Atmospheric cooling of servers in a data center

Abstract

A building for a data center (or server farm) includes a stack structure that interfaces with an environment and one or more housings coupled to a floor and the stack structure. Each of the housings includes one or more racks with a plurality of servers and each of the servers includes a computer fan capable of varying speed or reversing direction. The building also includes one or more filters between the one or more housings and the environment and one or more walls operable to be between the one or more filters and the environment.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A data center comprising:
 a chimney structure that interfaces with an environment outside the data center;   one or more housings coupled to a floor and the chimney structure, wherein each of the housings includes one or more racks with a plurality of servers and wherein each of the servers includes a computer fan capable of varying speed or reversing direction;   a plurality of filters between the one or more housings and the environment; and   a plurality of walls that include a roll-up wall in one or more of said plurality of walls;   wherein the data center is characterized in that each of the walls is operable to be between a respective filter of the plurality of filters and the environment outside the data center.   
     
     
         2 . The data center as in  claim 1 , wherein each filter is a mesh filter. 
     
     
         3 . The data center as in  claim 1 , further comprising a controller that is adapted to roll down or is adapted to roll up the roll-up wall depending at least in part on a temperature measurement of the air proximate to the servers. 
     
     
         4 . The data center as in  claim 3 , wherein the temperature measurement is used to determine whether a rate of change in temperature has occurred that exceeds an allowable rate of change in temperature determined by a manufacturer of the server. 
     
     
         5 . The data center as in  claim 4 , wherein the allowable rate of change in temperature is approximately a drop of nine degrees Fahrenheit within approximately one hour. 
     
     
         6 . The data center as in  claim 1 , wherein each roll-up wall is manually operated. 
     
     
         7 . The data center as in  claim 1 , wherein a temperature measurement is used to determine whether a rate of change in temperature has occurred that exceeds an allowable rate of change in temperature determined by a manufacturer of the server. 
     
     
         8 . The data center as in  claim 7 , wherein the allowable rate of change in temperature is a drop of approximately nine degrees Fahrenheit within approximately one hour. 
     
     
         9 . The data center as in  claim 1 , further comprising a fan in the chimney structure that is adapted to push or is adapted to pull air into the chimney structure. 
     
     
         10 . The data center as in  claim 9 , further comprising a controller that is adapted to control the fan depending at least in part on a temperature measurement of the air proximate to the servers. 
     
     
         11 . The data center as in  claim 10 , wherein the temperature measurement is used to determine whether a rate of change in temperature has occurred that exceeds an allowable rate of change in temperature determined by a manufacturer of the server. 
     
     
         12 . The data center as in  claim 1 , wherein the chimney structure includes components or materials that warm air passing through the chimney structure. 
     
     
         13 . The data center as in  claim 1 , wherein the chimney structure is included in an attic coupled to the floor. 
     
     
         14 . A data center comprising:
 a chimney structure that interfaces with an environment outside the data center;   one or more housings coupled to a floor and the chimney structure, wherein each of the housings includes one or more racks with a plurality of servers and wherein each of the servers includes a computer fan capable of varying speed or reversing direction;   a plurality of filters between the one or more housings and the environment; and   a plurality of walls having at least one more louvers;   wherein the data center is characterized in that each of the walls is operable to be between a respective filter of the plurality of filters and the environment outside the data center.   
     
     
         15 . The data center as in  claim 14 , wherein each filter is a mesh filter or an air filter. 
     
     
         16 . The data center as in  claim 14 , further comprising a controller that is adapted to open or adapted to close the one or more louvers depending at least in part on a temperature measurement of the air proximate to the servers. 
     
     
         17 . The data center as in  claim 16 , wherein the temperature measurement is used to determine whether a rate of change in temperature has occurred that exceeds an allowable rate of change in temperature determined by a manufacturer of the server. 
     
     
         18 . The data center as in  claim 17 , wherein the allowable rate of change in temperature is a drop of approximately nine degrees Fahrenheit within approximately one hour. 
     
     
         19 . The data center as in  claim 14 , further comprising a fan in the chimney structure that is adapted to push or is adapted to pull air into the chimney structure. 
     
     
         20 . The data center as in  claim 14 , further comprising a controller that is adapted to control the fan depending at least in part on a temperature measurement of the air proximate to the servers.