (sometimes referred to as the Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”)), and / or variations thereof. In at least one embodiment, the individual nodes of the network may also constitute users of computer systems interconnected via a network such as the Internet. In at least one embodiment, each server on the network (running from a specific node of the network at a given instance) has a unique address or identifier within the network, which may be specified according to a URL.

[0196] In at least one embodiment, multiple multipoint conferencing units (“MCUs”) can therefore be used to transmit data to and from various nodes or “endpoints” of the conferencing system. In at least one embodiment, in addition to various other communication media (such as nodes connected via the Internet), the nodes and / or MCUs may be interconnected via ISDN links or through a local area network (“LAN”). In at least one embodiment, the nodes of the conferencing system may typically be directly connected to a communication medium (such as a LAN) or connected via an MCU, and the conferencing system may include other nodes or components, such as routers, servers, and / or variations thereof.

[0197] In at least one embodiment, processor 1014 is a general-purpose programmable processor. In at least one embodiment, the processor of a node in the networked computer system 1000A can also be a dedicated video processor. In at least one embodiment, the different peripheral devices and components of a node (such as those of node 1002) can be different from those of other nodes. In at least one embodiment, nodes 1018 and 1020 can be configured to be the same as or different from node 1002. In at least one embodiment, the node can also be implemented on any suitable computer system other than a PC system.

[0198] Figure 10BA networked computer system 1000B according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, system 1000B illustrates a network (such as LAN 1024) that can be used to interconnect various nodes that can communicate with each other. In at least one embodiment, multiple nodes, such as PC nodes 1026, 1028, and 1030, are attached to LAN 1024. In at least one embodiment, nodes may also be connected to the LAN via a network server or other means. In at least one embodiment, system 1000B includes other types of nodes or elements, including, for at least one embodiment, routers, servers, and nodes.

[0199] Figure 10C A networked computer system 1000C is illustrated according to at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, system 1000C illustrates a WWW system with communication across a backbone communication network (such as the Internet 1032), the backbone communication network being usable for various nodes interconnecting the network. In at least one embodiment, the WWW is a set of protocols operating on top of the Internet and allowing a graphical interface system to operate on it to access information via the Internet. In at least one embodiment, the Internet 1032 attached to the WWW consists of multiple nodes, such as PCs 1040, 1042, and 1044. In at least one embodiment, nodes interface with other nodes of the WWW via WWWHTTP servers (such as servers 1034 and 1036). In at least one embodiment, PC 1044 may be a PC forming a node of network 1032, and PC 1044 itself runs its server 1036, although for illustrative purposes... Figure 10C PC1044 and server 1036 are shown separately.

[0200] In at least one embodiment, the WWW is a distributed type of application characterized by WWWHTTP, the WWW protocol, which runs on top of the Internet's Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (“TCP / IP”). In at least one embodiment, the WWW can therefore be characterized by a set of protocols running on the Internet (i.e., HTTP) as its “backbone”.

[0201] In at least one embodiment, the web browser is an application running on a node of a network in a WWW-compatible network system, allowing users of a particular server or node to view such information and thus allowing users to search for graphics and text-based documents linked together using hypertext links embedded in documents or files available from servers that understand HTTP. In at least one embodiment, when a user uses another server on a network such as the Internet to retrieve a given webpage from a first server associated with a first node, the retrieved document may have different hypertext links embedded therein, and a local copy of the page created locally by the user is also retrieved. In at least one embodiment, when a user clicks a hypertext link, locally stored information associated with the selected hypertext link is generally sufficient to allow the user's machine to open a connection over the Internet to the server indicated by the hypertext link.

[0202] In at least one embodiment, more than one user may be coupled to each HTTP server via a LAN (such as LAN 1038, as shown with respect to WWWHTTP server 1034). In at least one embodiment, system 1000C may also include other types of nodes or elements. In at least one embodiment, the WWWHTTP server is an application running on a machine such as a PC. In at least one embodiment, each user may be considered to have a unique “server,” as shown with respect to PC 1044. In at least one embodiment, a server may be considered to be a server such as WWWHTTP server 1034 that provides access to the network for a LAN or multiple nodes or multiple LANs. In at least one embodiment, there are multiple users, each user having a desktop PC or a node on the network, and each desktop PC potentially establishing a server for its users. In at least one embodiment, each server is associated with a specific network address or URL that, when accessed, provides a default webpage for that user at that specific network address or URL. In at least one embodiment, the webpage may contain further links (embedded URLs) pointing to further subpages for that user on that server, or to other servers on the network or to pages on other servers on the network.

[0203] Cloud computing and services

[0204] The following figures illustrate, but are not limited to, exemplary cloud-based systems that can be used to implement at least one embodiment.

[0205] In at least one embodiment, cloud computing is a computing style in which dynamically scalable and typically virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. In at least one embodiment, users do not need knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technical infrastructure supporting them, which may be referred to as "in the cloud." In at least one embodiment, cloud computing consolidates infrastructure into services, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and other variations with common Internet-dependent themes to meet users' computing needs. In at least one embodiment, a typical cloud deployment (such as in a private cloud (e.g., an enterprise network)) or a data center (DC) in a public cloud (e.g., the Internet) may consist of thousands of servers (or alternatively, VMs), hundreds of Ethernet, Fibre Channel, or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) ports, switching and storage infrastructure, etc. In at least one embodiment, the cloud may also consist of network service infrastructure such as IPsec VPN hubs, firewalls, load balancers, wide area network (WAN) optimizers, etc. In at least one embodiment, remote subscribers can securely access cloud applications and services via a VPN tunnel (such as an IPsec VPN tunnel).

[0206] In at least one embodiment, cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage devices, applications, and services) that can be quickly configured and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

[0207] In at least one embodiment, cloud computing is characterized by on-demand self-service, where consumers can automatically and unilaterally provision computing power, such as server time and network storage, as needed, without human interaction with each service provider. In at least one embodiment, cloud computing is characterized by broad network access, where capabilities are available on the network and accessed via standard mechanisms that facilitate use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs). In at least one embodiment, cloud computing is characterized by resource pooling, where a provider's computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, where different physical and virtual resources are dynamically signed and reallocated based on consumer demand. In at least one embodiment, there is a sense of location independence because consumers typically have no control or knowledge of the exact location of the resources provided, but may be able to specify the location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or data center).

[0208] In at least one embodiment, resources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines. In at least one embodiment, cloud computing is characterized by rapid elasticity, where capacity can be rapidly and elastically provisioned (in some cases automatically) to scale down and up rapidly. In at least one embodiment, for consumers, the capacity available for provisioning generally appears unlimited and can be purchased at any time in any quantity. In at least one embodiment, cloud computing is characterized by measured services, where the cloud system automatically controls and optimizes resource usage by leveraging metering capabilities at some level of abstraction suitable for service types (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). In at least one embodiment, resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, thereby providing transparency to both the providers and consumers of the services utilized.

[0209] In at least one embodiment, cloud computing may be associated with various services. In at least one embodiment, cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) may refer to the ability provided to consumers as a service that uses applications from a provider running on cloud infrastructure. In at least one embodiment, applications may be accessed from different client devices via a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email). In at least one embodiment, consumers do not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, including networks, servers, operating systems, storage, or even the capabilities of individual applications, with possible exceptions of limited user-specific application configuration settings.

[0210] In at least one embodiment, Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) can refer to a service in which the ability to provide consumers with the capability to deploy consumer-created or acquired applications onto cloud infrastructure, these applications being created using programming languages ​​and tools supported by the provider. In at least one embodiment, the consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, including networks, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and, possibly, the configuration of the application hosting environment.

[0211] In at least one embodiment, cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) can refer to a service in which the capabilities provided to consumers are processing, storage, networking, and other basic computing resources that consumers can deploy and run, including operating systems and applications. In at least one embodiment, consumers do not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, but instead have control over the operating system, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control over selected networking components (e.g., host firewalls).

[0212] In at least one embodiment, cloud computing can be deployed in different ways. In at least one embodiment, a private cloud can refer to cloud infrastructure that is operated solely by an organization. In at least one embodiment, a private cloud can be managed by an organization or a third party and can exist on-site or off-site. In at least one embodiment, a community cloud can refer to cloud infrastructure shared by several organizations and supporting a specific community with shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policies, and compliance considerations). In at least one embodiment, a community cloud can be managed by an organization or a third party and can exist on-site or off-site. In at least one embodiment, a public cloud can refer to cloud infrastructure that is available to the general public or a large industry group and is owned by an organization providing cloud services. In at least one embodiment, a hybrid cloud can refer to cloud infrastructure that is composed of two or more clouds (private, community, or public) that remain a single entity but are bound together by standardization or proprietary technologies that enable data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between clouds). In at least one embodiment, the cloud computing environment is service-oriented, focusing on statelessness, loose coupling, modularity, and semantic interoperability.

[0213] Figure 11 The diagram illustrates one or more components of a system environment 1100 according to at least one embodiment, wherein services can be provided as third-party network services. In at least one embodiment, the third-party network may be referred to as a cloud, cloud network, cloud computing network, and / or variations thereof. In at least one embodiment, system environment 1100 includes one or more client computing devices 1104, 1106, and 1108, which can be used by users to interact with a third-party network infrastructure system 1102 that provides third-party network services (which may be referred to as cloud computing services). In at least one embodiment, third-party network infrastructure system 1102 may include one or more computers and / or servers.

[0214] It should be understood that Figure 11 The third-party network infrastructure system 1102 described herein may have components other than those described. Furthermore, Figure 11 An embodiment of a third-party network infrastructure system is described. In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 may have a greater than Figure 11 The more or fewer components depicted may be combined into two or more components, or may have different component configurations or arrangements.

[0215] In at least one embodiment, client computing devices 1104, 1106, and 1108 may be configured to operate client applications, such as web browsers, which may be used by a user of the client computing devices to interact with a third-party network infrastructure system 1102 to use proprietary client applications or other applications that provide services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102. Although the exemplary system environment 1100 is shown as having three client computing devices, any number of client computing devices can be supported. In at least one embodiment, other devices, such as devices with sensors, may interact with the third-party network infrastructure system 1102. In at least one embodiment, one or more networks 1110 may facilitate communication and data exchange between client computing devices 1104, 1106, and 1108 and the third-party network infrastructure system 1102.

[0216] In at least one embodiment, the services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 may include hosting services available on demand to users of the third-party network infrastructure system. In at least one embodiment, various services may also be provided, including but not limited to online data storage and backup solutions, web-based email services, hosted office suites and document collaboration services, database management and processing, managed technical support services, and / or variations thereof. In at least one embodiment, the services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system can be dynamically expanded to meet the needs of its users.

[0217] In at least one embodiment, a specific instantiation of a service provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 may be referred to as a "service instance". In at least one embodiment, generally, any service available to a user from the third-party network service provider system via a communication network (such as the Internet) is referred to as a "third-party network service". In at least one embodiment, in a public third-party network environment, the servers and systems constituting the third-party network service provider system are different from the servers and systems on the customer's own premises. In at least one embodiment, the third-party network service provider system may host applications, and users may subscribe to and use applications on demand via a communication network (such as the Internet).

[0218] In at least one embodiment, services within a third-party network infrastructure may include protected computer network access to storage, hosted databases, hosted web servers, software applications, or other services provided to users by a third-party network provider. In at least one embodiment, services may include password-protected access to remote storage devices on a third-party network via the Internet. In at least one embodiment, services may include a web-based hosted relational database and a scripting language middleware engine for private use by network developers. In at least one embodiment, services may include access to email software applications hosted on a website hosted by a third-party network provider.

[0219] In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 may include a suite of application, middleware, and database service providers delivered to clients in a self-service, subscription-based, elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 may also provide “big data” related computing and analytics services. In at least one embodiment, the term “big data” is generally used to refer to extremely large datasets that can be stored and manipulated by analysts and researchers to visualize large amounts of data, detect trends, and / or otherwise interact with the data. In at least one embodiment, big data and related applications may be hosted and / or manipulated by the infrastructure system at many levels and at different scales. In at least one embodiment, dozens, hundreds, or thousands of processors linked in parallel may act on such data to present the data or simulate external forces on the data or what it represents. In at least one embodiment, these datasets may involve structured data (such as structured data organized in a database or otherwise according to a structured model) and / or unstructured data (e.g., emails, images, data blobs (binary large objects), web pages, complex event processing). In at least one embodiment, by leveraging the ability of the embodiment to focus more (or less) computing resources relatively quickly on the target, third-party network infrastructure systems can be better used to perform tasks on large datasets based on the needs of enterprises, government agencies, research organizations, private individuals, groups of like-minded individuals or organizations, or other entities.

[0220] In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 can be adapted to automatically provide, manage, and track customer subscriptions to services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102. In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 can provide third-party network services via different deployment models. In at least one embodiment, services can be provided under a public third-party network model, wherein the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 is owned by an organization selling third-party network services, and the services are available to the general public or various industry enterprises. In at least one embodiment, services can be provided under a private third-party network model, in which the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 operates only for a single organization and can provide services to one or more entities within that organization. In at least one embodiment, third-party network services can also be provided under a community third-party network model, wherein the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 and the services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 are shared by several organizations in the relevant community. In at least one embodiment, third-party network services can also be provided under a hybrid third-party network model, which is a combination of two or more different models.

[0221] In at least one embodiment, the services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 may include one or more services offered under the Software as a Service (SaaS) category, Platform as a Service (PaaS) category, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category, or other service categories that include hybrid services. In at least one embodiment, a customer may subscribe to one or more services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 via a subscription order. In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 then performs processing to provide the services in the customer's subscription order.

[0222] In at least one embodiment, the services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 may include, but are not limited to, application services, platform services, and infrastructure services. In at least one embodiment, application services may be provided by the third-party network infrastructure system via a SaaS platform. In at least one embodiment, the SaaS platform may be configured to provide third-party network services belonging to the SaaS category. In at least one embodiment, the SaaS platform may provide the ability to build and deliver a suite of on-demand applications on an integrated development and deployment platform. In at least one embodiment, the SaaS platform may manage and control the underlying software and infrastructure used to provide SaaS services. In at least one embodiment, by utilizing the services provided by the SaaS platform, customers can utilize applications running on the third-party network infrastructure system. In at least one embodiment, customers can obtain application services without needing to purchase separate licenses and support. In at least one embodiment, a variety of different SaaS services may be provided. In at least one embodiment, this may include, but is not limited to, services providing solutions for sales performance management, enterprise integration, and business agility for large organizations.

[0223] In at least one embodiment, the platform service may be provided by a third-party network infrastructure system 1102 via a PaaS platform. In at least one embodiment, the PaaS platform may be configured to provide third-party network services belonging to the PaaS category. In at least one embodiment, the platform service may include, but is not limited to, services that enable organizations to merge existing applications on a shared public architecture, and the ability to build new applications utilizing shared services provided by the platform. In at least one embodiment, the PaaS platform may manage and control the underlying software and infrastructure used to provide the PaaS service. In at least one embodiment, customers can access the PaaS service provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 without the need for customers to purchase separate licenses and support.

[0224] In at least one embodiment, by leveraging services provided by a PaaS platform, customers can employ programming languages ​​and tools supported by a third-party network infrastructure system and also control the deployed services. In at least one embodiment, the platform services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system may include database third-party network services, middleware third-party network services, and third-party network services. In at least one embodiment, the database third-party network service may support a shared service deployment model that enables organizations to aggregate database resources and provide database-as-a-service to customers in the form of a database third-party network. In at least one embodiment, within the third-party network infrastructure system, the middleware third-party network service can provide customers with a platform to develop and deploy different business applications, and the third-party network service can provide customers with a platform to deploy applications.

