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Liquid Metal CPU Heatsink Beats Water Cooling
unassimilatible writes "Bios Magazine is reporting that the world's first commercially available liquid-metal based CPU cooler is about to ship. Danamics, a Danish company, claims that its LM-10 outperforms standard air-cooled heatsinks and most watercooled systems with a mere 1W power draw. 'The liquid metal is a key component in Danamics cooling systems. Liquid metal has two major advantages when cooling high power density heat sources: Firstly it has superior thermo physical properties that decrease temperature — and temperature non-uniformity — on die and across chips. Secondly, the electrical properties of the liquid metal enables efficient, reliable and ultra compact electromagnetic pumping without the use of moving parts, shafts, seals, etc.' Awesome technology, if it actually works and is affordable. The submitter requests that the moderators terminate all T-1000 jokes."
And just how good for the environment is this liquid metal? Or for your health?
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
He got like 3 lines in that whole movie, and now he's left out of the fun of being ribbed on Slashdot. Probably has something to do with having no ribs... Sorry, had to :P
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Reads like an ad...
Slashdot: Remember, Subby, when I promised to kill you last? Subby: That's right, Slashdot. You did. Slashdot: I lied.
Too much of anything can kill you. Water, salt, mercury, oxygen etc etc. They probably use some alloy with an extremely low melting temperature. The article is a bit short on the specifics.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
I can see the Governator imposing a ban on the import of this product...
for the coolant metal is Mercury -a very dangerous material- because Bromine would be a far worse choice. So what does a company that produces a product that uses a highly toxic material do to limit its liability when some dumbass decides to 'mod' the LMC?
I've got your sig, right here.
Too much of anything can kill you. Water, salt, mercury, oxygen etc etc. They probably use some alloy with an extremely low melting temperature. The article is a bit short on the specifics.
Lets test your theory. I demand you pay several women to sleep with me until I die. We'll see who laughs last!
Chill out. Dickwad.
Sig this!
is what ends being your CPU if your cooler fails.
Assuming that we are speaking here of room temperature liquid metal, which one? Some are rare, other are not liquid at normal room temperature, but could be when the cpu starts to get hot, or could be an alloy, but aren't so much choices afaik (or they don't specify as any will work).
is a fusible alloy of some sort. The one's without cadmium or potassium are relatively safe, and galistan doesn't even have any lead in it.
How odd that the article doesn't even hint at what the metal is. I wonder why not?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
" Awesome technology, if it actually works and is affordable."
It works. It's worked for decades under the sea cooling nuclear reactors and in piston aircraft engines.
http://www.enginehistory.org/air-cooled_cylinders_3.htm
" During his early years at McCook Field the ever-ingenious Sam Heron had observed the characteristics of various sodium compounds which are normally used in heat-treating operations. These materials are solid at room temperature and become liquid at engine operating temperatures. He observed that since these compounds wet the surface of steel alloys readily and transfer heat very well, their use should be effective in extending the life of exhaust valves. The ancestor of our present-day sodium-cooled valves had arrived, thanks to Mr. Heron, and almost ninety years later we are still enjoying the benefits of his ingenuity though even today such valves are not completely fault free."
Also, it's not terribly expensive. Just don't go hacking into the reservoir or any of the tubes with a saw, mmmkay?
--
BMO
Google is being of limited help here. The main link I'm finding is to Liquidmetal Technologies, which is producing Liquidmetal and Vitreloy -- zirconium-based alloys which are amorphous in structure (hence the "liquid" in the name) but are otherwise solid in appearance and use (and much stronger than stainless steel or titanium). This is not something one would be pumping through heat tubes to cool a CPU.
Obviously, mercury is out due to its toxicity. My initial thought was they're using metal bits in a suspension, but I have doubts as to whether this would actually do anything useful. Deeper searching yields this page, which describes a gallium/indium/tin alloy which is liquid at room temperature. Wikipedia'a entry for gallium concurs, saying, "It has been suggested that a liquid gallium-tin alloy could be used to cool computer chips in place of water."
Any materials experts out there care to comment?
"That's not liquid metal, that's a mimetic poly alloy!"
"It's as if millions of nano cpus suddenly cried out in terror and were silenced"
"Mime or mime not. There is no try."
"T-1000, I am your mould."
The article mentions that this device uses an electromagnetic pump to move the heat around. In my naivete, I suggested a similar thing, without a pump. I imagined a sort of metal lava-lamp, where at the base, next to the CPU, blobs of molten metal would rise up towards the top of the heat sink. As they rose, they would cool off ( with the help of the fan) , and then sink again to collect more heat. So, the outside of the heat sink would be copper or aluminum or something, and the inside would be some low-temperature metal like tin. Traditional fin architecture would assist in dispersing the heat.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
and i can cure cancer by mixing saliva and boiling urine... IF IT WORKS AND IS AFFORDABLE.
We give you funny cartoons and heatsinks.
You give us Bush, Microsoft and Michael Jackson.
Bad deal, Denmark thinks.
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
Actually, back in my sophomore year in college, my roommates and I built a liquid-metal-cooled 6-node cluster into the back seat of an old Fiero.
