"The small size, light weight, and excellent thermal performance of the Cooligy system allow tighter packing of components on the circuit board and higher reliability of individual chips as well as the entire system."
"By contrast, large finned heat sinks are heavy, and their mechanical leverage can crack a CPU or circuit board if a system is dropped during shipping."
Aparently they will be shipping by the end of the year. Looks like the next line of PBs could have a new cooling system. All set for the next rev. of G5 chips!
I wonder if this has anything to do with that Apple/Intel rumour a while back - perhaps it was this they were talking about?
Did anyone make it to the end of the article, where the anticipated price range for products using this tech is $25K - $30K?
It'll come down to PowerBook range eventually, but I think a CPU in the 970 family will be adapted to the PowerBook's needs before then. And refined a couple of times.
Did anyone make it to the end of the article, where the anticipated price range for products using this tech is $25K - $30K?
It'll come down to PowerBook range eventually, but I think a CPU in the 970 family will be adapted to the PowerBook's needs before then. And refined a couple of times.
No. Where does it say that? I can't see it. What I did see was " It's a solution that can "effectively cool the next breed of powerful, hot microprocessors" in high-end computers. The company took the wraps off its new technology yesterday, and will begin shipping "qualifying systems" to computer manufacturers later this year."
Interesting. Next Generation. High end. Qualifying systems. All very cryptic. Given that Apple is a partner one would expect it to appear in an Apple system at some point - are we talking just Xserve? Seems unlikely.
Samples of the product are expected toward the end of the year, with prices ranging from about $25 to $30.
The next generation of powerbooks should be seeing this technology to allow 90 nm G5's to run cool, while fuel cells will allow them to run long. The only question is when.
Liquid cooling doesn't make the heatsink any smaller; you still have to get the heat into the air somehow.
but it does afford you more flexibility from where the heat will be dissappated. you could spread it out evenly through the skin of the powerbook or tower case. seems like a decent benefit of using metal-cased machines. plus it will also free up the design of the heatsink since it doesn't have to concentrated right on top of the processor (depending on how far the piping can go.
but it does afford you more flexibility from where the heat will be dissappated. you could spread it out evenly through the skin of the powerbook ...
Great! So instead of having a G4 that is hot in one spot, we can have a G5 which pumps out twice* as much heat overall, making the whole case hot and not just the spot under the processor.
And we still have half* the battery life (or lose the opportunity to have twice the battery life if battery technology improves).
I still think that this will be used in servers and desktops to get the fastest clock speeds out where total heat generated and power used are not an issue. For portables, Apple/IBM need to concentrate on technologies to reduce wattage like 90nm technology and advanced power management etc to make a G5 variant run at sufficiently low power to suit battery and heat limitations.
[* I use "twice" and "half" loosely as I am too lazy to look up the exact wattages of current G4 and G5 chips. If anyone wants to correct me with the exact numbers, please do!]
but it does afford you more flexibility from where the heat will be dissappated. you could spread it out evenly through the skin of the powerbook or tower case. seems like a decent benefit of using metal-cased machines.
You can't dissipate very much heat from the case since there isn't any airflow.
Quote:
plus it will also free up the design of the heatsink since it doesn't have to concentrated right on top of the processor (depending on how far the piping can go.
Keep in mind that PowerBooks already have heat pipes. Maybe this tech will become useful when Apple starts using 200W processors in desktops.
A Silicon Valley startup called Cooligy has some curious ideas about how to cool chips in the near future. It uses between half a cup and a cup of water, depending on the size of the computer, to build a heat-dissipating circulation system within the computer to carry heat away from the chip and dissipate it through the body of the machine.
It calls its method "Active Micro-Channel Cooling," and President Dave Corbin, a former engineer with Intel and MIPS Technologies (nasdaq: MIPS - news - people ), says it could be used to cool processors inside PCs by this time next year.
Cooligy originated as a project at Stanford University, and has been funded by venture capitalist firms. Investors include Mohr, Davidow Ventures, a firm set up by former Intel executive William Davidow who is chairman at chip designer Rambus (nasdaq: RMBS - news - people ); and the Mayfield Fund, which has backed companies like Genentech (nyse: DNA - news - people ) and LSI Logic (nyse: LSI - news - people ).
Computer chips are about to shrink again. Intel and AMD are currently building chips with transistor sizes of 130 nanometers, but either late this year or early next year, Intel will start building its next generation of Pentium chips, codenamed "Prescott," on 90-nanometer technology. Beyond that, another two years out or so, lies 65-nanometer technology.