[0225] In at least one embodiment, various infrastructure services may be provided by an IaaS platform within a third-party network infrastructure system. In at least one embodiment, infrastructure services facilitate the management and control of underlying computing resources (such as storage, networking, and other basic computing resources) by customers utilizing services provided by SaaS and PaaS platforms.

[0226] In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 may further include infrastructure resources 1130 for providing resources for offering various services to customers of the third-party network infrastructure system. In at least one embodiment, infrastructure resources 1130 may include a pre-integrated and optimized combination of hardware (such as servers, storage, and networking resources) for performing services provided by PaaS platforms and SaaS platforms, as well as other resources.

[0227] In at least one embodiment, resources in the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 can be shared by multiple users and dynamically reallocated as needed. In at least one embodiment, resources can be allocated to users in different time zones. In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 can enable a first group of users in a first time zone to utilize the resources of the third-party network infrastructure system for a specified number of hours, and subsequently enable the reallocation of the same resources to another group of users located in a different time zone, thereby maximizing resource utilization.

[0228] In at least one embodiment, multiple internal shared services 1132, shared by different components or modules of the third-party network infrastructure system 1102, may be provided to enable services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102. In at least one embodiment, these internal shared services may include, but are not limited to, security and identity services, integration services, enterprise library services, enterprise manager services, virus scanning and whitelisting services, high availability, backup and recovery services, services for enabling third-party network support, email services, notification services, file transfer services, and / or variations thereof.

[0229] In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 can provide comprehensive management of third-party network services (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services) within the third-party network infrastructure system. In at least one embodiment, the third-party network management functionality may include the ability and / or variations thereof for provisioning, managing, and tracking customer subscriptions received by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102.

[0230] In at least one embodiment, such as Figure 11As shown, third-party network management functions can be provided by one or more modules, such as order management module 1120, order coordination module 1122, order supply module 1124, order management and monitoring module 1126, and identity management module 1128. In at least one embodiment, these modules may include or be provided using one or more computers and / or servers, which may be general-purpose computers, dedicated server computers, server farms, server clusters, or any other suitable arrangement and / or combination.

[0231] In at least one embodiment, in step 1134, a customer using a client device (such as client computing devices 1104, 1106, or 1108) interacts with the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 by requesting one or more services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 and placing an order for a subscription to one or more services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102. In at least one embodiment, the customer may access a third-party network user interface (UI), such as third-party network UI 1112, third-party network UI 1114, and / or third-party network UI 1116, and place orders via these UIs. In at least one embodiment, order information received by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 in response to a customer placing an order may include information identifying the customer and the one or more services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102 that the customer wishes to subscribe to.

[0232] In at least one embodiment, in step 1136, the order information received from the customer may be stored in the order database 1118. In at least one embodiment, if this is a new order, a new record may be created for the order. In at least one embodiment, the order database 1118 may be one of several databases operated by a third-party network infrastructure system 1118 and in conjunction with other system components.

[0233] In at least one embodiment, in step 1138, the order information can be forwarded to the order management module 1120, which can be configured to perform billing and accounting functions related to the order, such as verifying the order and, after verification, booking an order.

[0234] In at least one embodiment, in step 1140, information about the order may be transmitted to an order coordination module 1122, which is configured to coordinate the provision of services and resources for orders placed by customers. In at least one embodiment, the order coordination module 1122 may use the services of the order provisioning module 1124 for provisioning. In at least one embodiment, the order coordination module 1122 enables the management of business processes associated with each order and applies business logic to determine whether an order should continue to be provisioned.

[0235] In at least one embodiment, in step 1142, upon receiving a new subscription order, the order coordination module 1122 sends a request to the order provisioning module 1124 to allocate resources and configure the resources required to satisfy the subscription order. In at least one embodiment, the order provisioning module 1124 implements resource allocation for the service ordered by the customer. In at least one embodiment, the order provisioning module 1124 provides an abstraction level between third-party network services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1100 and the physical implementation layer used to supply resources for providing the requested service. In at least one embodiment, this allows the order coordination module 1122 to be isolated from implementation details, such as whether services and resources are actually provisioned in real-time or pre-provisioned and allocated / assigned only upon request.

[0236] In at least one embodiment, in step 1144, once the service and resources are provided, a notification instructing the subscribing customer that the requested service is now ready for use can be sent. In at least one embodiment, information (e.g., a link) can be sent to the customer, enabling the customer to begin using the requested service.

[0237] In at least one embodiment, in step 1146, the customer's subscription order can be managed and tracked by the order management and monitoring module 1126. In at least one embodiment, the order management and monitoring module 1126 can be configured to collect usage statistics regarding customer use of the subscription service. In at least one embodiment, statistics can be collected for storage usage, data transfer volume, number of users, and the amount and / or changes in system power-on and power-off times.

[0238] In at least one embodiment, the third-party network infrastructure system 1100 may include an identity management module 1128 configured to provide identity services, such as access management and authorization services within the third-party network infrastructure system 1100. In at least one embodiment, the identity management module 1128 may control information about customers who wish to utilize services provided by the third-party network infrastructure system 1102. In at least one embodiment, such information may include information authenticating the identities of such customers and information describing which actions those customers are authorized to perform relative to various system resources (e.g., files, directories, applications, communication ports, memory segments, etc.). In at least one embodiment, the identity management module 1128 may also include managing descriptive information about each customer, as well as information about how and by whom that descriptive information can be accessed and modified.

[0239] Figure 12 A cloud computing environment 1202 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the cloud computing environment 1202 includes one or more computer systems / servers 1204, with computing devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) or cellular phones 1206A, desktop computers 1206B, laptop computers 1206C, and / or automotive computer systems 1206N communicating with the one or more computer systems / servers 1204. In at least one embodiment, this allows infrastructure, platforms, and / or software to be provided as services from the cloud computing environment 1202 so that each client does not need to maintain such resources individually. It should be understood that... Figure 12 The types of computing devices 1206A-N shown are intended to be illustrative only, and the cloud computing environment 1202 can communicate with any type of computerized device via any type of network and / or network / addressable connectivity (e.g., using a web browser).

[0240] In at least one embodiment, the computer system / server 1204, which may be represented as a cloud computing node, may operate with many other general-purpose or special-purpose computing system environments or configurations. In at least one embodiment, computing systems, environments, and / or configurations suitable for use with the computer system / server 1204 include, but are not limited to, personal computer systems, server computer systems, thin clients, thick clients, handheld or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set-top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems, mainframe computers, and distributed cloud computing environments that include any of the aforementioned systems or devices, and / or variations thereof.

[0241] In at least one embodiment, the computer system / server 1204 can be described in the general context of computer system executable instructions (such as program modules) executed by the computer system. In at least one embodiment, the program module includes routines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, etc., that perform a specific task or implement a specific abstract data type. In at least one embodiment, the exemplary computer system / server 1204 can be practiced in a distributed cloud computing environment, where tasks are performed by remote processing devices linked via a communication network. In at least one embodiment, in a distributed cloud computing environment, the program module may reside in both local and remote computer system storage media, including memory storage devices.

[0242] Figure 13 The cloud computing environment 1202 according to at least one embodiment is shown. Figure 12 This provides a set of functional abstractions. It should be understood beforehand. Figure 13 The components, layers, and functions shown are intended to be illustrative only, and may vary.

[0243] In at least one embodiment, the hardware and software layer 1302 includes hardware and software components. In at least one embodiment, the hardware components include mainframes, servers based on various RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architectures, various computing systems, supercomputing systems, storage devices, networks, networking components, and / or variations thereof. In at least one embodiment, the software components include network application server software, various application server software, various database software, and / or variations thereof.

[0244] In at least one embodiment, the virtualization layer 1304 provides an abstraction layer from which exemplary virtual entities such as virtual servers, virtual storage, virtual networks (including virtual private networks), virtual applications, virtual clients, and / or variations thereof can be provided.

[0245] In at least one embodiment, the management layer 1306 provides various functionalities. In at least one embodiment, resource provisioning provides the dynamic acquisition of computing resources and other resources for performing tasks within the cloud computing environment. In at least one embodiment, metering provides usage tracking of resources within the cloud computing environment, and billing or invoicing for the consumption of these resources. In at least one embodiment, resources may include application software licenses. In at least one embodiment, security provides authentication for users and tasks, and protection for data and other resources. In at least one embodiment, the user interface provides access to the cloud computing environment for both users and system administrators. In at least one embodiment, service level management provides the allocation and management of cloud computing resources to meet required service levels. In at least one embodiment, service level agreement (SLA) management provides the pre-deployment and acquisition of cloud computing resources, anticipating future demand for those resources according to the SLA.

[0246] In at least one embodiment, workload layer 1308 provides functionality utilizing a cloud computing environment. In at least one embodiment, workloads and functions that can be provided from this layer include: mapping and navigation, software development and management, educational services, data analysis and processing, transaction processing, and service delivery.

[0247] Supercomputing

[0248] The following figures illustrate, but are not limited to, exemplary supercomputer-based systems that can be used to implement at least one embodiment.

[0249] In at least one embodiment, a supercomputer can refer to a hardware system exhibiting significant parallelism and comprising at least one chip, wherein the chips in the system are interconnected via a network and housed in a hierarchically organized enclosure. In at least one embodiment, a large hardware system filling a server room with several racks is at least one embodiment of a supercomputer, each rack comprising several board / rack modules, each board / rack module comprising several chips all interconnected by a scalable network. In at least one embodiment, a single TLB rack of such a large hardware system is at least one other embodiment of a supercomputer. In at least one embodiment, a single chip exhibiting significant parallelism and comprising several hardware components can also be considered a supercomputer, because as feature sizes may decrease, the number of hardware components that can be incorporated into a single chip may also increase.

[0250] Figure 14A chip-level supercomputer according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the main computation is performed within a finite state machine (1404) referred to as a thread unit, inside an FPGA or ASIC chip. In at least one embodiment, a task and synchronization network (1402) connects to the finite state machine and is used to dispatch threads and perform operations in the correct order. In at least one embodiment, a memory network (1406, 1410) is used to access a multi-level partitioned on-chip cache hierarchy (1408, 1412). In at least one embodiment, a memory controller (1416) and an off-chip memory network (1414) are used to access off-chip memory. In at least one embodiment, an I / O controller (1418) is used for cross-chip communication when the design is not suitable for a single logic chip.

[0251] Figure 15 A supercomputer at the rack module level is illustrated according to at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, within the TLB rack module, there are multiple FPGA or ASIC chips (1502) connected to one or more DRAM cells (1504) constituting the main accelerator memory. In at least one embodiment, each FPGA / ASIC chip is connected to its adjacent FPGA / ASIC chip using a wide on-board bus with differential high-speed signaling (1506). In at least one embodiment, each FPGA / ASIC chip is also connected to at least one high-speed serial communication cable.

[0252] Figure 16 A TLB rack-level supercomputer according to at least one embodiment is shown. Figure 17 A supercomputer at the entire system level is illustrated according to at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, see [link to at least one embodiment]. Figure 16 and Figure 17A scalable, potentially incomplete, hypercube network is implemented between TLB rack modules within the TLB rack and across the entire system rack using high-speed serial optical fiber or copper cable (1602, 1702). In at least one embodiment, one of the FPGA / ASIC chips in the accelerator is connected to the host system (1704) via a PCI-Express connection. In at least one embodiment, the host system includes a host microprocessor (1708) on which the software portion of the application runs, and a memory consisting of one or more host memory DRAM cells (1706) consistent with the memory on the accelerator. In at least one embodiment, the host system may be a separate module on one of the racks or may be integrated with one of the modules of the supercomputer. In at least one embodiment, a loop topology of cube connections provides communication links to create a hypercube network for a large supercomputer. In at least one embodiment, a group of FPGA / ASIC chips on a TLB rack module can act as a single hypercube node, increasing the total number of external links per group compared to a single chip. In at least one embodiment, the group comprises chips A, B, C, and D on a TLB rack module having an internal wide differential bus connecting A, B, C, and D in a ring structure. In at least one embodiment, there are 12 serial communication cables connecting the TLB rack module to the outside world. In at least one embodiment, chip A on the TLB rack module is connected to serial communication cables 0, 1, and 2. In at least one embodiment, chip B is connected to cables 3, 4, and 5. In at least one embodiment, chip C is connected to cables 6, 7, and 8. In at least one embodiment, chip D is connected to cables 9, 10, and 11. In at least one embodiment, the entire group {A, B, C, D} constituting the TLB rack module can form a hypercube node within a supercomputer system, containing up to 2^12 = 4096 TLB rack modules (16384 FPGA / ASIC chips). In at least one embodiment, in order for chip A to send a message outward on link 4 of the group {A, B, C, D}, the message must first be routed to chip B using an on-board wide differential bus connection. In at least one embodiment, a message arriving on link 4 to the group {A, B, C, D} (i.e., to B) destined for chip A must first be routed to the correct destination chip (A) within the group {A, B, C, D}. In at least one embodiment, parallel supercomputer systems of other sizes can also be implemented.

[0253] AI

[0254] The following figures illustrate, but are not limited to, exemplary artificial intelligence-based systems that can be used to implement at least one embodiment.

[0255] Figure 18AInference and / or training logic 1815 for performing inference and / or training operations associated with one or more embodiments is shown. The following is in conjunction with... Figure 18A and / or Figure 18B Provide details regarding reasoning and / or training logic 1815.

[0256] In at least one embodiment, the inference and / or training logic 1815 may include, but is not limited to, code and / or data storage 1801 for storing forward and / or output weights and / or input / output data, and / or other parameters for configuring neurons or layers of a neural network trained and / or used for inference in aspects of one or more embodiments. In at least one embodiment, the training logic 1815 may include or be coupled to the code and / or data storage 1801 for storing graphical code or other software to control timing and / or sequence, wherein weight and / or other parameter information is loaded to configure the logic, including integer and / or floating-point units (collectively, arithmetic logic units (ALUs)). In at least one embodiment, code (such as graphical code) loads weight or other parameter information into the processor ALU based on the architecture of the neural network to which such code corresponds. In at least one embodiment, the code and / or data storage 1801 stores weight parameters and / or input / output data for each layer of a neural network that is trained or used in conjunction with one or more embodiments during forward propagation of input / output data and / or weight parameters during training and / or inference using aspects of one or more embodiments. In at least one embodiment, any portion of the code and / or data storage 1801 may be included together with other on-chip or off-chip data storage devices, including the processor's L1, L2, or L3 cache memory or system memory.

[0257] In at least one embodiment, any portion of the code and / or data storage 1801 may be internal or external to one or more processors or other hardware logic devices or circuits. In at least one embodiment, the code and / or data storage 1801 may be a cache memory, dynamic random-addressable memory (“DRAM”), static random-addressable memory (“SRAM”), non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory), or other storage devices. In at least one embodiment, the choice of whether the code and / or data storage 1801 is internal or external to the processor, or includes DRAM, SRAM, flash memory, or some other storage type, in at least one embodiment, may depend on the available on-chip storage relative to off-chip storage, the latency requirements of the training and / or inference functions being performed, the batch size of the data used in the inference and / or training of the neural network, or some combination of these factors.

[0258] In at least one embodiment, the inference and / or training logic 1815 may include, but is not limited to, code and / or data storage 1805 for storing backpropagation and / or output weights and / or input / output data corresponding to neurons or layers of a neural network trained and / or used for inference in aspects of one or more embodiments. In at least one embodiment, the code and / or data storage 1805 stores weight parameters and / or input / output data for each layer of the neural network, which is trained or used in conjunction with one or more embodiments during backpropagation of input / output data and / or weight parameters during training and / or inference in aspects of one or more embodiments. In at least one embodiment, the training logic 1815 may include or be coupled to the code and / or data storage 1805 to store graph code or other software to control timing and / or sequencing, wherein weight and / or other parameter information is loaded to configure logic, including integer and / or floating-point units (collectively, arithmetic logic units (ALUs)).

