Information services around the globe are underpinned by data centers whose total energy consumption currently accounts for only approximately 3% of the total energy supply. This value is constantly increasing and expected to reach well over 10% by 2030. Thus, for the realization of the truly sustainable society, the dramatic increase in efficiency of data center technology is indispensable. However, as Moore's Law slows down, it will be difficult to solve this problem simply by improving the performance of individual technologies, as has been the case in the past.
The Council on Devices and Systems for Next Generation Green Data Centers (GDC Council) was established in April 2022 as one of the AIST consortiums. With the next- generation green data center as its keyword, the council will share information, exchange opinions, and propose new joint R&D/standardization activities together with R&D/business operators of optoelectronic convergence technology, power-saving chip technology, and disaggregation technology, as well as the value chain required for social implementation, data center operators, and others. At the same time, it also includes functions to manage the project "Next Generation Green Data Center Technology Development" as part of the NEDO Green Innovation Fund Project "Construction of Next Generation Digital Infrastructure".
The figure below shows the organization of the council: the “System Architecture Study Committee” consists of the Type I members, or the companies/institutes implementing the NEDO project “Next Generation Green Data Center Technology Development”; the “Co- Packaging Technology Study Committee” consists of any type of members to widely discuss and promote optoelectronic integration/co-packaging technology; and the “Social Implementation Promotion Committee” consists of any type of members to discuss social implementation of the technologies discussed in the council. Through these activities, we aim to strengthen the international competitiveness of Japanese devices and systems and contribute to the realization of the truly sustainable society.
Greetings from the Chair
I am Shu Namiki, Research Director of the Platform Photonics Research Center, AIST. It is my honor and pleasure to serve as Chair of GDC Council. The GDC Council is managed by the Platform Photonics Research Center that is conducting vertically integrated research and development on integrated optical devices, optoelectronic convergence integration, and optical network virtualization, based on the AIST’s Next Generation Computing Infrastructure Strategy*.
In the 6G era, expected to become more important is not only cloud computing but also edge computing. Cloud and edge computing are efficiently connected by optical communication technology, which began to spread in the early 1980s with its application to telecom and has developed since around 2000 with its application to the Internet and data centers. Currently, optical communication technology is being applied to the inside of servers and other information equipment, where the creation of optoelectronic convergence technology is becoming increasingly important.
The Council will provide opportunities for co-creation of optoelectronic convergence technologies through facilitating close discussions and collaboration between computing and optical communication engineers, and to contribute to making Japan a world leader in device and system technologies for next-generation green data centers. We look forward to your guidance and cooperation.
＊：https://unit.aist.go.jp/rp-eleman2022/NGCI/
Greetings from Vice Chair
Since the beginning of this century, I have been engaged in the development of supercomputers such as "K computer"
and "Supercomputer FUGAKU" in FUJITSU.
Regarding the requirements for computer systems, there would be several differences between supercomputers and data center servers, since the characteristics of major applications would differ.
On the other hand, there would be some techniques which could be commonly applied for both types of computer systems, for example, the low power methodology, and so on. I believe my experience in supercomputer would also be useful for data center servers and I could contribute to the activity of this GDC Council.