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The Computer as Microwave?

Posted by Cliff on from the the-consequences-of-the-Ghz-race dept.

Clan Hanna asks: "With the newest processors that AMD and Intel have released, running at 1.0 gigahertz, chip designers may soon have a new problem on their hands more than can simply be solved by placing a bigger heatsync on the motherboard. Microwave frequencies run from 1 gigahertz to 1 terahertz. Currently processors heat up because they emit infrared radiation, but what is going to happen when they start to emit -microwave- radiation? I'm sure chip designers think about this in the back of their minds, but I'm just wondering if they have considered any real world solutions. If so, I'd love to find out about them."

2 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Wait a minute... by dufke · · Score: 5

    ...call me an EE major (I am one :-) but I belive infrared is ABOVE microwave in frequency. Anyway, most of the heat produced by a CPU is transfered through heat conduction, not radiation. I don't think the actual clock signal would cause much radiation. Clocking a CPU higher may increase heat production, but the frequency of the radiation (if any) is not directly related to the clock frequency.

    Anyway, even if it did, the high-amplitude microwaves in an oven are stopped by rather thin sheets of steel. And the amplitude from the CPU must be lower. Remember, your oven draws multiple kW, while I damn hope your CPU keeps below 100W. (Otherwise, you have an Alpha, and I WANT IT! :-)
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  2. I get a little upset... by jdwilso2 · · Score: 4

    When /. posts a bogus story like this one... uPs aren't gonna produce any harmful "radiation" such as this story suggests. Sure, every electrical device emmits a multitude of interferance, but to claim that when processors start getting above 1GHz I can cook my TV dinner in my case is rediculous. Power has a great deal to do with such things, and so does the appication. I mean, come on... Let's be serious, a 2.4GHz coordless phone meets FCC specs, and it's *transmitting* it's 2.4GHz signal... RF stuff can't hurt you, and it's moving through all the space around you. Hell, the military use spread spectrum encoded wireless transmissions whose carrier frequencies are 10GHz and UP! And if RF doesn't hurt you, ain't no clocked digital logic circuit gonna byte you. Especially at those exceedingly low frequencies of under 100GHz. It's all about power guys... Do some reaserch before you start spewing your crap all over me. It's all about the power...