[0259] In at least one embodiment, code (such as graph code) enables the loading of weights or other parameter information into the processor ALU based on the architecture of the neural network corresponding to such code. In at least one embodiment, any portion of the code and / or data storage 1805 may be included together with other on-chip or off-chip data storage, including the processor's L1, L2, or L3 cache or system memory. In at least one embodiment, any portion of the code and / or data storage 1805 may be internal or external to one or more processors or other hardware logic devices or circuits. In at least one embodiment, the code and / or data storage 1805 may be cache memory, DRAM, SRAM, non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory), or other storage devices. In at least one embodiment, the choice of whether the code and / or data storage 1805 is internal or external to the processor, or includes DRAM, SRAM, flash memory, or some other storage type, may depend on the available on-chip storage relative to off-chip storage, the latency requirements of the training and / or inference functions being performed, the batch size of the data used in the inference and / or training of the neural network, or some combination of these factors.

[0260] In at least one embodiment, code and / or data storage 1801 and code and / or data storage 1805 may be separate storage structures. In at least one embodiment, code and / or data storage 1801 and code and / or data storage 1805 may be combined storage structures. In at least one embodiment, code and / or data storage 1801 and code and / or data storage 1805 may be partially combined and partially separated. In at least one embodiment, any portion of code and / or data storage 1801 and code and / or data storage 1805 may be included together with other on-chip or off-chip data storage (including the processor's L1, L2, or L3 cache or system memory).

[0261] In at least one embodiment, the inference and / or training logic 1815 may include, but is not limited to, one or more arithmetic logic units (“ALUs”) 1810, including integer and / or floating-point units, for performing logical and / or mathematical operations at least in part based on or instructed by training and / or inference code (e.g., graph code), the results of which may produce activations (e.g., output values ​​from layers or neurons within a neural network) stored in activation storage 1820, which is a function of input / output and / or weight parameter data stored in code and / or data storage 1801 and / or code and / or data storage 1805. In at least one embodiment, activations stored in activation memory 1820 are generated based on linear algebra and / or matrix-based mathematics performed by ALU 1810 in response to execution instructions or other code, wherein weight values ​​stored in code and / or data storage 1805 and / or data storage 1801 are used as operands along with other values ​​(such as bias values, gradient information, momentum values, or other parameters or hyperparameters), any or all of which may be stored in code and / or data storage 1805 or code and / or data storage 1801 or in another memory on or off the chip.

[0262] In at least one embodiment, one or more ALUs 1810 are included within one or more processors or other hardware logic devices or circuits, while in another embodiment, one or more ALUs 1810 may be external to the processor or other hardware logic devices or circuits (e.g., coprocessors) that use them. In at least one embodiment, ALUs 1810 may be included within an execution unit of a processor or otherwise within an ALU library accessible by the execution unit of the processor, which may be within the same processor or distributed among different types of processors (e.g., central processing unit, graphics processing unit, fixed-function unit, etc.). In at least one embodiment, code and / or data storage 1801, code and / or data storage 1805, and activation storage 1820 may share a processor or other hardware logic device or circuit, while in another embodiment, they may be in different processors or other hardware logic devices or circuits, or in some combination of the same and different processors or other hardware logic devices or circuits. In at least one embodiment, any portion of the activation storage 1820 may be included together with other on-chip or off-chip data storage, including the processor's L1, L2, or L3 cache or system memory. Furthermore, inference and / or training code may be stored together with other code accessible to the processor or other hardware logic or circuitry and acquired and / or processed using the processor's fetch, decode, schedule, execute, retire, and / or other logic circuitry.

[0263] In at least one embodiment, the active memory 1820 may be a cache memory, DRAM, SRAM, non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory), or other storage device. In at least one embodiment, the active memory 1820 may be wholly or partially within or outside one or more processors or other logic circuits. In at least one embodiment, the choice of whether the active memory 1820 is inside or outside the processor, or includes DRAM, SRAM, flash memory, or some other storage type, may depend on the available on-chip storage relative to off-chip storage, the latency requirements of the training and / or inference functions being performed, the batch size of the data used in the inference and / or training of the neural network, or some combination of these factors.

[0264] In at least one embodiment, Figure 18A The inference and / or training logic 1815 shown can be used in conjunction with an application-specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”), such as those from Google. Processing unit, from Graphcore TM Inference processing unit (IPU), or from Intel Corporation (e.g., a "LakeCrest" processor). In at least one embodiment, Figure 18A The inference and / or training logic 1815 shown can be used in conjunction with central processing unit (“CPU”) hardware, graphics processing unit (“GPU”) hardware or other hardware such as field programmable gate array (“FPGA”)).

[0265] Figure 18B Inference and / or training logic 1815 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the inference and / or training logic 1815 may include, but is not limited to, hardware logic in which computational resources are dedicated or otherwise exclusively used in conjunction with weight values ​​or other information corresponding to one or more neuron layers within a neural network. In at least one embodiment, Figure 18B The inference and / or training logic 1815 shown can be combined with an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (such as those from Google). Processing unit, from Graphcore TM Inference processing unit (IPU), or from Intel Corporation (For example, "LakeCrest") processors are used. In at least one embodiment, Figure 18B The inference and / or training logic 1815 shown can be used in conjunction with central processing unit (CPU) hardware, graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware, or other hardware such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). In at least one embodiment, the inference and / or training logic 1815 includes, but is not limited to, code and / or data storage 1801 and code and / or data storage 1805, which can be used to store code (e.g., graph code), weight values, and / or other information, including bias values, gradient information, momentum values, and / or other parameter or hyperparameter information. Figure 18B In at least one embodiment described herein, each of code and / or data storage 1801 and code and / or data storage 1805 is associated with a dedicated computing resource (e.g., computing hardware 1802 and computing hardware 1806). In at least one embodiment, each of computing hardware 1802 and computing hardware 1806 includes one or more ALUs that perform mathematical functions (such as linear algebra functions) on the information stored in code and / or data storage 1801 and code and / or data storage 1805, respectively, and the results are stored in active storage 1820.

[0266] In at least one embodiment, each code and / or data store 1801 and 1805 and corresponding computing hardware 1802 and 1806 corresponds to a different layer of the neural network, such that the activation result from one storage / computation pair 1801 / 1802 of the code and / or data store 1801 and computing hardware 1802 is provided as input to the next storage / computation pair 1805 / 1806 of the code and / or data store 1805 and computing hardware 1806 to mirror the conceptual organization of the neural network. In at least one embodiment, each of the storage / computation pairs 1801 / 1802 and 1805 / 1806 may correspond to more than one neural network layer. In at least one embodiment, additional storage / computation pairs (not shown) following or paralleling the storage / computation pairs 1801 / 1802 and 1805 / 1806 may be included in the inference and / or training logic 1815.

[0267] Figure 19 The training and deployment of a deep neural network according to at least one embodiment are illustrated. In at least one embodiment, an untrained neural network 1906 is trained using a training dataset 1902. In at least one embodiment, the training framework 1904 is a PyTorch framework, while in other embodiments, the training framework 1904 is TensorFlow, Boost, Caffe, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit / CNTK, MXNet, Chainer, Keras, Deeplearning4j, or other training frameworks. In at least one embodiment, the training framework 1904 trains the untrained neural network 1906 and enables it to be trained using the processing resources described herein to generate a trained neural network 1908. In at least one embodiment, the weights may be randomly selected or selected by pre-training using a deep belief network. In at least one embodiment, training may be performed in a supervised, partially supervised, or unsupervised manner.

[0268] In at least one embodiment, supervised learning is used to train an untrained neural network 1906, wherein the training dataset 1902 includes inputs paired with desired outputs for input, or wherein the training dataset 1902 includes inputs with known outputs, and the outputs of the neural network 1906 are manually graded. In at least one embodiment, the untrained neural network 1906 is trained in a supervised manner, and inputs from the training dataset 1902 are processed, and the resulting outputs are compared with a set of expected or desired outputs. In at least one embodiment, the error is then backpropagated through the untrained neural network 1906. In at least one embodiment, a training framework 1904 adjusts the weights controlling the untrained neural network 1906. In at least one embodiment, the training framework 1904 includes tools for monitoring how well the untrained neural network 1906 converges toward a model (such as a trained neural network 1908) adapted to generate correct answers (such as results 1914) based on input data (such as a new dataset 1912). In at least one embodiment, the training framework 1904 repeatedly trains the untrained neural network 1906 while using a loss function and tuning algorithms (such as stochastic gradient descent) to adjust the weights to refine the output of the untrained neural network 1906. In at least one embodiment, the training framework 1904 trains the untrained neural network 1906 until the untrained neural network 1906 achieves the desired accuracy. In at least one embodiment, the trained neural network 1908 can then be deployed to implement any number of machine learning operations.

[0269] In at least one embodiment, unsupervised learning is used to train an untrained neural network 1906, wherein the untrained neural network 1906 attempts to train itself using unlabeled data. In at least one embodiment, the unsupervised learning training dataset 1902 will include input data without any associated output data or "ground truth" data. In at least one embodiment, the untrained neural network 1906 can learn groupings within the training dataset 1902 and can determine how each input relates to the untrained dataset 1902. In at least one embodiment, unsupervised training can be used to generate self-organizing maps in a trained neural network 1908 capable of performing operations useful in reducing the dimensionality of the new dataset 1912. In at least one embodiment, unsupervised training can also be used to perform anomaly detection, which allows the identification of data points in the new dataset 1912 that deviate from the normal patterns of the new dataset 1912.

[0270] In at least one embodiment, semi-supervised learning can be used, which is a technique in which a mixture of labeled and unlabeled data is included in the training dataset 1902. In at least one embodiment, the training framework 1904 can be used to perform incremental learning, such as through transfer learning techniques. In at least one embodiment, incremental learning enables the trained neural network 1908 to adapt to a new dataset 1912 without forgetting the knowledge injected into the trained neural network 1408 during the initial training.

[0271] 5G network

[0272] The following figures illustrate, but are not limited to, exemplary 5G-based systems that can be used to implement at least one embodiment.

[0273] Figure 20 An architecture of a system 2000 for a network according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, system 2000 is shown to include user equipment (UE) 2002 and UE 2004. In at least one embodiment, UE 2002 and 2004 are shown as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), pager, laptop computer, desktop computer, wireless handheld device, or any computing device including a wireless communication interface.

[0274] In at least one embodiment, either UE2002 or UE2004 may include an Internet of Things (IoT) UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. In at least one embodiment, the IoT UE may utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communication (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe), or Device-to-Device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or the IoT network. In at least one embodiment, the M2M or MTC data exchange may be machine-initiated data exchange. In at least one embodiment, the IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. In at least one embodiment, the IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, state updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0275] In at least one embodiment, UE2002 and UE2004 may be configured to connect (e.g., communicatively coupled) to a radio access network (RAN) 2016. In at least one embodiment, RAN 2016 may be an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), NextGenRAN (NGRAN), or some other type of RAN. In at least one embodiment, UE2002 and UE2004 utilize connection 2012 and connection 2014, respectively, each connection including a physical communication interface or layer. In at least one embodiment, connections 2012 and 2014 are shown as air interfaces for implementing communication coupling and may be consistent with cellular communication protocols such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocol, Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, Cellular PTT (POC) protocol, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, 5G protocol, New Radio (NR) protocol, and variants thereof.

[0276] In at least one embodiment, UE2002 and 2004 may also directly exchange communication data via ProSe interface 2006. In at least one embodiment, ProSe interface 2006 may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface, which includes one or more logical channels, including but not limited to the Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

[0277] In at least one embodiment, UE2004 is shown configured to access access point (AP)2010 via connection 2008. In at least one embodiment, connection 2008 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP2010 will include Wireless Fidelity. Router. In at least one embodiment, AP2010 is shown as a core network connected to the Internet but not to a wireless system.

[0278] In at least one embodiment, RAN2016 may include one or more access nodes enabling connectivity between 2012 and 2014. In at least one embodiment, these access nodes (ANs) may be referred to as base stations (BS), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next-generation NodeBs (gNBs), RAN nodes, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., ground access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). In at least one embodiment, RAN2016 may include one or more RAN nodes (e.g., macro RAN node 2018) for providing macrocell coverage and one or more RAN nodes (e.g., low-power (LP) RAN node 2020) for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cells with smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells).

[0279] In at least one embodiment, either RAN node 2018 or 2020 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first contact point for UEs 2002 and 2004. In at least one embodiment, either RAN node 2018 or 2020 may implement various logical functions of RAN 2016, including but not limited to Radio Network Controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling and mobility management.

[0280] In at least one embodiment, UE2002 and UE2004 may be configured to communicate with each other or with either RAN node 2018 and RAN node 2020 via a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals, according to various communication technologies such as, but not limited to, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication technology (e.g., for downlink communication) or single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication technology (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), and / or variations thereof. In at least one embodiment, the OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0281] In at least one embodiment, the downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from either RAN nodes 2018 and 2020 to UEs 2002 and 2004, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. In at least one embodiment, the grid can be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which represents the physical resources in the downlink within each time slot. In at least one embodiment, this time-frequency plane representation is a common practice in OFDM systems, making it intuitive for radio resource allocation. In at least one embodiment, each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. In at least one embodiment, the duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. In at least one embodiment, the minimum time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. In at least one embodiment, each resource grid comprises multiple resource blocks that describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. In at least one embodiment, each resource block comprises a set of resource elements. In at least one embodiment, in the frequency domain, this can represent the minimum number of resources that can currently be allocated. In at least one embodiment, there are several different physical downlink channels that use such resource blocks for transmission.

[0282] In at least one embodiment, the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) can carry user data and higher-layer signaling to UEs 2002 and 2004. In at least one embodiment, the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) can carry information such as transmission format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. In at least one embodiment, it can also inform UEs 2002 and 2004 of transmission format, resource allocation, and HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information related to the uplink shared channel. In at least one embodiment, typically, downlink scheduling (allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 2002 within the cell) can be performed at either RAN node 2018 or 2020 based on channel quality information fed back from either UE 2002 or 2004. In at least one embodiment, downlink resource allocation information can be transmitted on the PDCCH used for (e.g., allocated to) each of UEs 2002 and 2004.

[0283] In at least one embodiment, the PDCCH can use Control Channel Elements (CCEs) to transmit control information. In at least one embodiment, PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets before being mapped to resource elements, and then permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. In at least one embodiment, one or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements referred to as resource element groups (REGs). In at least one embodiment, four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. In at least one embodiment, depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. In at least one embodiment, there can be four or more different PDCCH formats (e.g., aggregation levels, L = 1, 2, 4, or 8) with different numbers of CCEs as defined in LTE.

[0284] In at least one embodiment, the Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) using PDSCH resources can be used for control information transmission. In at least one embodiment, one or more Enhanced Control Channel Elements (ECCEs) can be used to transmit the EPDCCH. In at least one embodiment, each ECCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements referred to as Enhanced Resource Element Groups (EREGs). In at least one embodiment, the ECCE can have a different number of EREGs in some cases.