The cool thing was, power was so cheap (via government subsidies called "grants") that we eventually upgraded the cluster to run a realtime terrain modeling system that was supposed to identify a path through a network of roads that allowed for the highest average speed, given speed limits and road lengths. The terrain modeling part would determine a way to maximize the time spent going downhill.
DARPA initially supported us, and were going to upgrade our status, give us clearances, etc. but they eventually killed our funding after Ford found out we were using a Fiero and complained about our physical safety while operating the system. But man, DARPA know of some *way* cool ghost towns and low-traffic road networks.
The preceding is a work of fiction written by an easily-distracted procrastinator in a severe time crunch
They work. I need a nice suntan.
An alloy of sodium (Na) and potassium (K) is liquid from 12.6 to 785 C
it is cheap and wets most metals (good heat transfer)
it is a little reactive, so recycling would need some special handling.
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
"So this other guy, he's a Terminator like you, right?"
"Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype."
"More advanced than you are?"
"Yes. A mimetic poly-alloy."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"Liquid metal."
Could be worse. Could be cesium.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
He's made out of a "mimetic poly-alloy" you insensitive clod! Evil governator killing robots have feelings too ya know!
will be the first to welcome our new liquid metal overlords. Hey, that would be just like that Terminator guy!!!!
What if a CPU were made this way...
take a flourescent lightbulb tube, and two radio transmitters... transmit a signal into the lightbulb to make a lightshow and find the lightshow to play to how the signals are sent.
so figure out what signal to send for how the lightshow goes, then figure out how to send a signal with a math function where the lightshow is the answer.
Supposedly it is reasonably priced, but I couldn't find any information on price anywhere.
sigs are a waste of space
cant it be sodium? or something of the class?
Don't worry. They'll be back.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Yes indeed. That website triggered positively explosive reactions in my retinas. :(
I'll be sending you a bill.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
"The submitter requests that the moderators terminate all T-1000 jokes."
The only way to do that would be to wait until the thread becomes stale, assess people who made the jokes, and then send back a cybernetic soldier to kill their mothers.
I hate printers.
It cant form complex machines, guns and explosives have chemicals, moving parts, it doesn't work that way, but it can form solid metal shapes.
BSD is for people who love Unix, Linux is for people who hate Microsoft.
Click on Technology. Then click background:
Cooling of semiconductor hot-spots has developed into a demanding task. In recent years the high power density of microchips has increased rapidly, thereby increasing temperature and temperature non -uniformity on die and across chips. The drive for extremely low thermal resistance if further accelerated by the trend towards smaller system enclosures which has made the cooling task even more difficult. This gives the cooling companies a new challenge. To create cooling devices that is reliable, efficient and compact. Danamics does all of those.
Then click Pump:
Electromagnetic pumps have been used for decades and have been seen in a variety of applications. From space crafts and satellites, on nuclear-driven surface warships and submarines and also in land based nuclear reactors and industrial applications. In space, at sea, at land and now also as a key element for hot spot cooling. An electromagnetic pump has several advantages over typical mechanical pump designs. It contains no moving parts, shafts, seals, etc., emits no noise or vibration, has unlimited MTBF and suffers no performance degrading over time. Typically electromagnetic pumps have had the drawback of a high current requirement. The Danamics patent pending multi-string electromagnetic pump eliminates this limitation and delivers a high flow with minimal current input. Due to the small size and power requirements, the multi-string pump makes a liquid metal cooler suitable for use in smaller applications such as home computers, workstations and even laptops.
Then click Liquid Metal:
The liquid metal is a key component in Danamics cooling systems. Liquid metal has two major advantages when cooling high power density heat sources: Firstly it has superior thermo physical properties that decrease temperature - and temperature nonâ"uniformity - on die and across chips. Secondly the electrical properties of the liquid metal enables efficient, reliable and ultra compact electromagnetic pumping without the use of moving parts, shafts, seals, etc.
Then click Benefits:
Liquid Metal has numerous key advantages compared to competing technologies, such as water-cooling or traditional air cooling. The most important ones are: Ultimate performance Danamics LM10 is the worldâ(TM)s best performing air-cooler. By utilizing the unique properties of liquid metal, the cooler has the lowest thermal resistance of any air-cooler in the market. The cooling capabilities exceeds most watercoolers in a single device. Easy mounting Compared to competing solutions, the Danamics LM10 is a true all-in-one product. There are no external housings, large reservoirs or bulky radiators. With liquid metal cooling you have true performance in a compact, self-contained unit. This makes mounting a breeze and the Danamics LM10 cooler can be mounted in minutes. No moving parts The superior liquid metal brings another advantage besides its efficiency. The properties of liquid metal make the use of an electromagnetic pump possible. Danamicsâ(TM) patent pending multi-string pump delivers high flow combined with a very low power-draw of less than 1W. No noise and no vibration Compared to watercooling pumps, the electromagnetic pump used in Danamics LM10 cooler has numerous benefits. It is hermetically sealed and has no moving parts, which means that no noise or vibration is added to the system from the electromagnetic pump. Also the pump is orientation independent, which ensures maximum flexibility for users and system integrators. Innovative technology Danamics LM10 is built from the ground up using innovative technology. The combination of liquid metal and an electromagnetic pump is all new in commercial cooling devices, bringing
You are awash in a sea of fiercely stated opinions. Obvious exits are: 'File->Quit', 'Reply', and 'Page Down'.
