A scientist at Sandia National Laboratories has come up with a brand new way of designing the heat sink for a processor. Instead of mounting a fan on top of the heat sink he has devised a simple heat sink with rotating fins, the laboratories write in a press release.
The major problem with existing heat fins is a mass of dead air between the fins as there is hardly any air flow until the air reaches the an on top of the heat sink.
O the diagram you can see the thermals of the Sandia Cooler.
Diagram courtesy of Jeff Koplow
Nicknamed the Sandia Cooler it so far only exists as a prototype, but could easily be manufactured and fitted to servers or personal computers as it takes up less space than a conventional heat sink.
Jeff Koplow, the designer of the heat sink, also has a much broader use in mind. He has calculated that the rotating fins could save as much of 7% of the US electrical power consumption if fitted to ther devices such as air conditioning units. S|A
Update: Details here. Thanks to Evildead666 for digging that out.
Mads Ølholm
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