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100% Positive

Analyzed from 283 words in the discussion.

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#heat#copper#aluminum#current#energy#fundamental#chips#power#liquid#water

Discussion (11 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

purkka•about 2 hours ago
90% of 30% of total energy use. So, actually 27%. What a title.
ortusdux•about 2 hours ago
gblargg•about 1 hour ago
> Due to a phenomenon known as Joule heating – an unavoidable consequence of how they operate at a fundamental level – chips dissipate almost exactly the amount of power they consume as heat.

I don't think you'll ever make a chip not dissipate as heat the energy you feed into it for operation. Where else would it go?

kilobaud•about 1 hour ago
I think the main idea is that MOSFET chips don’t sink or source much current on their own (“fundamental” seeming to mean the way that current does not propagate into the gates, and most designs only really draw current during transitions)

OTOH some chips (amplifiers for example) may indeed have current flowing through them and therefore the power consumption of the “chip” would equal the sum of heat loss and output power. At least that’s my interpretation of the framing “how they operate at a fundamental level”. I could be wrong too, I’m not a working EE

oakwhiz•about 1 hour ago
It could go into the information directly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landauer%27s_principle
functionmouse•about 2 hours ago
We should block all stories with "could" in the headline; "could" implies conjecture - not news.
jnellis•about 2 hours ago
I heard copper is better an transferring heat but aluminum is better at RELEASING heat via airflow. Hence you see copper tubes on cpu coolers that terminate in aluminum fins.
miahi•about 1 hour ago
Not really. They use aluminum fins because they are way lighter and cheaper. The copper tubes are actually heat pipes that transfer the heat through liquid/vapor phase change. And copper is used because the liquid inside is water (aluminum would corrode) and they are also easier to bend into shape (aluminum fatigues easier with bends, and pores would allow the liquid to escape).
miahi•about 1 hour ago
In the energy results they are comparing their novel water block cold plate against an air cooled facility, not against a similar water-cooled facility.
aetherson•about 2 hours ago
Copper is expensive, and the manufacturing process sounds finicky.
roesel•about 2 hours ago
Until the micro/nano-patterned surface gets dirty at least.