AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

An AMD Patent (US patent number 6,800,933)for incorporating a Peltier device onto a CPU core was approved on Oct 5th.

A source who understands this sort of stuff said that the patent could be a way of mastering problems associated with 65 nanometre technology.

Source: The Inquirer

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

:eek:

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

If only Intel'd thought of that with the Prescott, they could've hid a nice TEC under the integrated heatspreader...

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

They keep going like they are presently, you will have to have a dedicated 20 amp circuit for each machine, much like a microwave oven. :shakehead

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

What's a Peltier? :scratch:

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

The peltier effect uses metallic plates sandwiching a flow of electricty which results in one side of the metal being extremely cold, and the other side being extremely hot. The cold side goes against the CPU, and the hot goes agaisnt the heatsink.

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

http://www.melcor.com/faq.html (everything you ever wanted to know about TECs but were afraid to ask)

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

Damn how much heat are those processors generating to have to use these to aid cooling? :eek:

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

not much. They're commercially available now in systems from Thermaltake, and Apple was using them in the early 90s or late 80s or something.

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

The other thing is that peltiers are notorious for being quite power hungry. If you run this type of setup with the fastest nvidia card out today you'd need a 750 watt power supply, if not higher. This is getting insane with respect for the power requirements of today's computers. Peltiers are quite good at what they do but it comes at quite a cost with power consumption. Condensation can be a problem in humid climates such as what can be found in lousyana.

KingFish

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

You guys are severely overestimating the power draw. The 750w PSUs you're all thinking of and quoting are for full peltier plates with sub-zero temperatures. This fits in a cpu package. It physically can't be very high draw.

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

True, but this could start a trend with peltiers. Who's not to say that nvidia wouldn't be attracted to peltiers for their hot chips too. Next behind that could be chipsets. Peltiers can draw quite a bit of power. Even if it's not sub zero condensation can be a problem.

KingFish

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

Interesting development. If it comes about, the HSF market will essentially reach a plateau, because the limit to the cooling of the core will be in the peltier, not in the HSF.

Re: AMD patents Peltier cooler on chip
 

But the bad thing about it, Thrax, is that now you have to try to dump all the heat the processor is producing plus all the heat the peltier is producing when pumping the heat from the processor too. It's still very inefficient and power consuming. Not even talking about sub zero temps, you are still talking about a pretty substantial peltier element to handle 100+ watts of direct heat from the proc. I know that they are trying to distribute the heat of the processor to a larger contact patch for better heat transmission with the upcoming smaller cores and lower thermal density, but I still don't see having a pelt built into the proc die helping matters due to the added heat (and power) requirements the pelt will put to the system.