---
title: "Rack: what it means · The AI Compute Race · DRYBURGH"
source: https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/rack
description: "Rack: The cabinet of servers in which the buildout is counted, powered and cooled. Chapter 4."
---

# Rack

What does “Rack” mean?

RackThe cabinet of servers in which the buildout is counted, powered and cooled. *Chapter 4.*

From *The AI Compute Race*. [Read the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#buy)

## Where the book uses it

- [Chapter 4 — One Rack](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes/chapter-4)How a datacenter is actually built, from a converted factory in Memphis to a greenfield campus in Texas, and what the clock from first ground to first power really measures.

## Sources that use it

- NVIDIA, “Hardware — NVIDIA DGX GB Rack Scale Systems User Guide” (GB200 NVL72: 72 GPUs, 36 CPUs, 18 compute trays, 9 NVLink switch trays; approximately 120 kW), accessed 29 August 2026. [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/company#nvda-gb200-guide)
- NVIDIA, “NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD: Next Generation Scalable Infrastructure for AI Leadership — Reference Architecture Featuring NVIDIA DGX H100 Systems,” RA-11333-001 V11, 22 September 2023 (of the single-scalable-unit rack layout of Figure 2, which draws four DGX H100 systems in each of eight racks: “In this example, power consumption per rack exceeds 40 kW,” page 7; “Rack design can support one, two, or four DGX H100 systems per rack, so that the rack layout can be modified to accommodate different data center requirements,” page 4; NVIDIA states no per-rack figure but this one example, and neither it nor the user guide uses the words air-cooled of the rack; copy held, md5 c178af4b0161a5e3bcc4bafe2a92477a). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/company#nvidia-dgx-h100-rack)

## Related terms

- [Blackwell](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/blackwell)
- [Break-point](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/break-point)
- [Clock](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/clock)
- [GB300](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/gb300)
- [Lenders’ clock](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/lenders-clock)
- [Scale-up](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/scale-up)
- [Vera Rubin](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/vera-rubin)
- [122 days](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/122-days)
- [Abilene](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/abilene)
- [Accelerator](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/accelerator)
- [Colossus](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/colossus)
- [CPU](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/cpu)

From the glossary of The AI Compute Race.

- [Campuses](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger)
- [Tests](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests)
- [Scorecard](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard)
- [Data](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/data/releases)
- [Chapter by chapter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/companion)
- [The record at a glance](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/observatory)
- [The machine](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/machine)
- [One campus, four futures](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/hyperion)
- [Glossary](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary)
- [People](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/people)
- [Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources)
- [Notes](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes)
- [Where the book was wrong](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/corrections)
- [Where its sources were wrong](https://dryburgh.com/corrections?book=vol1)
- [The Paper](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/paper)
- [Consent](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/consent)
- [Who builds and pays](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/parties)

*The AI Compute Race: Five Races, One Machine* is a book by Lee S. Dryburgh, the first volume of THE COMPUTE ECONOMY, published by Dryburgh, an imprint of Contestra OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia; its record closes on 8 November 2026.

[About the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1)[Tell me when it is out](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#notify)