thumb|upright|220px|The Summit supercomputer was as of November 2018 the fastest supercomputer in the world. With a measured power efficiency of 14.668 GFlops/watt it is also the third most energy efficient in the world. Throughout the decades, the management of heat density has remained a key issue for most centralized supercomputers.The Supermen: Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer by Charles J. Murray 1997, , pages 133–135Parallel Computational Fluid Dyynamics; Recent Advances and Future Directions edited by Rupak Biswas 2010 page 401 The large amount of heat generated by a system may also have other effects, e.g. reducing the lifetime of other system components.Supercomputing Research Advances by Yongge Huáng 2008, , pages 313–314 There have been diverse approaches to heat management, from pumping Fluorinert through the system, to a hybrid liquid-air cooling system or air cooling with normal air conditioning temperatures.Parallel computing for real-time signal processing and control by M. O. Tokhi, Mohammad Alamgir Hossain 2003, , pages 201–202 A typical supercomputer consumes large amounts of electrical power, almost all of which is converted into heat, requiring cooling. For example, Tianhe-1A consumes 4.04 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The cost to power and cool the system can be significant, e.g. 4 MW at $0.10/kWh is $400 an hour or about $3.5 million per year.
thumb|upright|220px|The Summit supercomputer was as of November 2018 the fastest supercomputer in the world With a measured power efficiency of 14668 GFlops/watt it is also the third most energy efficient in the world Throughout the decades the management of heat density has remained a key issue for most centralized supercomputersThe Supermen Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer by Charles J Murray 1997  pages 133–135Parallel Computational Fluid Dyynamics; Recent Advances and Future Directions edited by Rupak Biswas 2010 page 401 The large amount of heat generated by a system may also have other effects eg reducing the lifetime of other system componentsSupercomputing Research Advances by Yongge Huáng 2008  pages 313–314 There have been diverse approaches to heat management from pumping Fluorinert through the system to a hybrid liquid-air cooling system or air cooling with normal air conditioning temperaturesParallel computing for real-time signal processing and control by M O Tokhi Mohammad Alamgir Hossain 2003  pages 201–202 A typical supercomputer consumes large amounts of electrical power almost all of which is converted into heat requiring cooling For example Tianhe-1A consumes 404 megawatts (MW) of electricity The cost to power and cool the system can be significant eg 4 MW at $010/kWh is $400 an hour or about $35 million per year