IBM cools stacked silicon chips with water

Stacking silicon into what are called 3D chips is something IBM does as good as, if not better than, any other screener. Problem is, all those stacked circuits create a an exponential amount of heat, and traditional cooling methods don't scale. So what does IBM do? It comes up with integrated water channels about the size of a human hair that it's calling "interlayer cooling." According to IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory, this is the first tech of its kind. The 50 micron channels between individual chip layers are performing at 180 watt/cm² per layer for a stack with a typical footprint of 4 cm². In other words, it works.

[Via TG Daily]

[SammyPS @ Jun 5th 2008 6:32PM]

Didn't someone appear on The Screensavers oh so long ago showing off similar tech?

[Mike10010100 @ Jun 5th 2008 6:36PM]

"cooled with water"
First thought:
As opposed to...... beer? Whipped cream? Vinegar?

[bartoron @ Jun 5th 2008 6:42PM]

As opposed to Soylent Green.

Which wouldn't work nearly as well as water.

[Aguiluz @ Jun 5th 2008 6:47PM]

As opposed to air, immersion and cascading.

Anyway, I'd say that the water can be used to heat pools. If it was a supercomputer.

[Haikibutsu @ Jun 5th 2008 7:31PM]

water has a high or low specific heat. I forgot which it was, but it is whatever is resistant.

In other words, it's "heat inertia" is high.

[bartoron @ Jun 5th 2008 7:38PM]

It has a very high specific heat. Which as far as cooling goes, is a good thing.

[Emerson @ Jun 5th 2008 8:56PM]

Water has a Specific Heat Capacity of 4.2.

Atleast I'm learning something at University.

[Mike10010100 @ Jun 5th 2008 9:12PM]

Guys! That was humor! Read the headline out loud with emphasis on the last word.

I know that water's specific heat is 4.184; the same number as how many joules are in a calorie. I know Q = sm deltaT.

I'm kidding. Read it out loud.

[Bryan Thornsberry @ Jun 5th 2008 6:43PM]

thats hot... or cool?

sigh, im bored.

[parphat @ Jun 5th 2008 6:57PM]

When I saw this picture, I immediately thought it was a building and I quickly thought, "That looks stupid!" THEN I read the title.

[fanthem @ Jun 5th 2008 7:11PM]

Same here. Also thought it was a building. Felt sorry for those who has an office on the side windows. I was like, poor people, what a crappy view they have. Then I came to my senses and read.

[TareX @ Jun 5th 2008 7:13PM]

Does IBM still exist?

[dwr50 @ Jun 5th 2008 7:19PM]

Must use bottled water, as city waters is too polluted.

[BigD145 @ Jun 5th 2008 7:34PM]

Bottled water IS city water. Check your facts. What they will really be using is deionized water.

[Richard Lai @ Jun 5th 2008 8:07PM]

@BigD145: but spring water isn't, unless the company is screwing over their customers.

[BigD145 @ Jun 5th 2008 11:12PM]

@Richard: Which they do quite often. At least one corporation has been nailed on claiming tap water was 'spring' water.

[Steve @ Jun 5th 2008 8:18PM]

Wow.... 1 step forward 2 steps back...... VAX's Alpha's and some other bigger systems used to use the exact same technology basically to cool there systems....

Guess DEC had it right the first time.... Oh yeah, they had VMS... ;-)

[Andir3.0 @ Jun 5th 2008 8:38PM]

There's a difference between running water through a heat sink and water through the chip. The fun thing about Alphas was that the heat spreader sitting on the chips had bolts formed in the metal which allowed the sinks to be "screwed" to the chip offering a more secure connection and surface area.

[digitallysick @ Jun 5th 2008 8:26PM]

in other words ibm can't make faster chips so apple dumps them for intel, now they can only overclock/stack/watercool the current ones

[paul34 @ Jun 5th 2008 10:09PM]

Yup, because all processor tech goes to the casual consumer market so that you can playback all those Flash YouTube videos.

[kal326 @ Jun 6th 2008 10:23AM]

IBM has Power 6 chips running over 4.5Ghz in their server clusters so speed wasn't the issue. I think Apple wanted to switch to standard PC hardware so they could offer bootcamp as a switch over crutch and to fatten up the profit margin per box by using cheaper hardware.

[David @ Jun 6th 2008 1:02PM]

Take a look at the number of IBM systems at the top of the supercomputer list and you'll see that IBM can make extremely high-performance hardware. However, at the time of the Apple switch, IBM's technology was targetted at performance and not at low power. Apple wanted changes for reduced power for laptops and they weren't a large enough customer compared with other IBM business to garner sufficient response. Frustrated, they went another route. On the other hand, IBM did cater to the gaming market, which is huge, which is why they were able to win every gaming console socket (Wii, XBox 360 and PS3 all use IBM-designed processors). Further, IBM's RF/wireless technology is the fastest silicon available. They were the first to bring SiGe technology to market and you'll find their parts (power amps, radio front ends, etc.) in many cell phone, GPS and Wi-Fi systems (VERY many, actually, although most wear the label of the fabless chip house that buys the fab production run from IBM).

[Whubbsie @ Jun 5th 2008 11:34PM]

I'm surprised I read through all the comments and no one has said "does it play doom" yet.

Anyways will I be getting this in my my home pc??? no?! then who cares.

[bob @ Jun 6th 2008 3:11AM]

does it play doom?

[stefan @ Jun 6th 2008 2:28AM]

In other words. When your chip gets over 96°C it will burst...

"i'll just yank that Core Voltage a tiny bi".... PLOPP.... "...oh..."

[Joe Maki @ Jun 6th 2008 8:20AM]

Maybe they can include a steam powered generator to reduce the energy usage?

[LT73 @ Jun 6th 2008 10:10PM]

It seems to me that most computers/electronics exist in 2D. This picture only reinforces what I have always believed to be true. The next phase in computers/electronics will be 3D.

[Qkhanh @ Jun 8th 2008 7:09PM]

But.. can it run Crysis?

[yo_atkins @ Jun 10th 2008 2:29AM]

That is sooo Cyberdyne!!!