Slashdot Mirror
PC's Waste Heat Could Add To Processing Power
Urchin writes to tell us that physicists working in a new field called "phononics" claim that waste heat from a processor could actually be used to add to its power. "Crunching data coded using photons — photonic computing — is one example, and in 2007 researchers built the first workable optical transistor. But now the idea of computing using heat flow is gaining popularity among applied physicists. Heat travels through solid materials by means of phonons — ripples of vibration passing through a series of atoms. Those ripples can be used to send and store data in digital form: one temperature is read as 0 or 'off' while a second, higher temperature is interpreted as 1 or 'on.' Provided that the thermal memory is well insulated, it can keep its temperature — and data — intact for a long time."
I wonder how long before this is used for something bad? Does this possibly mean that the sun, inhabited by an alien life form, has turned off the one's and zero's in an effort to relay the message GTFO!
FTFA:
Casati says practical physicists must rise to the challenge set by the theorists. Yet even if they can, phononic computing is unlikely to threaten electronics because phonons travel a lot slower than electrons. Li imagines that the two technologies will work together, in hybrid devices that perform some computation using waste heat.
I bet there are better ways to use this than PC computing
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
I'm hooked on phononics. And quit making fun of my stuttutter!
Quick, someone tell the physicits! I'm sure they forgot all about this. Good thing we have /. to check their work.
Sounds like there will be a new market for all of those 386 boxes with the turbo button.
The net gain in computing power would be negative, simply because everyone knows that heat causes computrons to decay into bogons, resulting in an overall loss of processing power.
With such memorable phrases as:
"See these stickers? They make my computer go faster!"
"With this giant wing on the back of my front-wheel drive computer I get the down force I need to go fast"
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
Its winter. There is no such thing as 'waste heat'. Every watt emitted by a computer is a watt that doesn't have to be emitted by the heater.
i'm not sure, but i'll let you know as soon as i finish cutting this electron in half.