Cooligy's Corbin says chips slow themselves down when they start to overheat, and that inhibits performance. "If you're doing video editing or something like that, you want the processor to be running at full-tilt boogie," he says. But today that means running huge noisy fans inside the computer, which goes against what people want: smaller, cuter, quieter computers.
Cooligy's system is being designed as a self-contained, carefully sealed internal computer part. The micro-channels that carry the water are etched into a piece of silicon that sits directly atop the PC's microprocessor chip. An electro-kinetic pump circulates the water without needing any moving parts and without noise.
The water in the system has been specially treated so that nothing can grow in it and so it doesn't corrode any part of the system it touches. The user never has to think about the system and never has to fill it.
"The whole idea is to build a component that the manufacturer would snap in place," he says. It would replace the bulky metal heatsinks that take up so much space inside a computer, and likely eliminate most of the fans too.
Initially, Corbin sees the system being used in high-end workstation computers for compute-intensive tasks like genetic research and animation, as well as servers. But down the road it could make sense for mass-market PCs.
Cooligy isn't the only one developing water-based cooling systems. Japan's NEC (nasdaq: NIPNY - news - people ) demonstrated a water-cooling module for notebook PCs earlier this year. And Hitachi (nyse: HIT - news - people ) released a water-cooled notebook line in Japan called the Flora 270W that used a silent water-based cooling system. Cooling a chip with water isn't a very novel idea. And water-cooling kits have for years been available to PC hobbyists wanting to push their chips beyond their limits. And, as often happens in computing, the hobbyists are on the leading edge of what eventually becomes mainstream.
Isn't Apple already implementing some form of this? I mean, I opened my Ti by lifting the keyboard and saw what appears to me some heat pipes running along the heatsink to cool the processor:
At least I think they are heat pipes. What would be the difference? Now I would like to know if this design is implemented in the new batch of aluminum models, because I have one of the Rev. B 17-inch PowerBooks that turns into a torch after it's been on for an hour or so. Very annoying. The Ti: less so. So I'm hoping Apple does something with a PB G5 that keeps it cooler.
I am not sure about this, not a technical person. I have a powerbook 12", after using it for some time, i feel that it is "warm"(Here is tropical, so it is normal). This it my first PB, so i can't compare. Cooligy should slove allot of Apple G5 problem.
Comments
Not like Apple to headline their new product surprises. Perhaps the rumor about Apple's new openness are true...
"By contrast, large finned heat sinks are heavy, and their mechanical leverage can crack a CPU or circuit board if a system is dropped during shipping."
Can anyone say G5 PowerBook?
I wonder if this has anything to do with that Apple/Intel rumour a while back - perhaps it was this they were talking about?
You should notice that IBM is scheduling to clock beyond 3,2 ghz in Q2 2004 his G5 on 90 nm process.
It'll come down to PowerBook range eventually, but I think a CPU in the 970 family will be adapted to the PowerBook's needs before then. And refined a couple of times.
Originally posted by Amorph
Did anyone make it to the end of the article, where the anticipated price range for products using this tech is $25K - $30K?
It'll come down to PowerBook range eventually, but I think a CPU in the 970 family will be adapted to the PowerBook's needs before then. And refined a couple of times.
No. Where does it say that? I can't see it. What I did see was " It's a solution that can "effectively cool the next breed of powerful, hot microprocessors" in high-end computers. The company took the wraps off its new technology yesterday, and will begin shipping "qualifying systems" to computer manufacturers later this year."
Interesting. Next Generation. High end. Qualifying systems. All very cryptic. Given that Apple is a partner one would expect it to appear in an Apple system at some point - are we talking just Xserve? Seems unlikely.
Originally posted by Amorph
Did anyone make it to the end of the article, where the anticipated price range for products using this tech is $25K - $30K?
CNET News puts the pricing at 25 ~ 30 dollars.
Samples of the product are expected toward the end of the year, with prices ranging from about $25 to $30.
The next generation of powerbooks should be seeing this technology to allow 90 nm G5's to run cool, while fuel cells will allow them to run long. The only question is when.
Originally posted by wmf
Liquid cooling doesn't make the heatsink any smaller; you still have to get the heat into the air somehow.
Not if the incoming water is from a sink's tap... and the out going water is dumped into the sink... this takes away the need for a pump.
Hey it has been done!
Originally posted by wmf
Liquid cooling doesn't make the heatsink any smaller; you still have to get the heat into the air somehow.
but it does afford you more flexibility from where the heat will be dissappated. you could spread it out evenly through the skin of the powerbook or tower case. seems like a decent benefit of using metal-cased machines. plus it will also free up the design of the heatsink since it doesn't have to concentrated right on top of the processor (depending on how far the piping can go.