[0285] In at least one embodiment, RAN 2016 is shown communicatively coupled to core network (CN) 2038 via S1 interface 2022. In at least one embodiment, CN 2038 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen packet core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN. In at least one embodiment, S1 interface 2022 is divided into two parts: S1-U interface 2026, which carries service data between RAN nodes 2018 and 2020 and serving gateway (S-GW) 2030; and S1-Mobility Management Entity (MME) interface 2024, which is the signaling interface between RAN nodes 2018 and 2020 and MME 2028.

[0286] In at least one embodiment, CN2038 includes MME2028, S-GW2030, Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW)2034, and Home Subscriber Server (HSS)2032. In at least one embodiment, MME2028 may functionally resemble the control plane of a legacy General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN). In at least one embodiment, MME2028 may manage mobility aspects of access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. In at least one embodiment, HSS2032 may include a database for network users, comprising subscription-related information to support network entities in handling communication sessions. In at least one embodiment, CN2038 may include one or more HSS2032s, depending on the number of mobile users, device capacity, network organization, etc. In at least one embodiment, HSS2032 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

[0287] In at least one embodiment, the S-GW2030 can terminate the S1 interface 2022 toward RAN2016 and route data packets between RAN2016 and CN2038. In at least one embodiment, the S-GW2030 can be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handover and can also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. In at least one embodiment, other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0288] In at least one embodiment, P-GW2034 can terminate the SGi interface toward the PDN. In at least one embodiment, P-GW2034 can route data packets between EPC network 2038 and external networks (such as networks including application server 2040 (or application function (AF))) via Internet Protocol (IP) interface 2042. In at least one embodiment, application server 2040 can be an element that provides applications using IP bearer resources using a core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Service (PS) domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). In at least one embodiment, P-GW2034 is shown as communicatively coupled to application server 2040 via IP communication interface 2042. In at least one embodiment, application server 2040 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) of UE2002 and 2004 via CN2038.

[0289] In at least one embodiment, P-GW2034 may also be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. In at least one embodiment, Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 2036 is the policy and charging control element of CN2038. In at least one embodiment, in a non-roaming scenario, a single PCRF may exist in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with the UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In at least one embodiment, in a roaming scenario with local traffic breaches, two PCRFs may exist associated with the UE's IP-CAN session: the Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within the HPLMMN and the Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within the Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). In at least one embodiment, PCRF2036 may be communicatively coupled to application server 2040 via P-GW2034. In at least one embodiment, application server 2040 may signal PCRF2036 to indicate new service flows and select appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. In at least one embodiment, PCRF2036 can supply this rule to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with an appropriate Service Flow Template (TFT) and identifier for a QoS Class (QCI), which is initiated by the application server 2040 for QoS and charging.

[0290] Figure 21 The architecture of a system 2100 of a network according to some embodiments is shown. In at least one embodiment, the system 2100 is shown to include a UE 2102, a 5G access node or RAN node (shown as (R)AN node 2108), a user plane function (shown as UPF 2104), a data network (DN 2106), which in at least one embodiment may be an operator service, an Internet access or a third-party service, and a 5G core network (5GC) (shown as CN 2110).

[0291] In at least one embodiment, CN2110 includes authentication server functionality (AUSF2114); core access and mobility management functionality (AMF2112); session management functionality (SMF2118); network exposure functionality (NEF2116); policy control functionality (PCF2122); network function (NF) repository functionality (NRF2120); unified data management (UDM2124); and application functionality (AF2126). In at least one embodiment, CN2110 may also include other elements not shown, such as structured data storage network functionality (SDSF), unstructured data storage network functionality (UDSF), and variations thereof.

[0292] In at least one embodiment, UPF2104 can act as an anchor point for intra- and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected to DN2106, and a branch point supporting multi-homed PDU sessions. In at least one embodiment, UPF2104 can also perform packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane portion of policy rule enforcement, lawful packet interception (UP collection), service usage reporting, performing QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), performing uplink service verification (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport-level packet marking in uplink and downlink, and downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. In at least one embodiment, UPF2104 may include an uplink classifier for supporting the routing of service flows to the data network. In at least one embodiment, DN2106 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services.

[0293] In at least one embodiment, AUSF2114 can store data for authentication of UE2102 and handle authentication-related functions. In at least one embodiment, AUSF2114 can facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types.

[0294] In at least one embodiment, AMF2112 can be responsible for registration management (e.g., for registering UE2102, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, as well as access authentication and authorization. In at least one embodiment, AMF2112 can provide SM message transmission for SMF2118 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. In at least one embodiment, AMF2112 can also provide UE2102 with SMS Functionality (SMSF) (…). Figure 21 Transmission of Short Message Service (SMS) messages between (not shown). In at least one embodiment, AMF2112 may act as a Security Anchoring Function (SEA), which may include interaction with AUSF2114 and UE2102 and receiving an intermediate key established as a result of the UE2102 authentication process. In at least one embodiment, in the case of using USIM-based authentication, AMF2112 may retrieve security material from AUSF2114. In at least one embodiment, AMF2112 may also include a Security Context Management (SCM) function, which receives from the SEA a key it uses to derive the access network-specific key. Furthermore, in at least one embodiment, AMF2112 may be the termination point (N2 reference point) of the RANCP interface, the termination point of NAS (NI) signaling, and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0295] In at least one embodiment, AMF2112 can also support NAS signaling with UE2102 via the N3 Interworking Function (IWF) interface. In at least one embodiment, the N3IWF can be used to provide access to untrusted entities. In at least one embodiment, the N3IWF can be the termination point of the N2 and N3 interfaces of the control plane and user plane, respectively, thus enabling N2 signaling from the SMF and AMF to be processed for PDU sessions and QoS, encapsulation / decapsulation of IPSec and N3 tunnel packets, marking N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and implementing QoS corresponding to the N3 packet marking, taking into account the QoS requirements associated with such marking received via N2. In at least one embodiment, the N3IWF can also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS (NI) signaling between UE2102 and AMF2112, and relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between UE2102 and UPF2104. In at least one embodiment, the N3IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with the UE2102.

[0296] In at least one embodiment, the SMF2118 may be responsible for session management (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between the UPF and AN nodes); UEIP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP functions; configuring traffic redirection at the UPF to route traffic to the appropriate destination; interface termination towards policy control functions; policy enforcement and QoS control portions; lawful interception (for SM events and interfaces to the LI system); termination of the SM portion of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiator of AN-specific SM information, which is sent to the AN via the AMF on N2; and determination of the SSC mode of the session. In at least one embodiment, the SMF2118 may include the following roaming functions: handling local implementation to apply QoSSLAB (VPLMN); charge data collection and charge interface (VPLMN); lawful interception (for SM events in the VPLMN and interface to the LI system); and supporting interaction with external DNs to transmit signaling for PDU session authorization / authentication performed by the external DNs.

[0297] In at least one embodiment, NEF2116 can provide means for securely exposing services and capabilities provided to third parties by 3GPP network functions, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF2126), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In at least one embodiment, NEF2116 can authenticate, authorize, and / or throttle AFs. In at least one embodiment, NEF2116 can also translate information exchanged with AF2126 and information exchanged with internal network functions. In at least one embodiment, NEF2116 can translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. In at least one embodiment, NEF2116 can also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on the ability to expose other network functions. In at least one embodiment, this information can be stored as structured data at NEF2116 or stored at a data storage NF using a standardized interface. In at least one embodiment, the stored information can then be re-exposed by NEF2116 to other NFs and AFs, and / or used for other purposes, such as analysis.

[0298] In at least one embodiment, the NRF2120 may support service discovery functionality, receiving NF discovery requests from NF instances and providing information about discovered NF instances to the NF instances. In at least one embodiment, the NRF2120 also maintains information about available NF instances and the services they support.

[0299] In at least one embodiment, the PCF2122 may provide policy rules to control plane functions for enforcement, and may also support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. In at least one embodiment, the PCF2122 may also implement a front-end (FE) for accessing subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM2124.

[0300] In at least one embodiment, UDM2124 can process subscription-related information to support network entities in handling communication sessions and can store subscription data of UE2102. In at least one embodiment, UDM2124 may include two parts: an application FE and a user data repository (UDR). In at least one embodiment, UDM may include a UDMFE responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. In at least one embodiment, several different front-ends may serve the same user in different transactions. In at least one embodiment, UDM-FE accesses sub-subscription information stored in UDR and performs authentication credential processing; user identification processing; access authorization; registration / mobility management; and subscription management. In at least one embodiment, UDR may interact with PCF2122. In at least one embodiment, UDM2124 may also support SMS management, wherein SMS-FE implements similar application logic as described above.

[0301] In at least one embodiment, AF2126 can provide application impact on service routing, access to Network Capability Exposure (NCE), and interaction with a policy framework for policy control. In at least one embodiment, NCE can be a mechanism allowing 5GC and AF2126 to provide information to each other via NEF2116, which can be used for edge computing implementations. In at least one embodiment, network operators and third-party services can be hosted near the attached access point of UE2102 to achieve efficient service delivery by reducing end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. In at least one embodiment, for edge computing implementations, 5GC can select UPF2104 close to UE2102 and perform service bootstrapping from UPF2104 to DN2106 via the N6 interface. In at least one embodiment, this can be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by AF2126. In at least one embodiment, AF2126 can influence UPF (re)selection and service routing. In at least one embodiment, based on operator deployment, when AF2126 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator may allow AF2126 to interact directly with the relevant NF.

[0302] In at least one embodiment, CN2110 may include an SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checks and authentication, and relay SM messages to / from UE2102 to / from other entities, such as SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS routers. In at least one embodiment, SMS may also interact with AMF2112 and UDM2124 for notification procedures when UE2102 is available for SMS delivery (e.g., setting a UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM2124 when UE2102 is available for SMS).

[0303] In at least one embodiment, system 2100 may include the following service-based interfaces: Namf: a service-based interface presented by AMF; Nsmf: a service-based interface presented by SMF; Nnef: a service-based interface presented by NEF; Npcf: a service-based interface presented by PCF; Nudm: a service-based interface presented by UDM; Naf: a service-based interface presented by AF; Nnrf: a service-based interface presented by NRF; and Nausf: a service-based interface presented by AUSF.

[0304] In at least one embodiment, system 2100 may include the following reference points: N1: a reference point between the UE and the AMF; N2: a reference point between the (R)AN and the AMF; N3: a reference point between the (R)AN and the UPF; N4: a reference point between the SMF and the UPF; and N6: a reference point between the UPF and the data network. In at least one embodiment, there may be more reference points and / or service-based interfaces between NF services in the NF; however, for clarity, these interfaces and reference points have been omitted. In at least one embodiment, the NS reference point may be between the PCF and the AF; the N7 reference point may be between the PCF and the SMF; the N11 reference point may be between the AMF and the SMF, etc. In at least one embodiment, CN2110 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between the MME and the AMF2112 to enable interoperability between CN2110 and CN7221.

[0305] In at least one embodiment, system 2100 may include a plurality of RAN nodes (such as (R)AN nodes 2108), wherein an Xn interface is defined between two or more (R)AN nodes 2108 (e.g., gNBs) connected to 5GC410, between (R)AN nodes 2108 (e.g., gNBs) and eNBs (e.g., macro RAN nodes) connected to CN2110, and / or between two eNBs connected to CN2110.

[0306] In at least one embodiment, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. In at least one embodiment, Xn-U may provide unguaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. In at least one embodiment, Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions, functions for managing the Xn-C interface, and mobility support for UE 2102 in connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED), including functions for managing UE mobility for connected modes between one or more (R)AN nodes 2108. In at least one embodiment, mobility support may include context delivery from the old (source) serving (R)AN node 2108 to the new (target) serving (R)AN node 2108; and control of user plane tunneling between the old (source) serving (R)AN node 2108 and the new (target) serving (R)AN node 2108.

[0307] In at least one embodiment, the Xn-U protocol stack may include a transport network layer built on top of the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer and a GTP-U layer on top of UDP and / or one or more IP layers for carrying user plane PDUs. In at least one embodiment, the Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on top of the SCTP layer. In at least one embodiment, the SCTP layer may be on top of the IP layers. In at least one embodiment, the SCTP layer provides guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In at least one embodiment, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver signaling PDUs in the transport IP layer. In at least one embodiment, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0308] Figure 22 This is an illustration of a control plane protocol stack according to some embodiments. In at least one embodiment, control plane 2200 is shown as a communication protocol stack between UE2002 (or alternatively, UE2004), RAN2016, and MME2028.

[0309] In at least one embodiment, PHY layer 2202 can transmit or receive information used by MAC layer 2204 through one or more air interfaces. In at least one embodiment, PHY layer 2202 can also perform link adaptive or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers (e.g., RRC layer 2210). In at least one embodiment, PHY layer 2202 can further perform error detection, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of the transport channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to the physical channel, and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna processing.

[0310] In at least one embodiment, MAC layer 2204 can perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC service data units (SDUs) from one or more logical channels onto a transport block (TB) to be delivered to the PHY via the transport channel, demultiplexing MACSDUs from the transport block (TB) delivered from the PHY via the transport channel onto one or more logical channels, multiplexing MACSDUs onto the TB, scheduling information reporting, error correction via Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARD), and logical channel prioritization.

[0311] In at least one embodiment, the RLC layer 2206 can operate in multiple operating modes, including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). In at least one embodiment, the RLC layer 2206 can perform the transmission of upper-layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction via Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and the concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLCSDUs for UM and AM data transmission. In at least one embodiment, the RLC layer 2206 can also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reordering of RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detection of duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discarding of RLCSDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detection of protocol errors in AM data transmission, and performance of RLC reconstruction.

[0312] In at least one embodiment, the PDCP layer 2208 can perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform intra-sequence delivery of higher-layer PDUs when reconstructing lower layers, eliminate duplication of lower-layer SDUs when reconstructing lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLCAM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, discard data based on control timers, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0313] In at least one embodiment, the main services and functions of RRC layer 2210 may include broadcasting system information (e.g., included in a Master Information Block (MIB) or System Information Block (SIB) associated with the Non-Access Stratum (NAS), broadcasting system information associated with the Access Stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of RRC connections between the UE and the E-UTRAN (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, including security functions for key management, inter-Radio Access Technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. In at least one embodiment, the MIB and SIB may include one or more Information Elements (IEs), each of which may include a separate data field or data structure.

[0314] In at least one embodiment, UE2002 and RAN2016 may use a Uu interface (e.g., LTE-Uu interface) to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack including PHY layer 2202, MAC layer 2204, RLC layer 2206, PDCP layer 2208 and RRC layer 2210.

[0315] In at least one embodiment, a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocol (NAS protocol 2212) forms the highest layer of the control plane between UE2002 and MME2028. In at least one embodiment, NAS protocol 2212 supports the mobility and session management procedures of UE2002 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE2002 and P-GW2034.

[0316] In at least one embodiment, the Si Application Protocol (Si-AP) layer (Si-AP layer 2222) can support the functionality of the Si interface and include basic procedures (EP). In at least one embodiment, the EP is the interaction unit between RAN2016 and CN2028. In at least one embodiment, Si-AP layer services can include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. In at least one embodiment, these services perform functions, including but not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

[0317] In at least one embodiment, the Flow Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) layer (or alternatively, the Flow Control Transmission Protocol / Internet Protocol (SCTP / IP) layer) (SCTP layer 2220) may be partially based on the IP protocol supported by IP layer 2218 to ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between RAN 2016 and MME 2028. In at least one embodiment, L2 layer 2216 and L1 layer 2214 may refer to the communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) used by the RAN node and MME to exchange information.

[0318] In at least one embodiment, RAN2016 and one or more MME2028 can use the S1-MME interface to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack including L1 layer 2214, L2 layer 2216, IP layer 2218, SCTP layer 2220 and Si-AP layer 2222.

