AFCO Systems will be showcasing an unusual “Open Compute Project inspired” rack at the OCP US Summit 2016 in San Jose next month. The Bloomberg Open Adaptive Rack (Boar) follows the OCP’s “grid to gates” design philosophy.

The rack is not a standard OCP rack and was designed for Bloomberg’s existing datacenters. While meeting the requirements of the OCP v1.1 specification, it also features a chimney flex duct ring in the top panel to plug into Bloomberg’s cooling systems. The same rack system can be supplied without the ring.

The ring attaches to a vent that removes the hot air and helps keep the integrity of the cool aisle. This heat containment system is a feature of Bloomberg’s own data center design.

Rack with a chimney

Bloomberg afco

The Boar is divided into separate power zones which accommodate compute, storage or other components and the rack includes a power shelf to feed these units. Each zone can be adjusted according to the number and height of the equipment fitted into it.

Slot heights are measured in OpenU units, which adds an extra 3.5 mm to the traditional rack unit (RU) height of 44.5 mm. The available space is equal to 10 OpenU units which can be subdivided incrementally down to 0.5 OpenU units.

Bus bars at the rear of each power zone are installed in pairs which connect to the power shelf in that zone. Left and right front rack posts contain cabling runs with flanges design to use simple Velcro straps or cable ties to retain the cabling. Horizontal cable troughs, measuring 4 inches x 4 inches, have been welded into the rack frame front and rear to accommodate intra-rack cabling.

The frame is constructed from tubular steel and a black powder finish has been applied to comply with OPC standards. Access to the rack is provided by a removable perforated front door and sealed clear plexi door which are both hinged to the right.

Open Compute Project’s “grid to gates” is a holistic design process that considers the interdependence of everything from the power grid to the gates in the chips on each motherboard.

The OCP US Summit 2016 will be held at the San Jose Convention Center, 9-10 March. DatacenterDynamics will be attending.