Comino announces Comino Grando, a liquid-cooled supercomputer set to disrupt cryptocurrency mining and solve its energy crisis


BERLIN, GERMANY, June 7, 2018: Hardware startup Comino announces the launch of Comino Grando, its enterprise-grade, GPU-based supercomputer that features a revolutionary liquid cooling system. Comino Grando launches alongside news that Comino has secured a $30 million contract to build two European data centers based on the Grando's technology. With its unique liquid cooling technology, Comino Grando is 40% more efficient than its air-cooled competition, it can recycle energy back into the facility for heating, and can operate at full-power 24/7.


Today, using GPUs in data centers for different tasks (cryptocurrency mining, AI, HPC) with air cooling comes with a host of problems: the machines overheat, they take up a lot of space, they waste energy, and their parts fail. By pioneering a new liquid-cooling approach Comino Grando provides an immediate solution that is:


  • Built to last: Air-cooled mining rigs have an extremely high failure rate. That's unavoidable because of the moving parts and thermal instability involved. In contrast, Comino Grando is engineered to last, with custom-crafted components and a stable architecture. Comino is proud to offer an industry-leading, one year warranty (4x higher than the industry average). This warranty alone translates into 15-25% cost savings for the average operator.


  • Energy-efficient: Air-cooling comprises 99% of the crypto mining industry and is fundamentally wasteful: energy is spent to generate heat and then more energy is spent to haphazardly dissipate that heat. With its liquid-cooling architecture and dynamic software that intelligently directs cooling, Comino Grando is a whopping 40% more energy efficient than comparable air-cooled machines.


  • Eco-friendly:  Cryptocurrency makes headlines everyday for its environmental abuse and energy footprint, releasing as much as 33.9 kilotons of CO2 per year. This energy usage is one of the biggest challenges the technology industry faces and Comino Grando solves it. Comino Grando not only generates far less excess energy, it also recycles much of that energy back into the host facility to provide heating. This stored heat can be removed and transported or sold to other buildings or facilities.


  • Ultra-compact. Comino Grando is up to 10 times more compact than air cooled devices. That storage efficiency alone drastically increases operational efficiency and cuts infrastructure and rent expenses in half.  


  • Easy to maintain and upgrade: Comino Grando's hardware parts, like the GPU, can be swapped out without interfering with its cooling system. That saves on assembly costs and simplifies maintenance so you don't need specially trained employees. Similarly, Comino Grando is easy and inexpensive to upgrade, letting your initial infrastructure capital investment (CAPEX) last a long time.

(For more technical details, please visit https://grando.ai/en/)

Comino Grando launches alongside a $30 million contract to build two GPU-based data centers in Europe that will be powered by its technology. Both data centers will see an ROI from using Comino Grando after only one year.


"While Comino Grando adds incredible value to the industry, it's only the start," says CEO Evgeny Vlasov, "We want to make the entire world more eco-friendly. Current tasks like cryptocurrency mining, neural networks, and GPU databases eat up huge amounts of energy. Crypto mining alone eats up more energy than Denmark, twice what it needs to be with no heat recovery. We can do much, much better."


About Comino:


Comino is a hardware startup that specializes in energy-efficient machines and software algorithms. Last year, Comino raised $10 million from the VC firm Exantech, and launched its first consumer product, plug and play, which is a silent liquid cooled device with 8 GPUs inside that doubles as a smart home heater. Since its launch, Comino has sold several thousand devices and projects 10,000 units by year's end.

Media Contact: