Ceva in Engleza
34
Heat from electronic devices is an integral part of information processing, not a nuisance that can someday be eliminated. This is a physical principle that is independent of the device of information processing. However, when viewed in the historical perspective, the severity of heat problems has not monotonically increased. It came to the fore some time ago, then, was relieved almost disruptively when a new basic switching device for computing was developed. To recount briefly, we experienced such relief when the transistor replaced the vacuum tube, and the CMOS switch replaced the bipolar junction transistor (BJT) switch. Figure 1. Rising heat dissipation from mainframes experienced in the period from the mid 1970s to the end of the 1980s [1]. Solid symbols = water cooled, open symbols = air cooled.Now, we are facing the challenge posed by growing heat dissipation from CMOS chips. We find ourselves in a situation similar to that of the 1980s when the heat from BJT chips soared [1, 2] as shown in Figure 1. Today the interest in high capacity cooling is renewed, and considerable investment is being made in the search for novel cooling schemes. If past experience indicates a cyclic demand for high capacity cooling, what will happen to the current need? Are there any technological developments that would possibly alleviate heat problems in the future? The answer is partly yes; work is in progress to curb the increase of power consumption by electronic equipment, although its impact on the future of high capacity cooling has yet to be proven. The benefits of power savings could be wide-ranging; the manager of the data center would be relieved from concern about a rising electricity bill, and the user of mobile equipment would enjoy longer battery life. Those power-saving technologies, some already in commercial products, provide the means to stay within the limits of traditional air cooling, countering the trend to achieve higher processing performance at the expense of increasing electric