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Researchers Re-Examine Second Law of Thermodynamics

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the in-this-house-we-obey-the-laws-of-thermodynamics dept.

Many readers have written to tell us that researchers are examining the possibility of using Brownian ratchets to help combat the problem of heat dissipation in miniaturized electronics. "Currently, devices are engineered to operate near thermal equilibrium, in accordance with the Second Law of Thermodynamics which states that heat tends to transfer from a hotter unit to a cooler one. However, using the concept of Brownian ratchets, which are systems that convert non-equilibrium energy to do useful work, the researchers hope to allow computers to operate at low power levels, and harness power dissipated by other functions. 'The main quest we have is to see if by departing from near-equilibrium operation, we can perform computation more efficiently,' Ghosh told iTnews. 'We aren't breaking the Second Law — that's not what we are claiming,' he said. 'We are simply re-examining its implications, as much of the established understanding of power dissipation is based on near-equilibrium operation.'"

3 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hmmmm, help me out here. by Xtifr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Then i don't see why they re-examine the 2nd law.

    As far as I can tell, they're not; this is YAIMSH (Yet Another Ignorant, Misleading Slashdot Headline)—something that occurs so often it really needs an acronym. :)

  2. Re:Obligatory Wikipedia reference by Bob-taro · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let's use the excess heat in some parts of the chip and use that as a secondary power source.

    So ... maybe you could use the heat from your CPU to spin the HDD or something? That sounds possible and I guess it would make the system as a whole more efficient. The biggest problem is probably going to be cooling the CPU. It would seem to me that any sort of heat engine driven by heat from the cpu is going to impede the cooling of said CPU. And for that heat engine to be very efficient at all it's going to have to have a high temperature gradient. If the gradient is 75C to 22C it can only be 15% efficient (I think. It's been a while since I studied thermo.).

    --
    Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
  3. Re:Hmmmm, help me out here. by ardle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe they can use that heat energy to power the fans?