Oooh That's Hot
CPU, DSP, GPU, or FPGA overheating? Add a heat sink to it to dissipate the heat.
Last updated March 2019
The Central Processing Unit (CPU) has come a long way since it was first released in 1971 by Intel. The 4004 was a major breakthrough at the time, but the CPUs today easily dwarf it. As the computing world progressed, we saw the release of Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), and the Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).
Complexity
Packing billions of transistors on a chip is very complex. The manufacturing techniques must be precise, the material must be pristine, and connecting billions of transistors must be automated. One thing that is often overlooked is how to dissipate the heat produced by those billions of transistors.
More Power = More Heat
When power is consumed, heat is produced. The power density (Watts/cm^3) of one of these chips is so extreme that it is comparable to the power density of a nuclear reactor or a rocket nozzle. That’s a lot of power! How do you dissipate all that heat? With a giant heat sink. If you don’t have a heat sink, the chips would easily burn themselves out or you would lose performance since the frequency would be throttled down. They also apply a thin layer of thermal paste between the chip and heat sink to transfer the heat more efficiently.
Liquid Cooling
There are other ways to dissipate heat such as liquid cooling with water or nitrogen. This way is much more efficient because a liquid can transfer heat more efficiently than air. However, an air-cooled system is cheaper and does the job well if you’re not overclocking the processor. Furthermore, if your liquid cooled system were to spring a leak, it could be disastrous for your hardware.
What did we learn?
- The heat produced by processors is extreme and must be dissipated to avoid damage or weak performance.
- Liquid-cooled systems are more efficient at dissipating heat than air-cooled systems, but are more expensive.