Patent ID: 7738251

Claim:
A computer system comprising: a connecting hub having a plurality of docking regions and configured to provide to each docking region electrical power, a data network interface, a cooling fluid supply and a cooling fluid return; and a plurality of shipping containers, each shipping container enclosing a modular computing environment that adds a predetermined amount of computing power to the computer system, each shipping container having a) a plurality of processing units that are coupled to the data network interface; b) a heat exchanger configured to remove heat generated by the plurality of processing units from the shipping container by circulating cooling fluid from the cooling fluid supply through the heat exchanger and discharging heated cooling fluid into the cooling fluid return; and c) docking members configured to releaseably connect to the connecting hub at one of the plurality of docking regions to receive electrical power, connect to the data network interface, receive cooling fluid from the cooling fluid supply, and discharge return cooling fluid to the cooling fluid return.