[0319] Figure 23 This is an illustration of a user plane protocol stack according to at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, user plane 2300 is shown as a communication protocol stack between UE2002, RAN2016, S-GW2030, and P-GW2034. In at least one embodiment, user plane 2300 may utilize the same protocol layer as control plane 2200. In at least one embodiment, UE2002 and RAN2016 may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., LTE-Uu interface) to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including PHY layer 2202, MAC layer 2204, RLC layer 2206, and PDCP layer 2208.

[0320] In at least one embodiment, the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP-U) layer (GTP-U layer 2304) for the user plane can be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. In at least one embodiment, the transmitted user data can be packets of any format, such as IPv4, IPv6, or PPP. In at least one embodiment, the UDP and IP Security (UDP / IP) layer (UDP / IP layer 2302) can provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of selected data streams. In at least one embodiment, the RAN2016 and S-GW2030 can utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including L1 layer 2214, L2 layer 2216, UDP / IP layer 2302, and GTP-U layer 2304. In at least one embodiment, the S-GW2030 and P-GW2034 can utilize the S5 / S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including L1 layer 2214, L2 layer 2216, UDP / IP layer 2302, and GTP-U layer 2304. In at least one embodiment, as described above... Figure 22 The NAS protocol discussed here supports the mobility and session management process of UE2002 to establish and maintain the IP connection between UE2002 and P-GW2034.

[0321] Figure 24 A component 2400 of a core network according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the components of CN2038 may be implemented in a physical node or a separate physical node, said separate physical node including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable medium or a computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In at least one embodiment, network function virtualization (NFV) is used to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). In at least one embodiment, a logical instantiation of CN2038 may be referred to as network slice 2402 (e.g., network slice 2402 is shown as including HSS2032, MME2028, and S-GW2030). In at least one embodiment, a logical instantiation of a portion of CN2038 may be referred to as network subslice 2404 (e.g., network subslice 2404 is shown as including P-GW2034 and PCRF2036).

[0322] In at least one embodiment, the NFV architecture and infrastructure can be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches, which may alternatively be performed by dedicated hardware. In at least one embodiment, the NFV system can be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0323] Figure 25 This is a block diagram illustrating components of a system 2500 for supporting Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) according to at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, the system 2500 is shown to include a virtualization infrastructure manager (shown as VIM2502), a network functions virtualization infrastructure (shown as NFVI2504), a VNF manager (shown as VNFM2506), virtualized network functions (shown as VNF2508), a component manager (shown as EM2510), an NFV coordinator (shown as NFVO2512), and a network manager (shown as NM2514).

[0324] In at least one embodiment, VIM 2502 manages the resources of NFVI 2504. In at least one embodiment, NFVI 2504 may include physical or virtual resources and applications (including hypervisors) for executing system 2500. In at least one embodiment, VIM 2502 may utilize NFVI 2504 to manage the lifecycle of virtual resources (e.g., the creation, maintenance, and teardown of virtual machines (VMs) associated with one or more physical resources), track VM instances, track performance, fault and security of VM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instances and associated physical resources to other management systems.

[0325] In at least one embodiment, VNFM2506 can manage VNF2508. In at least one embodiment, VNF2508 can be used to perform EPC components / functions. In at least one embodiment, VNFM2506 can manage the lifecycle of VNF2508 and track the performance, faults, and security of the virtual aspects of VNF2508. In at least one embodiment, EM2510 can track the performance, faults, and security of the functional aspects of VNF2508. In at least one embodiment, tracking data from VNFM2506 and EM2510 may include, in at least one embodiment, performance measurement (PM) data used by VIM2502 or NFVI2504. In at least one embodiment, both VNFM2506 and EM2510 can scale up / down the number of VNFs in system 2500.

[0326] In at least one embodiment, NFVO2512 can coordinate, authorize, release, and occupy resources of NFVI2504 to provide requested services (e.g., to perform EPC functions, components, or slices). In at least one embodiment, NM2514 can provide an end-user function package responsible for managing a network that may include network elements having VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (VNF management may occur via EM2510).

[0327] Computer-based systems

[0328] The following figures present, but are not limited to, exemplary computer-based systems that can be used to implement at least one embodiment.

[0329] Figure 26 A processing system 2600 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the system 2600 includes one or more processors 2602 and one or more graphics processors 2608, and may be a single-processor desktop system, a multi-processor workstation system, or a server system having a large number of processors 2602 or processor cores 2607. In at least one embodiment, the processing system 2600 is a processing platform incorporated within a system-on-a-chip (SoC) integrated circuit for use in mobile, handheld, or embedded devices.

[0330] In at least one embodiment, the processing system 2600 may include or be integrated into a server-based gaming platform, including a game console, mobile game console, handheld game console, or online game console, which are game and media consoles. In at least one embodiment, the processing system 2600 is a mobile phone, smartphone, tablet computing device, or mobile internet device. In at least one embodiment, the processing system 2600 may also include components coupled to or integrated into a wearable device, such as a smartwatch wearable device, smart glasses device, augmented reality device, or virtual reality device. In at least one embodiment, the processing system 2600 is a television or set-top box device having one or more processors 2602 and a graphical interface generated by one or more graphics processors 2608.

[0331] In at least one embodiment, each of the one or more processors 2602 includes one or more processor cores 2607 to process instructions that, when executed, perform operations against the system and user software. In at least one embodiment, each of the one or more processor cores 2607 is configured to process a particular instruction set 2609. In at least one embodiment, the instruction set 2609 may facilitate Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC), Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC), or computation via Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW). In at least one embodiment, the plurality of processor cores 2607 may each process a different instruction set 2609, which may include instructions that facilitate the emulation of other instruction sets. In at least one embodiment, the processor cores 2607 may also include other processing devices, such as digital signal processors (DSPs).

[0332] In at least one embodiment, processor 2602 includes cache memory 2604. In at least one embodiment, processor 2602 may have a single internal cache or multiple levels of internal caches. In at least one embodiment, the cache memory is shared among various components of processor 2602. In at least one embodiment, processor 2602 also uses an external cache (e.g., a Level 3 (L3) cache or a last-level cache (LLC)) (not shown), which can be shared among processor cores 2607 using known cache coherence techniques. In at least one embodiment, processor 2602 further includes a register file 2606, which may include different types of registers for storing different types of data (e.g., integer registers, floating-point registers, status registers, and instruction pointer registers). In at least one embodiment, register file 2606 may include general-purpose registers or other registers.

[0333] In at least one embodiment, one or more processors 2602 are coupled to one or more interface buses 2610 to transmit communication signals, such as address, data, or control signals, between the processors 2602 and other components in the system 2600. In at least one embodiment, the interface bus 2610 may be a processor bus, such as a version of the Direct Media Interface (DMI) bus. In at least one embodiment, the interface bus 2610 is not limited to the DMI bus and may include one or more peripheral component interconnect buses (e.g., PCI, PCI Express), memory buses, or other types of interface buses. In at least one embodiment, the processor 2602 includes an integrated memory controller 2616 and a platform controller hub 2630. In at least one embodiment, the memory controller 2616 facilitates communication between storage devices and other components of the processing system 2600, while the platform controller hub (PCH) 2630 provides connectivity to input / output (I / O) devices via a local I / O bus.

[0334] In at least one embodiment, memory device 2620 may be a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, a flash memory device, a phase-change memory device, or a device with suitable performance for use as processor memory. In at least one embodiment, memory device 2620 may be used as system memory of processing system 2600 to store data 2622 and instructions 2621 for use when one or more processors 2602 execute applications or processes. In at least one embodiment, memory controller 2616 is also coupled to an optional external graphics processor 2612, which may communicate with one or more graphics processors 2608 of processor 2602 to perform graphics and media operations. In at least one embodiment, display device 2611 may be connected to processor 2602. In at least one embodiment, display device 2611 may include one or more internal display devices, such as those in mobile electronic devices or portable computer devices, or external display devices connected via a display interface (e.g., DisplayPort). In at least one embodiment, the display device 2611 may include a head-mounted display (HMD), such as a stereoscopic display device for virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) applications.

[0335] In at least one embodiment, the platform controller hub 2630 enables peripheral devices to connect to the storage device 2620 and the processor 2602 via a high-speed I / O bus. In at least one embodiment, the I / O peripheral devices include, but are not limited to, an audio controller 2646, a network controller 2634, a firmware interface 2628, a wireless transceiver 2626, a touch sensor 2625, and a data storage device 2624 (e.g., a hard disk drive, flash memory, etc.). In at least one embodiment, the data storage device 2624 may be connected via a memory interface (e.g., SATA) or via a peripheral bus, such as a peripheral component interconnect bus (e.g., PCI, PCIe). In at least one embodiment, the touch sensor 2625 may include a touchscreen sensor, a pressure sensor, or a fingerprint sensor. In at least one embodiment, the wireless transceiver 2626 may be a Wi-Fi transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, or a mobile network transceiver, such as a 3G, 4G, or LTE transceiver. In at least one embodiment, the firmware interface 2628 enables communication with the system firmware, and in at least one embodiment, may be a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). In at least one embodiment, network controller 2634 may enable network connectivity to a wired network. In at least one embodiment, a high-performance network controller (not shown) is coupled to interface bus 2610. In at least one embodiment, audio controller 2646 is a multi-channel high-definition audio controller. In at least one embodiment, processing system 2600 includes an optional legacy I / O controller 2640 for coupling legacy (e.g., Personal System 2 (PS / 2)) devices to processing system 2600. In at least one embodiment, platform controller hub 2630 may also be connected to one or more Universal Serial Bus (USB) controllers 2642 that connect input devices, such as a keyboard and mouse combination 2643, a camera 2644, or other USB input devices.

[0336] In at least one embodiment, instances of the memory controller 2616 and platform controller hub 2630 may be integrated into a discrete external graphics processor, such as external graphics processor 2612. In at least one embodiment, the platform controller hub 2630 and / or the memory controller 2616 may be external to one or more processors 2602. In at least one embodiment, the processing system 2600 may include the external memory controller 2616 and the platform controller hub 2630, which may be configured as a memory controller hub and a peripheral controller hub in a system chipset communicating with the processor 2602.

[0337] Figure 27A computer system 2700 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the computer system 2700 may be a system having interconnected devices and components, a System-on-a-Chip (SoC), or some combination thereof. In at least one embodiment, the computer system 2700 is formed by a processor 2702, which may include execution units for executing instructions. In at least one embodiment, the computer system 2700 may include, but is not limited to, components such as the processor 2702, which employs execution units including logic to execute algorithms for process data. In at least one embodiment, the computer system 2700 may include a processor, such as one available from Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, California. Processor family, Xeon™ XScale™ and / or StrongARM™ Core TM or Nervana TM A microprocessor may be used, although other systems (including PCs, engineering workstations, set-top boxes, etc.) with other microprocessors may also be used. In at least one embodiment, computer system 2700 may execute a version of the Windows operating system available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Washington, although other operating systems (UNIX and Linux in at least one embodiment), embedded software, and / or graphical user interfaces may also be used.

[0338] In at least one embodiment, the computer system 2700 can be used in other devices, such as handheld devices and embedded applications. Some of the handheld devices in at least one embodiment include cellular phones, Internet Protocol (IP) devices, digital cameras, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), and handheld PCs. In at least one embodiment, the embedded application can include a microcontroller, a digital signal processor (“DSP”), a SoC, a network computer (“NetPC”), a set-top box, a network hub, a wide area network (“WAN”) switch, or any other system that can execute one or more instructions according to at least one embodiment.

[0339] In at least one embodiment, computer system 2700 may include, but is not limited to, processor 2702, which may include, but is not limited to, one or more execution units 2708 configured to execute a Computational Unified Device Architecture (“CUDA”). The program is developed by NVIDIA Corporation in Santa Clara, California. In at least one embodiment, the CUDA program is at least a part of a software application written in the CUDA programming language. In at least one embodiment, the computer system 2700 is a single-processor desktop or server system. In at least one embodiment, the computer system 2700 may be a multiprocessor system. In at least one embodiment, the processor 2702 may include, but is not limited to, a CISC microprocessor, a RISC microprocessor, a VLIW microprocessor, a processor implementing instruction set combinations, or any other processor device, such as a digital signal processor, in at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, the processor 2702 may be coupled to a processor bus 2710, which can transmit data signals between the processor 2702 and other components in the computer system 2700.

[0340] In at least one embodiment, processor 2702 may include, but is not limited to, a Level 1 (“L1”) internal cache memory (“cache”) 2704. In at least one embodiment, processor 2702 may have a single internal cache or multiple levels of internal cache. In at least one embodiment, the cache memory may reside external to processor 2702. In at least one embodiment, processor 2702 may include a combination of internal and external caches. In at least one embodiment, register file 2706 may store different types of data in various registers, including but not limited to integer registers, floating-point registers, status registers, and instruction pointer registers.

[0341] In at least one embodiment, an execution unit 2708, including but not limited to logic for performing integer and floating-point operations, is also located within processor 2702. Processor 2702 may also include a microcode (“ucode”) read-only memory (“ROM”) for storing microcode of certain macro instructions. In at least one embodiment, execution unit 2708 may include logic for processing a packaged instruction set 2709. In at least one embodiment, by including the packaged instruction set 2709 in the instruction set of general-purpose processor 2702, along with associated circuitry for executing the instructions, packaged data in general-purpose processor 2702 can be used to perform operations used by numerous multimedia applications. In at least one embodiment, many multimedia applications can be executed more quickly and efficiently by using the full width of the processor’s data bus to perform operations on the packaged data, which may eliminate the need to transfer smaller data units on the processor’s data bus to perform one or more operations on a data element at a time.

[0342] In at least one embodiment, the execution unit 2708 may also be used in a microcontroller, embedded processor, graphics device, DSP, and other types of logic circuitry. In at least one embodiment, the computer system 2700 may include, but is not limited to, the memory 2720. In at least one embodiment, the memory 2720 may be implemented as a DRAM device, an SRAM device, a flash memory device, or other storage device. The memory 2720 may store instructions 2719 and / or data 2721 represented by data signals that can be executed by the processor 2702.

[0343] In at least one embodiment, the system logic chip may be coupled to processor bus 2710 and memory 2720. In at least one embodiment, the system logic chip may include, but is not limited to, a memory controller hub (“MCH”) 2716, and processor 2702 may communicate with MCH 2716 via processor bus 2710. In at least one embodiment, MCH 2716 may provide a high-bandwidth memory path 2718 to memory 2720 for instruction and data storage, as well as for storage of graphics commands, data, and textures. In at least one embodiment, MCH 2716 may initiate data signals between processor 2702, memory 2720, and other components in computer system 2700, and bridge data signals between processor bus 2710, memory 2720, and system I / O 2722. In at least one embodiment, the system logic chip may provide a graphics port for coupling to a graphics controller. In at least one embodiment, the MCH2716 can be coupled to the memory 2720 via a high-bandwidth memory path 2718, and the graphics / video card 2712 can be coupled to the MCH2716 via an Accelerated Graphics Port (“AGP”) interconnect 2714.

[0344] In at least one embodiment, computer system 2700 may use system I / O 2722 as a proprietary hub interface bus to couple MCH 2716 to I / O controller hub (“ICH”) 2730. In at least one embodiment, ICH 2730 may provide direct connectivity to certain I / O devices via a local I / O bus. In at least one embodiment, the local I / O bus may include, but is not limited to, a high-speed I / O bus for connecting peripheral devices to memory 2720, chipset, and processor 2702. Examples may include, but are not limited to, an audio controller 2729, a firmware hub (“FlashBIOS”) 2728, a wireless transceiver 2726, data storage 2724, a conventional I / O controller 2723 including user input 2725 and a keyboard interface, a serial expansion port 2777 (e.g., USB), and a network controller 2734. Data storage 2724 may include a hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, CD-ROM device, flash memory device, or other mass storage device.

