Building better chips

Researchers at

are collaborating with several other universities in proposing a new centre to design technologies that will be needed in coming decades to cool advanced computer chips.

"The bottom line is that we've all got to begin working on this problem now, or the computer industry is going to hit a brick wall in about 15 years," said Suresh Garimella, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. "Future computer chips will generate as much as 10 times more heat than today's computer chips, which means we are going to need new cooling technologies."

Garimella organised a two-day Workshop on Electrothermal Co-Design of Future Electronics, which was held at Purdue in March for experts from industry, government and academia to identify key issues and challenges in coming to terms with future chip-cooling needs.

As computer chips become increasingly more compact, more circuitry will be crammed into a smaller area, producing additional heat. Because excess heat reduces the performance of computer chips and can ultimately destroy the delicate circuits, it will be essential to "co-design" new cooling technologies, Garimella said.