We reported a while back about a project about building a completely silent computer. To accomplish this they used ion winds for cooling. Ion winds are air movements created through electricity and is thus completely noiseless. This was a hobby project but now The Future Of Things reports about how Kronos Advanced Technologies is working together with University Of Washington and Intel on creating a cooling device for portable units such as UMPCs and laptops based on this effect. They’ve interviewed Professor Alexander Mamishev to find out some more.
Kronos has been working with this kind of technology for long and the primary goal is to find a solution which isn’t just efficient but also energy efficient. Even if Mamishev doesn’t reveal any details of their research it seems that a commercial product is pretty far into the future, more likely two years. Which is a shame since it really is a quiet kind of cooling.