[0345] In at least one embodiment, Figure 27 A system comprising interconnected hardware devices or "chips" is shown. In at least one embodiment, Figure 27 An exemplary SoC can be shown. In at least one embodiment, Figure 27 The devices shown can be interconnected with proprietary interconnects, standardized interconnects (e.g., PCIe), or some combination thereof. In at least one embodiment, one or more components of system 2700 are interconnected using a compute fast link (CXL) interconnect.

[0346] Figure 28 A system 2800 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, system 2800 is an electronic device utilizing processor 2810. In at least one embodiment, system 2800 may be, but is not limited to, a laptop computer, tower server, rack server, blade server, desktop computer, tablet computer, mobile device, telephone, embedded computer, or any other suitable electronic device.

[0347] In at least one embodiment, system 2800 may include, but is not limited to, processor 2810 communicatively coupled to any suitable number or type of components, peripherals, modules, or devices. In at least one embodiment, processor 2810 uses a bus or interface coupling, such as an I2C bus, a system management bus (“SMBus”), a low pin count (LPC) bus, a serial peripheral interface (“SPI”), a high-definition audio (“HDA”) bus, a serial advanced technology accessory (“SATA”) bus, a USB (versions 1, 2, and 3) bus, or a universal asynchronous receiver / transmitter (“UART”) bus. In at least one embodiment, Figure 28 A system is illustrated, comprising interconnected hardware devices or "chips". In at least one embodiment, Figure 28 An exemplary SoC can be shown. In at least one embodiment, Figure 28 The device shown can be interconnected with proprietary interconnects, standardized interconnects (e.g., PCIe), or some combination thereof. In at least one embodiment, Figure 28 One or more components are interconnected using Computational Fast Link (CXL) interconnects.

[0348] In at least one embodiment, Figure 28 This may include a display 2824, a touchscreen 2825, a touchpad 2830, a near-field communication unit (“NFC”) 2845, a sensor hub 2840, a thermal sensor 2846, a fast chipset (“EC”) 2835, a trusted platform module (“TPM”) 2838, a BIOS / firmware / flash (“BIOS, FWFlash”) 2822, a DSP 2860, a solid-state drive (“SSD”) or hard disk drive (“HDD”) 2820, a wireless local area network unit (“WLAN”) 2850, a Bluetooth unit 2852, a wireless wide area network unit (“WWAN”) 2856, a global positioning system (GPS) 2855, a camera (“USB 3.0 camera”) 2854 (e.g., a USB 3.0 camera), or a low-power double data rate (“LPDDR”) memory unit (“LPDDR3”) 2815 implemented in at least one embodiment of the LPDDR3 standard. These components may each be implemented in any suitable manner.

[0349] In at least one embodiment, other components may be communicatively coupled to processor 2810 via the components discussed above. In at least one embodiment, accelerometer 2841, ambient light sensor (“ALS”) 2842, compass 2843, and gyroscope 2844 may be communicatively coupled to sensor hub 2840. In at least one embodiment, thermal sensor 2839, fan 2837, keyboard 2846, and touchpad 2830 may be communicatively coupled to EC 2835. In at least one embodiment, speaker 2863, earphone 2864, and microphone (“mic”) 2865 may be communicatively coupled to audio unit (“audio codec and Class D amplifier”) 2864, which in turn may be communicatively coupled to DSP 2860. In at least one embodiment, audio unit 2864 may include, but is not limited to, audio encoder / decoder (“codec”) and Class D amplifier. In at least one embodiment, SIM card (“SIM”) 2857 may be communicatively coupled to WWAN unit 2856. In at least one embodiment, components such as WLAN unit 2850, Bluetooth unit 2852, and WWAN unit 2856 can be implemented as next-generation form factor (NGFF).

[0350] Figure 29 An exemplary integrated circuit 2900 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the exemplary integrated circuit 2900 is a SoC (System-on-a-Chip) that may be manufactured using one or more IP cores. In at least one embodiment, the integrated circuit 2900 includes one or more application processors 2905 (e.g., CPUs), at least one graphics processor 2910, and may additionally include an image processor 2915 and / or a video processor 2920, any of which may be a modular IP core. In at least one embodiment, the integrated circuit 2900 includes peripheral or bus logic including a USB controller 2925, a UART controller 2930, an SPI / SDIO controller 2935, and an I2S / I2C controller 2940. In at least one embodiment, the integrated circuit 2900 may include a display device 2945 coupled to one or more of a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) controller 2950 and a Mobile Industrial Processor Interface (MIPI) display interface 2955. In at least one embodiment, storage may be provided by a flash memory subsystem 2960, including flash memory and a flash memory controller. In at least one embodiment, a memory interface may be provided via a memory controller 2965 for accessing an SDRAM or SRAM memory device. In at least one embodiment, some integrated circuits also include an embedded security engine 2970.

[0351] Figure 30A computing system 3000 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the computing system 3000 includes a processing subsystem 3001 having one or more processors 3002 and a system memory 3004 communicating via an interconnect path that may include a memory hub 3005. In at least one embodiment, the memory hub 3005 may be a separate component within a chipset assembly or may be integrated within one or more processors 3002. In at least one embodiment, the memory hub 3005 is coupled to an I / O subsystem 3011 via a communication link 3006. In at least one embodiment, the I / O subsystem 3011 includes an I / O hub 3007 that enables the computing system 3000 to receive input from one or more input devices 3008. In at least one embodiment, the I / O hub 3007 may enable a display controller, included in one or more processors 3002, for providing output to one or more display devices 3010A. In at least one embodiment, one or more display devices 3010A coupled to the I / O hub 3007 may include local, internal, or embedded display devices.

[0352] In at least one embodiment, the processing subsystem 3001 includes one or more parallel processors 3012 coupled to a memory hub 3005 via a bus or other communication link 3013. In at least one embodiment, the communication link 3013 may be one of many standards-based communication link technologies or protocols, such as, but not limited to, PCIe, or may be a vendor-specific communication interface or communication architecture. In at least one embodiment, the one or more parallel processors 3012 form a compute-intensive parallel or vector processing system that may include a large number of processing cores and / or processing clusters, such as a multi-core integrated (MIC) processor. In at least one embodiment, the one or more parallel processors 3012 form a graphics processing subsystem capable of outputting pixels to one or more display devices 3010A coupled via an I / O hub 3007. In at least one embodiment, the one or more parallel processors 3012 may also include a display controller and a display interface (not shown) to enable direct connection to one or more display devices 3010B.

[0353] In at least one embodiment, system storage unit 3014 may be connected to I / O hub 3007 to provide a storage mechanism for computing system 3000. In at least one embodiment, I / O switch 3016 may be used to provide an interface mechanism to enable connectivity between I / O hub 3007 and other components, such as network adapter 3018 and / or wireless network adapter 3019 which may be integrated into the platform, and various other devices that can be added via one or more additional devices 3020. In at least one embodiment, network adapter 3018 may be an Ethernet adapter or another wired network adapter. In at least one embodiment, wireless network adapter 3019 may include one or more Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, or other network devices comprising one or more radios.

[0354] In at least one embodiment, the computing system 3000 may include other components not explicitly shown, including USB or other port connections, optical storage drives, video capture devices and / or variations thereof, and may also be connected to the I / O hub 3007. In at least one embodiment, for Figure 30 The communication paths that interconnect the various components can be implemented using any suitable protocol, such as PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) based protocols (e.g., PCIe), or other bus or point-to-point communication interfaces and / or protocols (e.g., NVLink high-speed interconnect or interconnect protocols).

[0355] In at least one embodiment, one or more parallel processors 3012 include circuitry optimized for graphics and video processing (including video output circuitry in at least one embodiment) and constitute a graphics processing unit (GPU). In at least one embodiment, one or more parallel processors 3012 include circuitry optimized for general-purpose processing. In at least one embodiment, components of the computing system 3000 may be integrated with one or more other system elements on a single integrated circuit. In at least one embodiment, one or more parallel processors 3012, memory hub 3005, processor 3002, and I / O hub 3007 may be integrated into a system-on-a-chip (SoC) integrated circuit. In at least one embodiment, components of the computing system 3000 may be integrated into a single package to form a system-in-package (SIP) configuration. In at least one embodiment, at least a portion of the components of the computing system 3000 may be integrated into a multi-chip module (MCM) that can interconnect with other MCMs to a modular computing system. In at least one embodiment, the I / O subsystem 3011 and display device 3010B are omitted from the computing system 3000.

[0356] Processing system

[0357] The following figures illustrate, but are not limited to, exemplary processing systems that can be used to implement at least one embodiment.

[0358] Figure 31 An accelerated processing unit (“APU”) 3100 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the APU 3100 was developed by AMD Inc. of Santa Clara, California. In at least one embodiment, the APU 3100 can be configured to execute applications, such as CUDA programs. In at least one embodiment, the APU 3100 includes, but is not limited to, a core complex 3110, a graphics complex 3140, an architecture 3160, an I / O interface 3170, a memory controller 3180, a display controller 3192, and a multimedia engine 3194. In at least one embodiment, the APU 3100 can be, but is not limited to, any combination of any number of core complexes 3110, any number of graphics complexes 3140, any number of display controllers 3192, and any number of multimedia engines 3194. For illustrative purposes, multiple instances of similar objects are indicated herein by reference numerals, wherein the reference numerals identify the object, and the numbers in parentheses identify the desired instances.

[0359] In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3110 is a CPU, the graphics complex 3140 is a GPU, and the APU 3100 is a processing unit that is not limited to 3110 and 3140 integrated onto a single chip. In at least one embodiment, some tasks may be assigned to the core complex 3110, while other tasks may be assigned to the graphics complex 3140. In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3110 is configured to execute main control software associated with the APU 3100, such as an operating system. In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3110 is the main processor of the APU 3100, which controls and coordinates the operation of other processors. In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3110 issues commands to control the operation of the graphics complex 3140. In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3110 may be configured to execute host executable code derived from CUDA source code, and the graphics complex 3140 may be configured to execute device executable code derived from CUDA source code.

[0360] In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3110 includes, but is not limited to, cores 3120(1)-3120(4) and L3 cache 3130. In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3110 may include, but is not limited to, any combination of any number of cores 3120 and any number and type of cache. In at least one embodiment, the cores 3120 are configured to execute instructions of a specific instruction set architecture (“ISA”). In at least one embodiment, each core 3120 is a CPU core.

[0361] In at least one embodiment, each core 3120 includes, but is not limited to, a fetch / decode unit 3122, an integer execution engine 3124, a floating-point execution engine 3126, and an L2 cache 3128. In at least one embodiment, the fetch / decode unit 3122 fetches instructions, decodes these instructions, generates micro-operations, and dispatches individual micro-instructions to the integer execution engine 3124 and the floating-point execution engine 3126. In at least one embodiment, the fetch / decode unit 3122 may simultaneously dispatch one micro-instruction to the integer execution engine 3124 and another micro-instruction to the floating-point execution engine 3126. In at least one embodiment, the integer execution engine 3124 performs operations not limited to integer and memory operations. In at least one embodiment, the floating-point engine 3126 performs operations not limited to floating-point and vector operations. In at least one embodiment, the fetch-decode unit 3122 dispatches micro-instructions to a single execution engine, which replaces both the integer execution engine 3124 and the floating-point execution engine 3126.

[0362] In at least one embodiment, each core 3120(i) can access an L2 cache 3128(i) included in core 3120(i), where i is an integer representing a specific instance of core 3120. In at least one embodiment, each core 3120 included in core complex 3110(j) is connected to other cores 3120 included in core complex 3110(j) via an L3 cache 3130(j) included in core complex 3110(j), where j is an integer representing a specific instance of core complex 3110. In at least one embodiment, a core 3120 included in core complex 3110(j) can access all L3 caches 3130(j) included in core complex 3110(j), where j is an integer representing a specific instance of core complex 3110. In at least one embodiment, the L3 cache 3130 may include, but is not limited to, any number of slices.

[0363] In at least one embodiment, the graphics complex 3140 can be configured to perform computational operations in a highly parallel manner. In at least one embodiment, the graphics complex 3140 is configured to perform graphics pipeline operations, such as drawing commands, pixel operations, geometric calculations, and other operations associated with rendering an image to a display. In at least one embodiment, the graphics complex 3140 is configured to perform graphics-independent operations. In at least one embodiment, the graphics complex 3140 is configured to perform both graphics-related and graphics-independent operations.

[0364] In at least one embodiment, the graphics complex 3140 includes, but is not limited to, any number of computing units 3150 and an L2 cache 3142. In at least one embodiment, the computing units 3150 share the L2 cache 3142. In at least one embodiment, the L2 cache 3142 is partitioned. In at least one embodiment, the graphics complex 3140 includes, but is not limited to, any number of computing units 3150 and any number (including zero) and type of cache. In at least one embodiment, the graphics complex 3140 includes, but is not limited to, any number of dedicated graphics hardware.

[0365] In at least one embodiment, each computing unit 3150 includes, but is not limited to, any number of SIMD units 3152 and shared memory 3154. In at least one embodiment, each SIMD unit 3152 implements a SIMD architecture and is configured to execute operations in parallel. In at least one embodiment, each computing unit 3150 may execute any number of thread blocks, but each thread block executes on a single computing unit 3150. In at least one embodiment, a thread block includes, but is not limited to, any number of execution threads. In at least one embodiment, a workgroup is a thread block. In at least one embodiment, each SIMD unit 3152 executes a different warp. In at least one embodiment, a warp is a group of threads (e.g., 16 threads), where each thread in the warp belongs to a single thread block and is configured to process different datasets based on a single instruction set. In at least one embodiment, prediction can be used to disable one or more threads in a warp. In at least one embodiment, a channel is a thread. In at least one embodiment, a work item is a thread. In at least one embodiment, a wavefront is a warp. In at least one embodiment, different wavefronts in a thread block can be synchronized together and communicate via shared memory 3154.

[0366] In at least one embodiment, structure 3160 is a system interconnect that facilitates data and control transfers across core complex 3110, graphics complex 3140, I / O interface 3170, memory controller 3180, display controller 3192, and multimedia engine 3194. In at least one embodiment, in addition to or instead of structure 3160, APU 3100 may also include, but is not limited to, any number and type of system interconnects that facilitate data and control transfers across any number and type of components that may be directly or indirectly linked, either internally or externally to APU 3100. In at least one embodiment, I / O interface 3170 represents any number and type of I / O interface (e.g., PCI, PCI-Extended (“PCI-X”), PCIe, Gigabit Ethernet (“GBE”), USB, etc.). In at least one embodiment, various types of peripheral devices are coupled to I / O interface 3170. In at least one embodiment, the peripheral device coupled to the I / O interface 3170 may include, but is not limited to, a keyboard, mouse, printer, scanner, joystick or other types of game controllers, media recording devices, external storage devices, network interface cards, etc.

[0367] In at least one embodiment, the display controller AMD92 displays images on one or more display devices (e.g., liquid crystal display (LCD) devices). In at least one embodiment, the multimedia engine 240 includes, but is not limited to, any number and type of multimedia-related circuitry, such as video decoders, video encoders, image signal processors, etc. In at least one embodiment, the memory controller 3180 facilitates data transfer between the APU 3100 and the unified system memory 3190. In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3110 and the graphics complex 3140 share the unified system memory 3190.

