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The Not-So-Cool Future
markmcb writes "Researchers at Purdue University and several other universities are looking to start work on a major problem standing in the way of future chip design: heat. The team is proposing a new center to consolidate efforts in finding solutions for the problem that is expected to become a reality within the next 15 years as future chips are expected to produce around 10 times as much heat as today's chips. The new center would work to develop circuits that consume less electricity and couple them with micro cooling devices."
I think that the solution to the heat problem will not come with better and more powerful cooling solutions, but rather radically changing how chips are designed and manufactured. The article doesn't contradict this, but I just want to emphasize that. Having some liquid nitrogen cooling unit is not the optimal, or even a good solution.
Canadian Cynic, canadian politics is less boring than you
Not that I claim to have a solution to the problem with overheating processors. But the power consumption of computers are starting to bother me.
I used to want the fastest computer around. But a few things have changed I guess.
First of all computers are starting to be fast enough for most needs.
Secondly, the way I use computers has changed with always on Internet. I never turn my computer off because I want to be able to quickly look something up on the web.
I also have a server that is running 24/7. Most of the time it is idling, but even when it is working I don't need it to be a speed demon.
So it is starting to be really important for me that a computer doesn't use a lot of power. I don't know if it affects my electric bill in a noticeable way, but it feels wrong.
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
Especially for those of us with newer motherboards who want a completely silent system with as few fans as possible
First it was CPUs with cooling and big/slow/no fans and big heatsinks, then PSUs GPUs and now MOBOs. My current custom box (now 14 months old) was built to be silent and I had a hard time settling on a motherboard that was state of the art, stable, and still used a passive heatsink to cool the board chipset fan-free. I finally settled on an Asus P4P800.
I can definately believe heat becoming even more of an issue. For those of us who want power/performance and quiet at the same time, this will become even more of a challenge as time goes on. I for one hope not to rely on expensive and/or complicated cooling devices, like peltier units, water pumps and the like. I hope the focus is on efficient chips that only clock up/power up as they need to, like the pentuim M.
my 2 cents.
uR iGn0ranc3, Their Power
it's the size.
compare the typical light bulb with the typical wire running through your house. the light bulb gets hot because of the thin wire.
See pictures of tits
A few years back, I read a couple of articles about reversible chips ... run the op through one way, store the results, then run the exact mirror back through. Net heat result was (theoretically) zero. Reality was about 1-2% of regular heat build-up.
But I haven't heard anything more on this. Sure, it effectively halves chip speed. And, even at the time, I thought it would be insane to engineer with the pre-emptive tasking coming into vogue. But something that drops heat production by two orders of magnitude seemed worthwhile pursuing. Anyone else heard where this research is at?