Cloudflare Gen 12 Server: bigger, better, cooler in a 2U1N form factor

This post details the design decisions behind Cloudflare's Gen 12 compute servers, focusing on the adoption of a 2U form factor to address the increasing Thermal Design Point (TDP) of next-generation x86 CPUs (AMD Genoa/Bergamo/Genoa-X and Intel Sapphire Rapids). It explains the thermal limitations of the previous 1U form factor, the performance benefits of higher core counts and TDPs, and how the 2U design with larger fans and heatsinks allows for better cooling, full utilization of rack power budgets, and the integration of PCIe accelerators/GPUs, ultimately improving rack density and TCO.