Originally posted by admactanium
but it does afford you more flexibility from where the heat will be dissappated. you could spread it out evenly through the skin of the powerbook ...
Great! So instead of having a G4 that is hot in one spot, we can have a G5 which pumps out twice* as much heat overall, making the whole case hot and not just the spot under the processor.
And we still have half* the battery life (or lose the opportunity to have twice the battery life if battery technology improves).
I still think that this will be used in servers and desktops to get the fastest clock speeds out where total heat generated and power used are not an issue. For portables, Apple/IBM need to concentrate on technologies to reduce wattage like 90nm technology and advanced power management etc to make a G5 variant run at sufficiently low power to suit battery and heat limitations.
[* I use "twice" and "half" loosely as I am too lazy to look up the exact wattages of current G4 and G5 chips. If anyone wants to correct me with the exact numbers, please do!]
Originally posted by admactanium
but it does afford you more flexibility from where the heat will be dissappated. you could spread it out evenly through the skin of the powerbook or tower case. seems like a decent benefit of using metal-cased machines.
You can't dissipate very much heat from the case since there isn't any airflow.
plus it will also free up the design of the heatsink since it doesn't have to concentrated right on top of the processor (depending on how far the piping can go.
Keep in mind that PowerBooks already have heat pipes. Maybe this tech will become useful when Apple starts using 200W processors in desktops.
Originally posted by Aphelion
CNET News puts the pricing at 25 ~ 30 dollars.
Well, there was either a typo in the article I read or someone spiked my coffee. Nevermind, then. Apple could deploy this RSN at that price. 8)
A Silicon Valley startup called Cooligy has some curious ideas about how to cool chips in the near future. It uses between half a cup and a cup of water, depending on the size of the computer, to build a heat-dissipating circulation system within the computer to carry heat away from the chip and dissipate it through the body of the machine.
It calls its method "Active Micro-Channel Cooling," and President Dave Corbin, a former engineer with Intel and MIPS Technologies (nasdaq: MIPS - news - people ), says it could be used to cool processors inside PCs by this time next year.
Cooligy originated as a project at Stanford University, and has been funded by venture capitalist firms. Investors include Mohr, Davidow Ventures, a firm set up by former Intel executive William Davidow who is chairman at chip designer Rambus (nasdaq: RMBS - news - people ); and the Mayfield Fund, which has backed companies like Genentech (nyse: DNA - news - people ) and LSI Logic (nyse: LSI - news - people ).
Computer chips are about to shrink again. Intel and AMD are currently building chips with transistor sizes of 130 nanometers, but either late this year or early next year, Intel will start building its next generation of Pentium chips, codenamed "Prescott," on 90-nanometer technology. Beyond that, another two years out or so, lies 65-nanometer technology.
Cooligy's Corbin says chips slow themselves down when they start to overheat, and that inhibits performance. "If you're doing video editing or something like that, you want the processor to be running at full-tilt boogie," he says. But today that means running huge noisy fans inside the computer, which goes against what people want: smaller, cuter, quieter computers.
Cooligy's system is being designed as a self-contained, carefully sealed internal computer part. The micro-channels that carry the water are etched into a piece of silicon that sits directly atop the PC's microprocessor chip. An electro-kinetic pump circulates the water without needing any moving parts and without noise.
The water in the system has been specially treated so that nothing can grow in it and so it doesn't corrode any part of the system it touches. The user never has to think about the system and never has to fill it.
"The whole idea is to build a component that the manufacturer would snap in place," he says. It would replace the bulky metal heatsinks that take up so much space inside a computer, and likely eliminate most of the fans too.
Initially, Corbin sees the system being used in high-end workstation computers for compute-intensive tasks like genetic research and animation, as well as servers. But down the road it could make sense for mass-market PCs.
Cooligy isn't the only one developing water-based cooling systems. Japan's NEC (nasdaq: NIPNY - news - people ) demonstrated a water-cooling module for notebook PCs earlier this year. And Hitachi (nyse: HIT - news - people ) released a water-cooled notebook line in Japan called the Flora 270W that used a silent water-based cooling system. Cooling a chip with water isn't a very novel idea. And water-cooling kits have for years been available to PC hobbyists wanting to push their chips beyond their limits. And, as often happens in computing, the hobbyists are on the leading edge of what eventually becomes mainstream.
from here .
At least I think they are heat pipes. What would be the difference? Now I would like to know if this design is implemented in the new batch of aluminum models, because I have one of the Rev. B 17-inch PowerBooks that turns into a torch after it's been on for an hour or so. Very annoying. The Ti: less so. So I'm hoping Apple does something with a PB G5 that keeps it cooler.