IBM Hatching Mini Pipes for Chip Cooling

With chips getting smaller and cramming more processing power into even smaller spaces, existing measures to cool-off miniature chip circuits including heat sinks may fall short of the requirements of Gen-Next computers. In fact one particular microprocessor design envisaged by IBM includes chips stacked vertically with a heat-to-volume ratio which exceeds that of a nuclear reactor.

However, researchers at IBM have also come up with a solution for the problem: piping water in between chips that are sandwiched together; the kind of pipes to be used would measure just 50-microns (50-millionth of a meter) in width and would be sealed in order to prevent leaks and electrical shorts.

The fact is even micro amounts of water can handle humungous cooling tasks because water is much more efficient than air at aborbing heat. The trick here is doing it on a miniature scale inside the chips.

While aspects of IBM's approach have already been showcased by other researchers, the company deserves some credit for trying to push the idea towards commercialization. All said, the miniature pipes are a good five years away from being made available.