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Computer makers are beginning to feel the heat, quite literally, as faster- and hotter-running microprocessors and compact computer designs are pushing the limits of what fan-based cooling systems can handle.
Within three to five years, researchers at Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM predict, computer makers will have to move beyond fans and adopt cooling systems such as radiators and micro-refrigerators within systems to avoid potential meltdowns.
“We dont have to look very far into the future to see where just putting a heat sink on a processor and blowing air over it is not going to work anymore,” said Tomm Aldridge, director of enterprise architecture at Intel Labs, in Hillsboro, Ore.
Computer cooling will be among the hot topics at the Intel Developer Forum next week in San Jose, Calif., where several PC makers will discuss solutions to this looming industry problem.
Intel, the worlds largest PC and server chip maker, will tout manufacturing advances designed to produce more- energy-efficient processors. The Santa Clara, Calif., company will also promote a cooling technique that involves “growing” carbon nanotubes, which look like tiny patches of hair, on silicon surfaces.
“Carbon nanotubes have 10 to 100 times the thermal conductivity of metals,” Aldridge said, and could make existing heat-sink-and-fan cooling systems more effective.
But even with those technologies, Intel said it expects its processors will begin to exceed existing thermal limits and, as a result, is also suggesting ways computer makers can redesign their systems to deal with hotter chips. One design Intel is pushing features liquid-filled tubes, like radiators, designed to draw away heat from processors.
While liquid-based solutions are a logical successor to air-cooled designs, Aldridge said, a number of issues need to be resolved before such solutions can be implemented.
“The challenges are finding a safe liquid solution that almost never leaks and, if it does leak, is not harmful to the computer,” Aldridge said. “Then there are reliability issues. For example, are liquid pumps as reliable as ball-bearing fans? We dont know yet.”
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: HPs Holistic Approach”>
Intel is not alone in eyeing a wetter-is-better solution.
HP researchers last month revealed what they contend is a “holistic approach” to cooling computers. HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., envisions placing robotic spray heads inside multiprocessor servers that would apply a fine mist of liquid on chips if monitors detect they are in danger of overheating. The sprayers would be based on the ink-jet spray nozzles the company makes for its printers.
But HP officials said they have yet to resolve some key issues, such as determining which liquid is best suited for the task, as well as how to set up the spray so the mist isnt so fine that it evaporates before reaching the hot chip or so heavy that it pools on top of the chip.
HP will further discuss its proposal at the Intel Developer Forum.
While many components contribute to heat buildup in a computer, such as graphics chips, hard drives and even fans themselves, researchers are focusing most of their efforts on cooling microprocessors, the small silicon chips that serve as the brains of a computer.
Until now, processor performance has been increased by packing more and more transistors, the core of a chip, onto the silicon die. Intels buildup of microscopic transistors has been impressive, with the company going from 2,300 transistors on a chip in 1971 to about 55 million packed into todays Pentium 4. But transistors generate heat, and while manufacturing advances have helped produce more efficient and cooler-running transistors, todays processors are still too hot to handle, at least without gloves.
In the Pentium 4, for example, the core temperature can climb close to 200 degrees, about the boiling point of water. And over the coming years, the core temperatures of Intels PC and server processors are expected to climb further.
Intel itself warned that processors are nearing the melting point. Last year, the companys chief technology officer, Pat Gelsinger, said that based on current manufacturing technologies, temperatures inside chips would run as hot as a nuclear plant by the end of 2005 and produce heat equivalent to a rocket booster in 2010—theoretically, anyway.
While Intel contends it is developing technologies to avoid such a scenario, the chip maker has urged computer makers to start developing cooling solutions to handle hotter chips.
Overheating is already a problem facing high- performance servers, some of which can feature up to 100 processors or more in a single chassis.
“I think we will start to see innovative cooling technologies very soon,” said David Cohen, director of IBMs Austin Research Lab, in Texas. Cohen is overseeing an initiative to design low-power, more-energy-efficient computing systems. “After all, were going to have hot machines that were going to try to sell in the next three to five years, so were going to have to find innovative ways to cool them.”
For the time being, however, computer makers are focusing their marketing efforts on touting system performance, rather than innovations in cooling.
“Cooling is not the first thing you usually think about with a computer,” Cohen said. “Of course, if it doesnt work, then thats the most important problem youve got.”
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