Schneider Electric unveils AI DC reference designs
Author: Joe Peck
Schneider Electric, a French multinational specialising in energy management and industrial automation, has announced new data centre reference designs developed with NVIDIA, aimed at supporting AI-ready infrastructure and easing deployment for operators.
The designs include integrated power management and liquid cooling controls, with compatibility for NVIDIA Mission Control, the company’s AI factory orchestration software. They also support deployment of NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 racks with densities of up to 142kW per rack.
Integrated power and cooling management
The first reference design provides a framework for combining power management and liquid cooling systems, including Motivair technologies. It is designed to work with NVIDIA Mission Control to help manage cluster and workload operations.
This design can also be used alongside Schneider Electric’s other data centre blueprints for NVIDIA Grace Blackwell systems, allowing operators to manage the power and liquid cooling requirements of accelerated computing clusters.
A second reference design sets out a framework for AI factories using NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 racks in a single data hall. It covers four technical areas: facility power, cooling, IT space, and lifecycle software, with versions available under both ANSI and IEC standards.
Deployment and performance focus
According to Schneider Electric, operators are facing significant challenges in deploying GPU-accelerated AI infrastructure at scale. Its designs are intended to speed up rollout and provide consistency across high-density deployments.
Jim Simonelli, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Schneider Electric, says, “Schneider Electric is streamlining the process of designing, deploying, and operating advanced, AI infrastructure with its new reference designs.
“Our latest reference designs, featuring integrated power management and liquid cooling controls, are future-ready, scalable, and co-engineered with NVIDIA for real-world applications – enabling data centre operators to keep pace with surging demand for AI.”
Scott Wallace, Director of Data Centre Engineering at NVIDIA, adds, “We are entering a new era of accelerated computing, where integrated intelligence across power, cooling, and operations will redefine data centre architectures.
“With its latest controls reference design, Schneider Electric connects critical infrastructure data with NVIDIA Mission Control, delivering a rigorously validated blueprint that enables AI factory digital twins and empowers operators to optimise advanced accelerated computing infrastructure.”
Features of the controls reference design
The controls system links operational technology and IT infrastructure using a plug-and-play approach based on the MQTT protocol. It is designed to provide:
• Standardised publishing of power management and liquid cooling data for use by AI management software and enterprise systems
• Management of redundancy across cooling and power distribution equipment, including coolant distribution units and remote power panels
• Guidance on measuring AI rack power profiles, including peak power and quality monitoring
Reference design for NVIDIA GB300 NVL72
The NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 reference design supports clusters of up to 142kW per rack. A data hall based on this design can accommodate three clusters powered by up to 1,152 GPUs, using liquid-to-liquid coolant distribution units and high-temperature chillers.
The design incorporates Schneider Electric’s ETAP and EcoStruxure IT Design CFD models, enabling operators to create digital twins for testing and optimisation. It builds on earlier blueprints for the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72, reflecting Schneider Electric’s ongoing collaboration with NVIDIA.
The company now offers nine AI reference designs covering a range of scenarios, from prefabricated modules and retrofits to purpose-built facilities for NVIDIA GB200 and GB300 NVL72 clusters.
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