Even worse : Francium
Even worse, Francium.
Sheesh. Some people have no appreciation for rustic wood-panel decor on a web site.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
... when you open the case to add a stick of RAM and the heat sink asks you if you've "seen this boy."
You can terminate all the T-1000 jokes you want, but they'll be back.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Obviously no information about how the liquid metal is made since this is an advertisement, but it's probably a repackaging of ferrofluid in a standard Chinese water cooler.
I just saw the teaser for the new Terminator movie and you want me to put liquid metal in my puter??!
Umm... What?
What about replacing the normal metal heat-sink with Reticulated-Vitreous-Carbon foam... it has a high heat conductivity, and a huge surface area. Its also very light having only 3% relative density. This would seem to me to be the cheapest way of improving CPU cooling.
Technically I understand how liquid metal CAN be more efficient than water. But then again the flow of water is aided by pumps which force a lot of water per second through the cooler, not to mention that a proper radiator is about twice the size of that thing.
Looks to me like Biosmagazine just copied that part from Danamics' press release. Without any comparative benchmarks (hell, we don't even have a comparison to a standard cooler) I'll remain unconvinced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNdijknRxfU "ooooohhh"
"We're sorry. This video is no longer available."
YouTube vulnerable to the /. effect? :-O
New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
I think that was the point. Why would Ford complain if they were using a Ford?
... I'll be back...
if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
how about a link to the firefox extension that autolinkifies plain text urls?
That would be Linkification, now at version 1.3.5 and Firefox 3.0.x compatible.
A typical electromagnetic pump (IIRC) does have moving parts so the "no moving parts" business suggests it is something to do with E&M and pumping but a bit more exotic. My guess is that the "liquid metal" is a ferrofluid and the cooling mechanism is thermomagnetic convection.
, but just as its physical properties change through alloying (allowing it to become a liquid at STP), so do its CHEMICAL properties. The alloy is a good bit more chemically reactive than the constituent elements are separately.
Then you need to consider the possibiility of the material being exposed to air or water at ELEVATED TEMPERATURES, if for example the circulating pump stops working, and the coolant tubes rupture...
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
Diamond, and many forms of graphite, have much higher thermal conductivities than any metal. In addition, diamond is an electrical insulator. In the situation of this liquid metal, the most significant mechanism is forced convection, not conduction. However, it is already at a significant disadvantage with respect to solid diamond, what kind of flow rate do they need to attain to equal the heat transfer ability of diamond?
Lava lamp (and the cooler suggested by Lawpoop), only use the difference of density of a *liquid* at different temperature to create convection flow.
In heat-pipe, you also get a flow, but that flow uses 2 phases : boiled to *gaz* (at very low internal pressure) by the CPU and condensed back to *liquid* at the heatsink side.
The difference between a lava lamp and and heatpipe, is exactly the same you find between a water cooling kit and a vapo-chill kit (or a fridge).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
previously on /., alot of fun has been made of stereo equipment, like 600 dollar wooden knobs or 20,000 dollar cables (yes, that is not a type - 20K for wires). I take silly things like liquid cooling as a sign that the pc industry is mature and now a consumer industyr, and most of the engineering is focused on either (a) silly things that give marginal improvement in specs that don't matter (cooling) or cost cutting like the auto industry
The T1000 takes many forms. Knives, Stabbing weapons. and now... HEATSINK!!
Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
This is something that you might perhaps to expect to see on digg or fark or what ever uncivilized place. It's like announcing that metals are more dense than water is... shouldn't exactly surprise most /. readers. We're not all paid Micro$oft moles here, so don't throw too much gunk at us.
Please, use your brains when submitting and wording stories.
I don't think my Toshiba T1000 really generates enough heat to need a liquid-metal heatsink.
Should they get the Field's Metal poured over them from a 5 gallon jug just like the coach of a winning sports team?
Nanocoolers tries this a few years ago and nobody wanted anything to do with the liquid metal. It is not alll that much better than water in application, in theory yes, but not in application.
I think they'd not come into effect until too late.
liquid bismuth would be useful at 180 degrees F for that which can handle it. except there is an end-of-bismuth date around 2020 beginning to be mentioned.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
1. "Mimetic Polyalloy" is techno-gibberish from the Terminator movies.
2. "The "Fields Medal" and "Fields Metal" have nothing to do with each other.
What does "unlimited mean time between failures" even mean? There's no limit on how often it can fail? It never fails? If the latter, how would you test that?
Talk about been there, done that, this is nanocoolers all over again. Whatever liquid metal they use it is either;
a: toxic
b; to expensive
That's exactly the trap Nanocoolers fell into, no one would buy this, no one is going to buy it, another flame out. It should work but think of a gaming rig, the picture is nothing more than a heat pipe assembly, how is this different than what is being done now?