Microcoolers Could Change Processor Design

Skaven writes: "Nature.com is reporting about these nifty new microcoolers, tiny thermoelectric heat sinks that can be built directly onto CPUs. Using the new technology, scientists cooled a processor at 100 degrees C by 7 degrees. That's still a fried t-bird, but what this means is that if the technology gets good enough, cooling chips could soon be getting a lot easier. If anything, small 'hot spots' on the CPU could be avoided by strategic placement of microcoolers, thus helping all of us overclockers out. Heck, maybe even increasing the voltage to your CPU would make it run cooler...how weird would that be?"

Comments

As if California doesn't have it bad enough

[rw2]

If these things are anything like Peltier devices then the energy crisis is going to get a lot worse. Solid state cooling take a ton of energy to perform a small amount of cooling.

I adds a lot of waste heat too. It would be funny to see the web farms have to upgrade their air conditioning plants because their chips require on-board heat disposal. A double whammy. Dissipate an extra 7C, but spend 200W to get it!

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7 degrees

[Overphiend]

In a room temperature environment just about any thermal conducting material, even really small ones, will bring something that hot down that little amount. A circuit has to produce a lot of heat to stay at 100 degrees, even flowing air would drop the micro controller down a few degrees. Lets see some tests at closer to room temperature, and then I'll believe in the product.

Re:And these are different than Peltier pumps,

[Grendel Drago]

So far as I can tell, the 'hot' side is much closer to the 'cold' side. How this helps is certainly beyond me.

Did anyone else wonder how on earth they're actually moving the heat? Seems like "We've made a device that can move destructive heat a very small distance from where it's generated!", which I don't get the point of. Wouldn't this, at best, create a more uniform distribution of the heat? Doesn't say anything about where it goes...

Well, maybe they're using a big peltier on top of the chip and using these little things to move heat over to it. Maybe.

-grendel drago