Slashdot Mirror
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...
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
It's a true slashdot story then.
I can see the Governator imposing a ban on the import of this product...
Chill out. Dickwad.
Sig this!
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
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
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
As opposed to a person who (a) thinks mercury and bromine are the only two liquid metals and (b) thinks bromine is a metal at all?
rj
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!
Yeah alright how about her?
Interestingly wikipedia claims she was born aged 55, which explains a lot.
How many do you consider to be "several"?
I remember some kind of Sci-Fi movie? show/book? where a group of men were used by the female inhabitants of a planet for sex and pro-creation.
The men aged prematurely, were a husk of their former selves and begged to be released from their ordeal.
Is that what you want?
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
cant it be sodium? or something of the class?
lol Every stick Bromine+Al?
Your typical Aluminium (Aluminum) heatsink will burn ferociously, spitting white hot molten Al during assembly! hahahahahaha!
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
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?
Sillicon isnt a metal. :)
"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.
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'.
Isn't bromine a type of soup?
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.
, 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