# US 2019/0174651 A1 · Modular data center

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- Number: US 2019/0174651 A1
- Document ID: US20190174651A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/209,955
- Filed: 2018-12-04
- Published: 2019-06-06
- Earliest claimed: 2017-12-04
- Assignees: Vapor IO Inc.
- Applicants: Vapor IO Inc.
- Inventors: Colton Malone Crawford; Steven White; Ben Chavez; Frank Basso
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20190174651A1

## CPC

- G06F 21/31: User authentication
- E04H 5/02: Buildings or groups of buildings for industrial purposes, e.g. for power-plants or factories (buildings forming part of cooling plants E04H5/10)
- G05B 19/042: using digital processors (G05B19/05 takes precedence)
- G06F 21/86: Secure or tamper-resistant housings
- H05K 7/1495: {providing data protection in case of earthquakes, floods, storms, nuclear explosions, intrusions, fire}
- H05K 7/1497: {Rooms for data centers; Shipping containers therefor}
- H05K 7/1498: {Resource management, Optimisation arrangements, e.g. configuration, identification, tracking, physical location (thermal management H05K7/20836)}
- H05K 7/18: Construction of rack or frame
- H05K 7/183: {support rails therefor}
- H05K 7/20209: {Thermal management, e.g. fan control}
- H05K 7/20745: {within rooms for removing heat from cabinets, e.g. by air conditioning device}
- H05K 7/2079: {within rooms for removing heat from cabinets}
- H05K 7/20836: {Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control}
- A62C 37/40: with electric connection between sensor and actuator
- E04H 2005/005: {Buildings for data processing centers}
- E05B 47/0002: {with electromagnets}
- G05B 2219/2614: HVAC, heating, ventillation, climate control
- G05B 2219/2639: Energy management, use maximum of cheap power, keep peak load low
- H02S 20/22: specially adapted for buildings
- Y02B 10/10: Photovoltaic [PV]
- Y02E 10/50: Photovoltaic [PV] energy
- Y04S 40/20: Information technology specific aspects, e.g. CAD, simulation, modelling, system security
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- E04H: BUILDINGS OR LIKE STRUCTURES FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSES; SWIMMING OR SPLASH BATHS OR POOLS; MASTS; FENCING; TENTS OR CANOPIES, IN GENERAL (foundations E02D)
- G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G)
- H05K: PRINTED CIRCUITS; CASINGS OR CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS OF ELECTRIC APPARATUS; MANUFACTURE OF ASSEMBLAGES OF ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS
- A62C: FIRE-FIGHTING (fire-extinguishing compositions, use of chemical substances in extinguishing fires A62D1/00; spraying, applying liquids or other fluent materials to surfaces in general B05; alarm arrangements G08B, e.g. fire alarms actuated by smoke or gases G08B17/10)
- E05B: LOCKS; ACCESSORIES THEREFOR; HANDCUFFS
- H02S: GENERATION OF ELECTRIC POWER BY CONVERSION OF INFRARED RADIATION, VISIBLE LIGHT OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT, e.g. USING PHOTOVOLTAIC [PV] MODULES (obtaining electrical energy from radioactive sources G21H1/12; light sensitive inorganic semiconductor devices H10F; light sensitive organic semiconductor devices H10K30/00; thermoelectric devices H10N10/00; pyroelectric devices H10N15/00)
- Y02B: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
- Y02E: REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
- Y04S: SYSTEMS INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO POWER NETWORK OPERATION, COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING THE ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION, TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT OR USAGE, i.e. SMART GRIDS