[0368] In at least one embodiment, the APU 3100 implements a memory subsystem, including but not limited to any number and type of memory controllers 3180 and memory devices (e.g., shared memory 3154) that can be dedicated to a single component or shared among multiple components. In at least one embodiment, the APU 3100 implements a cache subsystem, including but not limited to one or more cache memories (e.g., L2 cache 2728, L3 cache 3130, and L2 cache 3142), each cache memory being component-private or shared among any number of components (e.g., core 3120, core complex 3110, SIMD unit 3152, compute unit 3150, and graphics complex 3140).

[0369] Figure 32A CPU 3200 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, the CPU 3200 was developed by AMD Inc. of Santa Clara, California. In at least one embodiment, the CPU 3200 can be configured to execute an application. In at least one embodiment, the CPU 3200 is configured to execute host control software, such as an operating system. In at least one embodiment, the CPU 3200 issues commands to control the operation of an external GPU (not shown). In at least one embodiment, the CPU 3200 can be configured to execute host executable code derived from CUDA source code, and the external GPU can be configured to execute device executable code derived from such CUDA source code. In at least one embodiment, the CPU 3200 includes, but is not limited to, any number of core complexes 3210, architectures 3260, I / O interfaces 3270, and memory controllers 3280.

[0370] In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3210 includes, but is not limited to, cores 3220(1)-3220(4) and L3 cache 3230. In at least one embodiment, the core complex 3210 may include, but is not limited to, any combination of any number of cores 3220 and any number and type of cache. In at least one embodiment, the cores 3220 are configured to execute instructions of a specific ISA. In at least one embodiment, each core 3220 is a CPU core.

[0371] In at least one embodiment, each core 3220 includes, but is not limited to, a fetch / decode unit 3222, an integer execution engine 3224, a floating-point execution engine 3226, and an L2 cache 3228. In at least one embodiment, the fetch / decode unit 3222 fetches instructions, decodes these instructions, generates micro-operations, and dispatches individual micro-instructions to the integer execution engine 3224 and the floating-point execution engine 3226. In at least one embodiment, the fetch / decode unit 3222 may simultaneously dispatch one micro-instruction to the integer execution engine 3224 and another micro-instruction to the floating-point execution engine 3226. In at least one embodiment, the integer execution engine 3224 performs operations not limited to integer and memory operations. In at least one embodiment, the floating-point engine 3226 performs operations not limited to floating-point and vector operations. In at least one embodiment, the fetch-decode unit 3222 dispatches micro-instructions to a single execution engine, which replaces both the integer execution engine 3224 and the floating-point execution engine 3226.

[0372] In at least one embodiment, each core 3220(i) can access an L2 cache 3228(i) included in core 3220(i), where i is an integer representing a specific instance of core 3220. In at least one embodiment, each core 3220 included in core complex 3210(j) is connected to other cores 3220 in core complex 3210(j) via an L3 cache 3230(j) included in core complex 3210(j), where j is an integer representing a specific instance of core complex 3210. In at least one embodiment, a core 3220 included in core complex 3210(j) can access all L3 caches 3230(j) included in core complex 3210(j), where j is an integer representing a specific instance of core complex 3210. In at least one embodiment, the L3 cache 3230 may include, but is not limited to, any number of slices.

[0373] In at least one embodiment, structure 3260 is a system interconnect that facilitates data and control transfers across core complexes 3210(1)-3210(N) (where N is a positive integer), I / O interface 3270, and memory controller 3280. In at least one embodiment, in addition to or instead of structure 3260, CPU 3200 may also include, but is not limited to, any number and type of system interconnects that facilitate data and control transfers across any number and type of components that may be directly or indirectly linked, either inside or outside CPU 3200. In at least one embodiment, I / O interface 3270 represents any number and type of I / O interfaces (e.g., PCI, PCI-X, PCIe, GBE, USB, etc.). In at least one embodiment, various types of peripheral devices are coupled to I / O interface 3270. In at least one embodiment, peripheral devices coupled to I / O interface 3270 may include, but are not limited to, displays, keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, joysticks or other types of game controllers, media recording devices, external storage devices, network interface cards, etc.

[0374] In at least one embodiment, memory controller 3280 facilitates data transfer between CPU 3200 and system memory 3290. In at least one embodiment, core complex 3210 and graphics complex 3240 share system memory 3290. In at least one embodiment, CPU 3200 implements a memory subsystem, which includes, but is not limited to, any number and type of memory controllers 3280 and memory devices that may be dedicated to a component or shared among multiple components. In at least one embodiment, CPU 3200 implements a cache subsystem, which includes, but is not limited to, one or more cache memories (e.g., L2 cache 3228 and L3 cache 3230), each cache memory may be component-private or shared among any number of components (e.g., core 3220 and core complex 3210).

[0375] Figure 33 An exemplary accelerator integration slice 3390 according to at least one embodiment is illustrated. As used herein, a "slice" includes a designated portion of the processing resources of an accelerator integrated circuit. In at least one embodiment, the accelerator integrated circuit provides cache management, memory access, environment management, and interrupt management services for multiple graphics processing engines among multiple graphics acceleration modules. Each graphics processing engine may comprise a separate GPU. Optionally, the graphics processing engine may include different types of graphics processing engines within the GPU, such as graphics execution units, media processing engines (e.g., video encoders / decoders), samplers, and blit engines. In at least one embodiment, a graphics acceleration module may be a GPU having multiple graphics processing engines. In at least one embodiment, the graphics processing engines may be individual GPUs integrated on a general-purpose package, line card, or chip.

[0376] The application's effective address space 3382 within system memory 3314 stores process element 3383. In one embodiment, process element 3383 is stored in response to a GPU call 3381 from an application 3380 executing on processor 3307. Process element 3383 contains the processing state of the corresponding application 3380. A job descriptor (WD) 3384 contained in process element 3383 may be a single job requested by the application or may contain pointers to job queues. In at least one embodiment, WD 3384 is a pointer to a job request queue in the application's effective address space 3382.

[0377] The graphics acceleration module 3346 and / or the various graphics processing engines may be shared by all or some processes in the system. In at least one embodiment, infrastructure may be included for establishing a processing state and sending the WD3384 to the graphics acceleration module 3346 to begin operation in a virtualized environment.

[0378] In at least one embodiment, a dedicated process programming model is used for implementation. In this model, a single process owns the graphics acceleration module 3346 or an individual graphics processing engine. Since the graphics acceleration module 3346 is owned by a single process, the hypervisor initializes the accelerator integrated circuit for the owned partition, and the operating system initializes the accelerator integrated circuit for the owned partition when the graphics acceleration module 3346 is allocated.

[0379] During operation, the WD fetching unit 3391 in the accelerator integrated slice 3390 fetches the next WD 3384, which includes instructions for the work to be performed by one or more graphics processing engines of the graphics acceleration module 3346. Data from the WD 3384 can be stored in register 3345 and used by the memory management unit (MMU) 3339, interrupt management circuitry 3347, and / or environment management circuitry 3348, as shown. At least one embodiment of the MMU 3339 includes segment / page roaming circuitry for accessing segment / page tables 3386 within the OS virtual address space 3385. The interrupt management circuitry 3347 can handle interrupt events (INT) 3392 received from the graphics acceleration module 3346. When performing graph operations, the effective address 3393 generated by the graphics processing engine is translated into an actual address by the MMU 3339.

[0380] In one embodiment, the same register set 3345 is copied for each graphics processing engine and / or graphics acceleration module 3346 and can be initialized by the hypervisor or operating system. Each of these copied registers can be included in the accelerator integration slice 3390. Exemplary registers that can be initialized by the hypervisor are shown in Table 1.

[0381] Table 1 – Registers for Supervisor Initialization

[0382] 1 Slice Control Register 2 Real Address (RA) plan processing area pointer 3 Authorization mask overwrite register 4 Interrupt vector table input offset 5 Interrupt vector table entry restrictions 6 Status Register 7 Logical partition ID 8 Real Address (RA) Manager Accelerator Utilization Record Pointer 9 Storage description register

[0383] Table 2 shows exemplary registers that can be initialized by the operating system.

[0384] Table 2 – Operating System Initialization Registers

[0385] 1 Process and thread identification 2 Valid Address (EA) Environment Save / Restore Pointer 3 Virtual Address (VA) accelerator utilization record pointer 4 Virtual address (VA) stores segment table pointers 5 mask of authority 6 Job descriptor

[0386] In one embodiment, each WD3384 is specific to a particular graphics acceleration module 3346 and / or a particular graphics processing engine. It contains all the information required for the graphics processing engine to perform its work or to do its job, or it may be a pointer to a memory location where the application has established a command queue for the work to be done.

[0387] Figures 34A-34BAn exemplary graphics processor according to at least one embodiment herein is illustrated. In at least one embodiment, any exemplary graphics processor may be manufactured using one or more IP cores. In addition to the illustrations, other logic and circuitry may be included in at least one embodiment, including additional graphics processor / cores, peripheral interface controllers, or general-purpose processor cores. In at least one embodiment, the exemplary graphics processor is used within a System-on-a-Chip (SoC).

[0388] Figure 34A An exemplary graphics processor 3410 of a SoC integrated circuit according to at least one embodiment is shown, which can be manufactured using one or more IP cores. Figure 34B An additional exemplary graphics processor 3440 of a SoC integrated circuit according to at least one embodiment is shown, which can be manufactured using one or more IP cores. In at least one embodiment, Figure 34A The graphics processor 3410 is a low-power graphics processor core. In at least one embodiment, Figure 34B The graphics processor 3440 is a higher-performance graphics processor core. In at least one embodiment, each graphics processor 3410, 3440 may be... Figure 5 A variant of the 510 graphics processor.

[0389] In at least one embodiment, the graphics processor 3410 includes a vertex processor 3405 and one or more fragment processors 3415A-3415N (e.g., 3415A, 3415B, 3415C, 3415D to 3415N-1 and 3415N). In at least one embodiment, the graphics processor 3410 can execute different shader programs via separate logic, such that the vertex processor 3405 is optimized to perform operations for the vertex shader program, while one or more fragment processors 3415A-3415N perform fragment (e.g., pixel) shading operations for fragments or pixels or shader programs. In at least one embodiment, the vertex processor 3405 performs the vertex processing stage of the 3D graphics pipeline and generates primitive and vertex data. In at least one embodiment, the fragment processors 3415A-3415N use the primitive and vertex data generated by the vertex processor 3405 to generate framebuffers for display on a display device. In at least one embodiment, the fragment processors 3415A-3415N are optimized to execute fragment shader programs as provided in the OpenGL API, which can be used to perform operations similar to those of pixel shader programs provided in the Direct3D API.

[0390] In at least one embodiment, the graphics processor 3410 additionally includes one or more MMUs 3420A-3420B, caches 3425A-3425B, and circuit interconnects 3430A-3430B. In at least one embodiment, one or more MMUs 3420A-3420B provide a virtual-to-physical address mapping for the graphics processor 3410, including for the vertex processor 3405 and / or fragment processors 3415A-3415N, which can reference vertex or image / texture data stored in memory, in addition to the vertex or image / texture data stored in one or more caches 3425A-3425B. In at least one embodiment, one or more MMUs 3420A-3420B can be synchronized with other MMUs within the system, including with... Figure 5 One or more application processors 505, image processors 515, and / or video processors 520 are associated with one or more MMUs, enabling each processor 505-520 to participate in a shared or unified virtual memory system. In at least one embodiment, one or more circuit interconnects 3430A-3430B enable the graphics processor 3410 to connect to other IP cores within the SoC via the SoC's internal bus or via a direct connection.

[0391] In at least one embodiment, the graphics processor 3440 includes Figure 34A The graphics processor 3410 includes one or more MMUs 3420A-3420B, caches 3425A-3425B, and circuit interconnects 3430A-3430B. In at least one embodiment, the graphics processor 3440 includes one or more shader cores 3455A-3455N (e.g., 3455A, 3455B, 3455C, 3455D, 3455E, 3455F, to 3455N-1 and 3455N) that provide a unified shader core architecture, wherein a single core or type of core can execute all types of programmable shader code, including shader program code for implementing vertex shaders, fragment shaders, and / or compute shaders. In at least one embodiment, the number of shader cores may vary. In at least one embodiment, the graphics processor 3440 includes an inter-core task manager 3445 that acts as a thread dispatcher to assign execution threads to one or more shader cores 3455A-3455N and a tile unit 3458 to accelerate tile-based rendering operations, wherein rendering operations of a scene are subdivided in image space, for example, to take advantage of local spatial consistency within the scene or to optimize the use of internal caches.

[0392] Figure 35A A graphics core 3500 according to at least one embodiment is shown. In at least one embodiment, the graphics core 3500 may include... Figure 24 The graphics processor 2410 is located within it. In at least one embodiment, the graphics core 3500 may be... Figure 34B The graphics core 3500 uses a unified shader core 3455A-3455N. In at least one embodiment, the graphics core 3500 includes a shared instruction cache 3502, texture units 3518, and cache / shared memory 3520, which are common to execution resources within the graphics core 3500. In at least one embodiment, the graphics core 3500 may include multiple slices 3501A-3501N or partitions of each core, and the graphics processor may include multiple instances of the graphics core 3500. Slices 3501A-3501N may include supporting logic, including local instruction caches 3504A-3504N, thread schedulers 3506A-3506N, thread dispatchers 3508A-3508N, and a set of registers 3510A-3510N. In at least one embodiment, slices 3501A-3501N may include a set of additional functional units (AFU) 3512A-3512N, floating-point units (FPU) 3514A-3514N, integer arithmetic logic units (ALU) 3516A-3516N, address calculation units (ACU) 3513A-3513N, double-precision floating-point units (DPFPU) 3515A-3515N, and matrix processing units (MPU) 3517A-3517N.

[0393] In one embodiment, the FPU3514A-3514N can perform single-precision (32-bit) and half-precision (16-bit) floating-point operations, while the DPFPU3515A-3515N can perform double-precision (64-bit) floating-point operations. In at least one embodiment, the ALU3516A-3516N can perform variable-precision integer operations with 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit precision, and can be configured for mixed-precision operations. In at least one embodiment, the MPU3517A-3517N can also be configured for mixed-precision matrix operations, including half-precision floating-point operations and 8-bit integer operations. In at least one embodiment, the MPU3517A-3517N can perform various matrix operations to accelerate CUDA programs, including enabling accelerated General Matrix-to-Matrix Multiplication (GEMM). In at least one embodiment, the AFU3512A-3512N can perform additional logical operations not supported by floating-point or integer units, including trigonometric operations (e.g., Sine, Cosine, etc.).

[0394] Figure 35BA general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) 3530 is illustrated in at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, the GPGPU 3530 is highly parallel and suitable for deployment on a multi-chip module. In at least one embodiment, the GPGPU 3530 can be configured to enable highly parallel computational operations to be executed by a GPU array. In at least one embodiment, the GPGPU 3530 can be directly linked to other instances of the GPGPU 3530 to create a multi-GPU cluster to improve execution time for CUDA programs. In at least one embodiment, the GPGPU 3530 includes a host interface 3532 for connection to a host processor. In at least one embodiment, the host interface 3532 is a PCIe interface. In at least one embodiment, the host interface 3532 can be a vendor-specific communication interface or communication structure. In at least one embodiment, the GPGPU 3530 receives commands from the host processor and uses a global scheduler 3534 to assign execution threads associated with those commands to a group of compute clusters 3536A-3536H. In at least one embodiment, compute clusters 3536A-3536H share a cache memory 3538. In at least one embodiment, cache memory 3538 can be used as an advanced cache of cache memory within computing clusters 3536A-3536H.

