IBM has, just like any other chip maker, realised that computer components such as CPU’s, GPU/VPU’s and controllers needs way more efficient cooling methods than those of today. That’s why IBM just presented us with a new technique to help improve cooling. The technique’s is called “High Thermal Conductivity Interface Technology” and as some of you may realize, it’s a way to transport heat from the chip itself out to the cooler more effectively. Even with today’s wide variety of extreme coolers, using a lot of different cooling mediums, they still aren’t as efficient as they could be. Just because the contact between the chip and the cooler just isn’t good enough.
To get a relatively good temperature on your CPU you have to apply a small layer of some kind of thermal grease to help the heatsink make contact with the chip. This isn’t the most efficient way there is as the heat has to go through another substance before it reaches the cooler. This is where IBM comes in, as they’ve developed a cooling technique that’s designed to utilize the thermal grease to its max without having the need of huge pressure on the chip. Just look at today’s almost ridiculous retention mechanisms.
“Using sophisticated micro-technology, the IBM researchers developed a chip cap with a network of tree-like branched channels on its surface. The pattern is designed such that when pressure is applied, the paste spreads much more evenly and the pressure remains uniform across the chip, allowing the right uniformity to be obtained with nearly two times less pressure, and a ten times better heat transport through the interface.”
As stated above, IBM estimates almost ten times more efficient heat transport using this technique, which does almost sound to good to be true. But, this technique which mainly’s directed at air cooling, is just one out of many new technologies that IBM’s working on. How does “Direct Jet Impingement sound? Which more or less shoots a jet of water direct at the die of the chip.
“Looking beyond the limits of air-cooling systems, Zurich researchers are taking their concept of branched channel design even further and are developing a novel and promising approach for water-cooling. Called direct jet impingement, it squirts water onto the back of the chip and sucks it off again in a perfectly closed system using an array of up to 50,000 tiny nozzles and a complicated tree-like branched return architecture.”
This new technology’s supposed to be able to cool 375W per square centimetre! Truly impressing and probably needed when it comes to tomorrows eight-core CPU’s, 4 GPU video cards and God knows what. The air cooling version’s supposed to “only” be able to cool 75W per square centimetre. We surely hope that IBM’s research goes well, as modern day computer components get hotter and hotter. Who knows? Tomorrow we might need separate power plants at home to be able to use them
