Irish boffins cool chips from the inside

INTERNAL HEAT has long been a major challenge in computer and chip design. Chips have always used cooling systems that either wrap around or stand next to them, but now, according to CNET,

Irish boffins from the University of Limerick, in conjunction with Cork's Tyndall national hardware research Institute, might have come up with a cool new way of putting a cooling system right inside the actual chip or component.

The Irish researchers are developing a liquid cooling system, in which a chilling liquid would pass through silicon channels and absorb heat as it passed over hot spots inside the actual chip packages. A rotating component would spread the liquid to better soak up the heat.

The heat would then be released away from the component, allowing the liquid to re-enter the channels. The idea is that the closer one can get to the heat source, the easier it is for a liquid to cool it off.

The system would rely on two silicon rotary fluid propellers (impellers), one 2mm in diameter, the other 5mm.

Cool. µ