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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."
Interesting...kind of like a turbocharger for a CPU.
Lisa, In this house we obey the laws of thermal dynamics!
That said. It may save some power converting loss head back again making it more efficient.
But they way that most people use computers I don't know if there is a benefit. We rarely run at full CPU Heat kicking.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I'm hooked on phononics. And quit making fun of my stuttutter!
"Provided that the thermal memory is well insulated", that basically means putting it on a different piece of silicon/on something else entirely, which kind of defeats the object as I see it.
While I haven't looked at this in great detail, it strikes me that achieving anything near useful density is going to very difficult due to entropy, and the simple fact that putting very small volumes at slightly different temperatures right next to each others quickly leads to a relatively uniform temperature distribution.
This sounds somewhat improbable/unfeasible to me...
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face - Ben Williams
This, IMHO is an academic concept at best. State definition by thermal state has been done in research before but it is slow, and trying to collect the waste energy in the form of heat and re-use it as the byproduct in another state machine sounds a bit questionable.
Mechanical computers are viable as well, but not too terribly practical.
www.effectiveelectrons.com "chips that work" Analog, RF, Mixed Signal
Phonons travel at the speed of sound in their medium, which is 100,000 times slower than the speed of electrical signals or light. If you've got a phononic circuit running at a Ghz clock rate, signals can only travel a few microns. This size limit severely restricts the number of individual components you can have in your circuit.
Go light, or go home.
If I understand this properly (and it's not 100% guaranteed that I do), this sounds like an excessively complicated solution that would yield relatively little benefit. The "sandwich" idea from TFA sounds especially counterproductive, if external power is required to keep the hot side hit & the cold side cold.
Instead of trying to harness waste heat to eke out a fraction of a percent of extra processing power, here's an idea: how about sucking that waste heat into a small insulated pipe with a low-voltage van, and running that pipe down to my feet? It's very cold near the floor of my apartment, and some warm air aimed at my tootsies would be greatly appreciated while I use my computer.
Maybe this pipe could have a little door I could close in the summer, when the additional warmth would be less welcome.
Just once I'd like someone to call me 'Sir' without adding 'You're making a scene.'
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.