## Abstract

Provided is a modular datacenter having a moveable rack assembly configured to selectively provide access to rack-mounted computing devices, with access barriers selectively providing access to rack-mounted computing devices within an exposed rack or portion of a rack or device mounted thereon, safety interlocks controlling when the rack assembly moves, and space-efficient thermal management systems.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An apparatus, comprising:
a rack assembly comprising a plurality of racks coupled to one another, wherein:
respective racks among the plurality of racks are configured to hold a plurality of rack-mounted computing devices arrayed in a first direction;
the plurality of racks are arrayed in one or more directions orthogonal to the first direction for respective racks, with respective racks positioned side-by-side;
a rack-assembly enclosure, wherein:
the rack-assembly enclosure is coupled to the rack assembly with:
at least one degree of freedom of relative movement between the rack-assembly enclosure and the rack assembly, and
fewer than three degrees of freedom of relative movement between the rack-assembly enclosure and the rack assembly;
the rack-assembly enclosure comprises a barrier configured to block access to an inaccessible subset of the plurality of racks;
the rack-assembly enclosure comprises an opening in the barrier configured to permit access to at least part of an accessible subset of the plurality of racks, the accessible subset and the inaccessible subsets being disjoint sets;
the rack assembly and rack-assembly enclosure are configured to determine which of the plurality of racks are in the inaccessible subset and which of the plurality of racks are in the accessible subset responsive to the at least one degree of freedom of relative movement between the rack-assembly enclosure and the rack assembly, such that relative movement of the rack assembly and rack-assembly enclosure selectively provides physical access to a technician to different rack unit portions of the rack assembly; and
an actuator mechanically coupled to the rack assembly or the rack-assembly enclosure, the actuator being configured to actuate relative movement between the rack assembly and the rack-assembly enclosure in at least one of the one or more degrees of freedom.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
each respective rack comprises more than four rack units each configured to hold one or more of the rack-mounted computing devices;
the rack assembly comprises more than five wedge-shaped racks;
the plurality of racks are arrayed in a circular arrangement defining a circular outer perimeter and an interior chamber extending in the first direction;
the rack-assembly enclosure comprises one or more walls blocking access to every rack among the plurality of racks in the rack assembly except for those racks aligned with the opening;
the opening extends in the first direction at least between a bottom rack unit of the plurality of racks to a top rack unit of the plurality of racks;
the opening extends orthogonal to the first direction at least a rack-unit-width of the plurality of racks;
the opening extends orthogonal to the first direction less than three rack-unit-widths;
the rack-assembly enclosure is coupled to the rack assembly with one and only one degree of freedom of relative movement; and
the one and only one degree of freedom of relative movement is rotation about a central axis of rotational symmetry of the rack assembly.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, comprising:
a building that envelopes the rack assembly, wherein:
the building comprises first room having a door configured to provide a passage by which a technician walks into the first room; and
the rack-assembly enclosure is configured to selectively provides access by the technician in the first room to at least part of the racks in the accessible subset.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The apparatus of claim 3, wherein:
the building is a modular housing configured to be transported on a truck and protect the rack assembly from weather.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The apparatus of claim 4, comprising:
a modular cooling unit coupled to the building and configured to:
cool the rack mounted computing equipment by removing heat from a cooling fluid circulated through the rack assembly; and
be transported on a truck and coupled to the building at an edge-based data center site having fewer than five rack assemblies in five or fewer truck-transportable modular buildings.

### Claim 6 (depends on 3)

The apparatus of claim 3, comprising:
a solar panel coupled to the building; and
power conditioning circuitry coupled to the solar panel and configured to provide power from the solar panel to the rack-mounted computing equipment or environmental controls of the building.

### Claim 7 (depends on 3)

The apparatus of claim 3, comprising:
a docking station coupled to the building and configured to dock with a drone and recharge the drone while the drone is docked.

### Claim 8 (depends on 3)

The apparatus of claim 3, wherein:
the building comprises a second room separated from the first room by a barrier that defines at least part of the opening.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The apparatus of claim 8, wherein:
one or more permeable barriers of the second room define at least part of the rack-assembly enclosure that contains the rack-assembly; and
the rack assembly blocks the opening and is configured to prevent a person from walking from the first room into the second room through the opening.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
the rack assembly has one and only one degree of freedom of movement relative to the rack-assembly enclosure.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
the rack assembly is configured to rotate relative to the rack-assembly enclosure while the rack-assembly enclosure remains static.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
the rack-assembly enclosure is configured to rotate relative to the rack assembly while the rack assembly remains static.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
the rack assembly is configured to both translate and rotate relative to the rack-assembly enclosure to selectively provide access to a selected subset of rack units in a selected rack.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
the rack assembly is configured to rotate through more than 90 degrees relative to the rack-assembly enclosure and through less than 720 degrees relative to the rack-assembly enclosure

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
the rack-assembly enclosure is static and the rack assembly is configured to move relative to the rack assembly-enclosure; and
the apparatus comprises:
power and data cables coupled to the rack assembly; and
a linear or rotational cable carrier in which at least part of the power and data cables are disposed.

### Claim 16 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, comprising:
a plurality of access barriers mechanically coupled to a given one of the racks, the access barriers being configured to secure and selectively provide access to different respective subsets of rack units in the given one of the racks from access via the opening, wherein:
a first access barrier among the plurality of access barriers is configured to secure and selectively provide access to a first subset of the rack units in the given one of the racks;
a second access barrier among the plurality of access barriers is configured to secure and selectively provide access to a second subset of the rack units in the given one of the racks; and
the second subset of the rack units is disjoint from the first subset of the rack units.

### Claim at position 17

17-20. (canceled)

### Claim 21 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, comprising at least three of the followings:
exterior lighting;
interior lighting;
a security camera;
a weight sensor;
a motion sensor; or
a drone configured to be launched, flown, landed, and charged responsive to commands from a remote source.

### Claim 22 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a fire suppression system configured to detect smoke or heat, and in response to detecting smoke or heat or both:
emit a fire suppressant; and
obstructing airflow through the rack assembly.

### Claim 23 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, comprising an environmental controller configured to adjust at least some of environmental parameters, including at least four of the following:
a cooling fluid flow rate;
a cooling fluid temperature;
humidity of air within the rack assembly;
temperature of air within the rack assembly;
pressure of air within the rack assembly;
vibrations of the rack assembly;
airborne particulates of air within the rack assembly;
oxygen content of air within the rack assembly;
temperature distribution of air within the rack assembly; or
a rate of air flow within the rack assembly.

### Claim 24 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a controller configured to:
determine that rack-mounted computing equipment has exceeded a threshold temperature;
adjust workload of the rack-mounted computing equipment by shifting a workload to another data center in response to determining that the threshold temperature has been exceeded; and
shift back workload to the rack-mounted computing equipment in response to determining that the temperature is less than the threshold temperature or another threshold temperature.