[0395] In at least one embodiment, the GPGPU 3530 includes memory 3544A-3544B coupled to computing clusters 3536A-3536H via a set of memory controllers 3542A-3542B. In at least one embodiment, memory 3544A-3544B may include various types of memory devices, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or graphics random access memory, such as synchronous graphics random access memory (SGRAM), including graphics double data rate (GDDR) memory.

[0396] In at least one embodiment, computing clusters 3536A-3536H each include a set of graphics cores, such as Figure 35A The graphics core 3500 may include various types of integer and floating-point logic units, capable of performing computational operations at various precisions, including computations suitable for CUDA programs. In at least one embodiment, at least a subset of the floating-point units in each computing cluster 3536A-3536H may be configured to perform 16-bit or 32-bit floating-point operations, while different subsets of the floating-point units may be configured to perform 64-bit floating-point operations.

[0397] In at least one embodiment, multiple instances of the GPGPU 3530 can be configured to operate as a computing cluster. In at least one embodiment, the computing clusters 3536A-3536H can implement any technically feasible communication technology for synchronization and data exchange. In at least one embodiment, the multiple instances of the GPGPU 3530 communicate via a host interface 3532. In at least one embodiment, the GPGPU 3530 includes an I / O hub 3539 that couples the GPGPU 3530 to a GPU link 3540, enabling direct connection to other instances of the GPGPU 3530. In at least one embodiment, the GPU link 3540 is coupled to a dedicated GPU-to-GPU bridge, enabling communication and synchronization among the multiple instances of the GPGPU 3530. In at least one embodiment, the GPU link 3540 is coupled to a high-speed interconnect for sending and receiving data to and from other GPGPUs or parallel processors. In at least one embodiment, the multiple instances of the GPGPU 3530 reside in a separate data processing system and communicate via a network device accessible via the host interface 3532. In at least one embodiment, the GPU link 3540 may be configured to connect to a host processor, supplementing or replacing the host interface 3532. In at least one embodiment, the GPGPU 3530 may be configured to execute CUDA programs.

[0398] Figure 36A A parallel processor 3600 according to at least one embodiment is shown. In at least one embodiment, various components of the parallel processor 3600 may be implemented using one or more integrated circuit devices, such as programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or FPGAs.

[0399] In at least one embodiment, the parallel processor 3600 includes a parallel processing unit 3602. In at least one embodiment, the parallel processing unit 3602 includes an I / O unit 3604 that enables communication with other devices, including other instances of the parallel processing unit 3602. In at least one embodiment, the I / O unit 3604 can be directly connected to other devices. In at least one embodiment, the I / O unit 3604 is connected to other devices using a hub or switch interface (e.g., a memory hub 605). In at least one embodiment, the connection between the memory hub 605 and the I / O unit 3604 forms a communication link. In at least one embodiment, the I / O unit 3604 is connected to a host interface 3606 and a memory crossbar switch 3616, wherein the host interface 3606 receives commands for performing processing operations, and the memory crossbar switch 3616 receives commands for performing memory operations.

[0400] In at least one embodiment, when host interface 3606 receives a command buffer via I / O unit 3604, host interface 3606 can direct work operations to execute those commands to front end 3608. In at least one embodiment, front end 3608 is coupled to scheduler 3610, which is configured to assign commands or other work items to processing array 3612. In at least one embodiment, scheduler 3610 ensures that processing array 3612 is correctly configured and in an active state before assigning tasks to processing array 3612. In at least one embodiment, scheduler 3610 is implemented via firmware logic executed on a microcontroller. In at least one embodiment, the microcontroller-implemented scheduler 3610 can be configured to perform complex scheduling and work assignment operations at both coarse and fine granular levels, enabling fast preemption and context switching of threads executing on processing array 3612. In at least one embodiment, host software can demonstrate workloads scheduled on processing array 3612 via one of multiple graphics processing doorbells. In at least one embodiment, the workload can then be automatically distributed on the processing array 3612 by the scheduler 3610 logic within the microcontroller, which includes the scheduler 3610.

[0401] In at least one embodiment, the processing array 3612 may include up to "N" processing clusters (e.g., clusters 3614A, 3614B to 3614N). In at least one embodiment, each cluster 3614A-3614N of the processing array 3612 may execute a large number of concurrent threads. In at least one embodiment, the scheduler 3610 may use various scheduling and / or work allocation algorithms to allocate work to the clusters 3614A-3614N of the processing array 3612, which may vary depending on the workload generated by each type of program or computation. In at least one embodiment, scheduling may be handled dynamically by the scheduler 3610, or may be partially assisted by compiler logic during the compilation of program logic configured to be executed by the processing array 3612. In at least one embodiment, different clusters 3614A-3614N of the processing array 3612 may be assigned to process different types of programs or to perform different types of computations.

[0402] In at least one embodiment, the processing array 3612 can be configured to perform various types of parallel processing operations. In at least one embodiment, the processing array 3612 is configured to perform general-purpose parallel computing operations. In at least one embodiment, the processing array 3612 may include logic for performing processing tasks, including filtering video and / or audio data, performing modeling operations, including physical operations, and performing data transformations.

[0403] In at least one embodiment, the processing array 3612 is configured to perform parallel graphics processing operations. In at least one embodiment, the processing array 3612 may include additional logic to support the execution of such graphics processing operations, including but not limited to texture sampling logic for performing texture operations, as well as tessellation logic and other vertex processing logic. In at least one embodiment, the processing array 3612 may be configured to execute shader programs related to graphics processing, such as, but not limited to, vertex shaders, tessellation shaders, geometry shaders, and pixel shaders. In at least one embodiment, the parallel processing unit 3602 may transfer data from system memory via I / O unit 3604 for processing. In at least one embodiment, during processing, the transferred data may be stored in on-chip memory (e.g., parallel processor memory 3622) and then written back to system memory.

[0404] In at least one embodiment, when the parallel processing unit 3602 is used to perform graph processing, the scheduler 3610 may be configured to divide the processing workload into tasks of approximately equal size to better distribute graphics processing operations among the multiple clusters 3614A-3614N of the processing array 3612. In at least one embodiment, portions of the processing array 3612 may be configured to perform different types of processing. In at least one embodiment, a first portion may be configured to perform vertex shading and topology generation, a second portion may be configured to perform tessellation and geometry shading, and a third portion may be configured to perform pixel shading or other screen-space operations to generate a rendered image for display. In at least one embodiment, intermediate data generated by one or more of the clusters 3614A-3614N may be stored in a buffer to allow intermediate data to be transferred between the clusters 3614A-3614N for further processing.

[0405] In at least one embodiment, the processing array 3612 may receive processing tasks to be executed via a scheduler 3610, which receives commands defining the processing tasks from a front end 3608. In at least one embodiment, the processing task may include an index of data to be processed, such as surface (patch) data, raw data, vertex data, and / or pixel data, as well as state parameters and commands defining how the data is processed (e.g., what program to execute). In at least one embodiment, the scheduler 3610 may be configured to acquire an index corresponding to a task, or may receive an index from the front end 3608. In at least one embodiment, the front end 3608 may be configured to ensure that the processing array 3612 is configured to be active before initiating a workload specified by an incoming command buffer (e.g., a batch buffer, push buffer, etc.).

[0406] In at least one embodiment, each of one or more instances of the parallel processing unit 3602 may be coupled to the parallel processor memory 3622. In at least one embodiment, the parallel processor memory 3622 may be accessed via a memory crossbar switch 3616, which may receive memory requests from the processing array 3612 and the I / O unit 3604. In at least one embodiment, the memory crossbar switch 3616 may be accessed via a memory interface 3618. In at least one embodiment, the memory interface 3618 may include a plurality of partition units (e.g., partition units 3620A, 3620B to 3620N), each of which may be coupled to a portion (e.g., a memory cell) of the parallel processor memory 3622. In at least one embodiment, the plurality of partition units 3620A-3620N are configured to be equal to the number of memory units, such that the first partition unit 3620A has a corresponding first memory unit 3624A, the second partition unit 3620B has a corresponding memory unit 3624B, and the Nth partition unit 3620N has a corresponding Nth memory unit 3624N. In at least one embodiment, the number of partition units 3620A-3620N may not be equal to the number of memory devices.

[0407] In at least one embodiment, memory cells 3624A-3624N may include various types of memory devices, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or graphics random access memory, such as synchronous graphics random access memory (SGRAM), including graphics double data rate (GDDR) memory. In at least one embodiment, memory cells 3624A-3624N may also include 3D stacked memory, including but not limited to high bandwidth memory (HBM). In at least one embodiment, rendering targets such as frame buffers or texture maps may be stored across memory cells 3624A-3624N, allowing partitioning cells 3620A-3620N to write portions of each rendering target in parallel to efficiently u...

Claims

1. A thermal load group (TLB) system for testing hybrid data center cooling systems, comprising: One or more thermal features and one or more mixed cooling features, wherein the one or more thermal features are used to generate heat within the TLB system, and the one or more mixed cooling features are used to provide an air and liquid cooling response to the heat generated by the one or more thermal features; In this embodiment, at least one heating element of one or more thermal features is located near at least one cold plate, the at least one cold plate having ports for an auxiliary cooling circuit and a local coolant cooling circuit to receive auxiliary coolant and local coolant respectively, the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant cooling circuit providing at least liquid cooling of the cold plate, the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant cooling circuit being associated with a main cooling circuit, the main coolant in the main cooling circuit being configured to provide cooling to the auxiliary coolant in the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant in the local coolant cooling circuit.

2. The TLB system according to claim 1, further comprising: The at least one heating element has an adjustable level of heat, and the cold plate has an inlet port and an outlet port for providing liquid cooling as part of the air and liquid cooling response from the hybrid data center cooling system.

3. The TLB system according to claim 1, further comprising: The auxiliary cooling circuit, which is associated with the main cooling circuit or the refrigerant cooling circuit, forms part of one or more hybrid cooling features, and the refrigerant cooling circuit and the main cooling circuit are used to provide different liquid cooling to the auxiliary cooling circuit as part of the air and liquid cooling response from the hybrid data center cooling system.

4. The TLB system according to claim 1, further comprising: A control unit is configured to generate different levels of heat associated with different temperatures set for one or more thermal characteristics, and to generate air and liquid cooling responses distinctly or in combination for the different levels of heat.

5. The TLB system according to claim 1, further comprising: At least one processor is configured to receive sensor input from sensors associated with the one or more thermal characteristics, the at least one processor being configured to adjust the hybrid cooling characteristics of the hybrid data center cooling system and to cause changes in the air and liquid cooling response.

6. The TLB system according to claim 5, further comprising: One or more neural networks of the at least one processor are used to receive the sensor input and infer the cooling requirements for the hybrid data center cooling system, the cooling requirements being addressed by the one or more hybrid cooling features using air or a coolant or a combination of air and coolant, the coolant being from a cooling circuit that interfaces with a refrigerant cooling circuit or the auxiliary cooling circuit.

7. The TLB system according to claim 1, further comprising: At least one processor is configured to induce air cooling and enable one or more flow controllers to implement the local coolant cooling circuit or the auxiliary cooling circuit as part of the air and liquid cooling response.

8. The TLB system of claim 1, wherein one or more of a refrigerant, engineered fluid, or coolant are used to provide the liquid response of the air and liquid cooling response from the hybrid data center cooling system.

9. The TLB system according to claim 1, further comprising: One or more flow controllers of the one or more hybrid cooling features are used to realize the flow of one or more of refrigerant, engineered fluid, or coolant to provide a liquid response of the air and liquid cooling response from the hybrid data center cooling system.

10. The TLB system according to claim 1, further comprising: At least one processor is configured to implement a first mode of the hybrid data center cooling system to provide cooling using a cooling loop that interfaces with a refrigerant cooling loop, to implement a second mode to provide cooling using the cooling loop that interfaces with the main cooling loop, to implement a third mode to provide air cooling, and to implement an auxiliary cooling mode that combines two or more of the first mode, the second mode, and the third mode.

11. A processor comprising one or more circuits associated with a hybrid data center cooling system thermal load group (TLB) system for testing, the one or more circuits being configured to implement one or more thermal features to generate heat within the TLB system, the processor being configured to implement one or more hybrid cooling features to provide an air and liquid cooling response to the heat generated by the one or more thermal features; in, At least one heating element of the one or more thermal features is located near at least one cold plate, the at least one cold plate having ports for an auxiliary cooling circuit and a local coolant cooling circuit to receive auxiliary coolant and local coolant respectively, the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant cooling circuit providing at least liquid cooling of the cold plate, the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant cooling circuit being associated with a main cooling circuit, the main coolant in the main cooling circuit being configured to provide cooling to the auxiliary coolant in the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant in the local coolant cooling circuit.

12. The processor of claim 11, further comprising: Outputs are provided for at least one heating element of the one or more thermal features and for one or more flow controllers, a first signal for realizing different levels of heat from within the TLB system, and a second signal for realizing air cooling, for realizing a cooling loop, or for realizing a combination of the air cooling and the cooling loop, as part of the air and liquid cooling response to the different levels of heat.

13. The processor of claim 11, further comprising: Input, for receiving sensor input from sensors associated with the one or more thermal features, the processor for determining different cooling requirements associated with the one or more hybrid cooling features, the one or more hybrid cooling features including an air cooling system, an auxiliary cooling circuit associated with the main cooling circuit or a refrigerant cooling circuit, or a combination of the air cooling system and the auxiliary cooling circuit.

14. The processor of claim 13, further comprising: One or more neural networks are used to receive the sensor inputs and to infer the different cooling requirements.

15. The processor of claim 11, further comprising: One or more neural networks are used to infer temperatures associated with the one or more thermal features from previous temperatures associated with one or more computing devices, and to enable the one or more thermal features to generate heat based on the temperature.

16. A method for testing a hybrid data center cooling system, comprising: Provide a thermal load grouping TLB system, the TLB system having one or more thermal features and one or more mixed cooling features; Determine the temperature associated with the one or more thermal features; This enables one or more thermal features to generate heat within the TLB system; as well as The one or more hybrid cooling features are configured to provide air and liquid cooling responses to the heat generated by the one or more thermal features; In this embodiment, at least one heating element of one or more thermal features is located near at least one cold plate, the at least one cold plate having ports for an auxiliary cooling circuit and a local coolant cooling circuit to receive auxiliary coolant and local coolant respectively, the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant cooling circuit providing at least liquid cooling of the cold plate, the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant cooling circuit being associated with a main cooling circuit, the main coolant in the main cooling circuit being configured to provide cooling to the auxiliary coolant in the auxiliary cooling circuit and the local coolant in the local coolant cooling circuit.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising: At least one processor is used to determine the temperature associated with the one or more thermal features; The at least one heating element is capable of including adjustable levels of heat. Use the temperature to determine the cooling requirements; and The cooling requirements are partly based on the cooling requirements, enabling one or more hybrid cooling features to provide air cooling from an air cooling system, auxiliary coolant from an auxiliary cooling circuit associated with the main cooling circuit or refrigerant cooling circuit, or a combination of air cooling and the auxiliary coolant.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: The processor receives sensor input from sensors associated with the one or more thermal features; as well as The at least one processor is used to determine and adjust the hybrid cooling characteristics of the hybrid data center cooling system, causing changes in the air and liquid cooling responses.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising: Using a control unit to generate different levels of heat associated with the temperature of one or more thermal features; and The air and liquid cooling responses are caused differently or in combination for the different levels of heat.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising: Using one or more flow controllers of the one or more hybrid cooling features, the flow of one or more of a refrigerant, engineered fluid, or coolant is realized to provide a liquid response to the air and liquid cooling response from the hybrid data center cooling system.

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