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Bell Labs Plants Nanograss to Cool Mobile Chips

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the ever-so-careful-watering-of-electronics dept.

LoadWB writes "TechWeb has an article about Bell Labs' new liquid cooling technology for mobile processors. The tech, called 'nanograss' is described as 'tiny tubes that spray liquid on chip hot spots.' The use of this cooling technology reduces the power required to actively remove heat from mobile processors. Other applications are possible, but it seems it was primarily developed for use with mobile CPUs."

2 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Where does the energy go? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You still have the problem of getting the energy from the cpu out of the computer, just because you move it from the chip to the liquid doesn't really help all that much in itself. You still have all the same old problems. Apparently they have managed to come up with something, but it doesn't really seem to be such a great innovation as it is being hyped up to be..

  2. Re:Will the pipes clog? by King_TJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, probably so.... but since it's a *closed* system, this would presumably not ever happen unless part of a "nanotube" broke off and started floating around in the fluid, or something along those lines.

    It's sort of like saying "A hard drive sounds like a cool idea. But wouldn't a small amount of dust gum it up?" Yep - but that's why they're sealed, air-tight, and initially built in clean rooms.