Intel experimenting with direct liquid cooling for up to 1000W CPUs
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
Intel is testing a new way to tackle the growing heat output of its power hungry chips. At its recent Foundry Direct Connect event, the company showcased an experimental package-level water cooling solution designed to more efficiently cool CPUs . Intel has working prototypes for both LGA (Land Grid Array) and BGA (Ball Grid Array) CPUs, with demos using Intel's Core Ultra as well as Xeon server processors.
The cooling solution doesn't apply coolant directly to the silicon die. Instead, a specially designed compact cooling block sits atop the package, featuring microchannels made of copper that precisely guide the coolant flow. These channels can be optimized to target specific hotspots on the die, potentially improving heat removal where it matters the most.
Intel claims the system can dissipate up to 1,000 watts of heat using standard liquid cooling fluid. That kind of thermal load isn't typical for consumer CPUs, but it could be relevant for high-end AI (Artificial Intelligence) workloads, HPC (High Performance Computing), and workstation applications.
Image 1 of 9
Image 2 of 9
Image 3 of 9
Image 4 of 9
Image 5 of 9
Image 6 of 9
Image 7 of 9
Image 8 of 9
Image 9 of 9
The cooling assembly is also said to make use of solder or liquid metal TIM (Thermal Interface Material), which is said to offer better contact than polymer based TIM. Compared to a traditional liquid cooler mounted to a delidded bare die, Intel says this solution can deliver 15–20% better thermal performance.
Notably, Intel's approach isn't just a lab experiment. The company has reportedly been working on this technology for years. With rising thermal demands from modern chip designs, Intel is now exploring how to produce this system for real-world deployment.
While Intel refines its prototype, the enthusiast community is already experimenting with similar concepts. YouTuber octppus recently modified the heatspreader of an Intel Core i9-14900KS, machining it into a functioning miniature water block. With internal channels carved into the IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader) and sealed under acrylic, the mod somewhat mirrors Intel's concept in DIY fashion.
Intel hasn't confirmed when or if this cooling approach will hit mainstream products, but the demonstration is critical for CPU thermal design. As power consumption and package density increase, direct cooling may become a necessity for both professional and enthusiast hardware in the coming future.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
26 minutes ago
- Forbes
White House Could Jeopardize Mars Missions By Slashing NASA's Funding
The White House scheme to reshape NASA by slashing its funding could jeopardize future human flights ... More to Mars. Shown here is NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft - one of the three Mars orbiters set to be terminated under the president's plan. (Photo) With its radical reshaping of NASA's future by decimating its funding, the White House is imperiling the upcoming human missions to Mars that it purports to back. In a new masterplan for NASA—with a proposed budget that slits in half appropriations for planetary science endeavors—the president still states he aims to advance precursor flights to astronauts landing on Mars. Yet the plan paradoxically terminates funding for three of the five orbiters circling the Red Planet that have been pivotal to landing robotic explorers on Mars, and would be crucial to a safe human expedition. The orbiting stations, equipped with cutting-edge cameras to image spacecraft as they descend onto the Martian dunes, and powerful radio antennas to speed communications between rover-scouts and mission planners back on Earth, collectively make up the Mars Relay Network. This constellation played a central role in the latest NASA expedition to Mars, during the arrival of the robotic cameraman Perseverance and the first interplanetary helicopter Ingenuity, says Roy Gladden, manager of the Mars Relay Network at NASA's leading-edge Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. The ring of spacecraft observing and mapping Mars, Gladden tells me in an interview, should actually be expanded to set the stage for American spacefarers to begin their first odysseys across the ancient volcanos and disappeared oceans of the mysterious orange-red orb. 'In the next few years, there is talk by many institutions and companies of sending many vehicles to the surface of Mars,' in the lead-up to astronaut flights, he says. 'Losing these [Mars Network] orbiters reduces our options for providing relay support to future missions.' One of the leading lights in NASA's Mars Exploration Program, Gladden has co-written a cascade of breakthrough papers on the Mars Relay Network that he oversees, its history in providing orbital beacons for NASA spacecraft as they approach Mars, and its potential to guide future space pilots to perfect landing sites. The Mars-encircling coalition of satellites represents a grand space entente between NASA and the European Space Agency, with the U.S. sending the Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and MAVEN spacecraft to circumnavigate the planet, and ESA deploying its Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. The president's scheme would halt a grand space entente between NASA and European Space Agency ... More around Mars, and halt funding for ESA's Mars Express orbiter, part of the Mars Relay Network that has been pivotal to safe spacecraft landings on the Red Planet. AFP PHOTO/ ESA /Illustration by Medialab (Photo credit should read -/AFP via Getty Images) This orbital alliance 'represents a highly successful international collaboration and continues as critical infrastructure for NASA's and ESA's ongoing Mars exploration,' Gladden states in one paper he co-authored with vanguard space-tech scholars at JPL, which is affiliated with the California Institute of Technology, one of the top science universities in the U.S. But under the new blueprints for NASA sketched out by the White House, funding for two of the American orbiters, and one ESA spacecraft, would be terminated to recoup the minimal cost of their continued operations. In a preface to the White House's proposed draconian downsizing of the American space agency, its acting administrator, Janet Petro, concedes that NASA will be forced to cut away at its ranks of illustrious scientists. While professing 'to prepare for human missions to Mars,' Petro adds that NASA's slashed funding would likewise trigger halts to an array of Red Planet-focused science missions. So far, Gladden tells me, 'We have not yet received direction from NASA HQ to stop work on these [Mars Relay] projects, and we wait for further instruction.' Gladden's team says that even while roboticists and aerospace engineers at JPL were testing Perseverance and Ingenuity for their Mars quest, the orbiters helped mission planners 'select scientifically interesting landing sites and properly design the vehicle for successful delivery to the surface of Mars.' The Mars orbiters helped NASA mission planners select the perfect landing site for the Perseverance ... More rover and the first interplanetary helicopter Ingenuity to start exploring Mars. (Photo illustration by NASA via Getty Images) The flightpaths of two of these satellites were altered to pass over the target landing zone at the precise moment when Perseverance began its atmospheric entry and descent to the Martian surface, and the orbiters beamed the spacecraft's telemetry back to Earth, tens of millions of kilometers distant, in near real-time. With the help of these satellites, 'the events of the Perseverance landing were broadcast live from JPL to the world,' they say. This dual-planet livestream 'allowed everyone to share in the excitement (and 'terror') of the day.' 'The images returned thereafter included … video of the landing itself taken from a variety of vantage points, and eventually the historic images of the first powered flight on another planet.' The orbiters' high-resolution cameras had earlier mapped the ordained touchdown site, producing sophisticated atlases that enabled the AI-enhanced rover and rotorcraft—both equipped with computer vision—to navigate their alien surroundings the moment they began moving across the ghosts of waterways that once rushed through Mars. NASA's Perseverance rover landing safely on Mars. Mars orbiters imaged the entire descent and ... More touchdown of these robotic explorers, and could perform the same function for future astronauts (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via Xinhua) (Xinhua/NASA/JPL-Caltech via Getty Images) Since then, the Mars satellites have acted as a super-speed web of cosmic messengers, passing data, imagery, software changes and commands between the Martian robotic scouts and their commanders across NASA. Yet if the White House scheme to axe three-fifths of the Mars constellation is executed, Gladden tells me, 'Shuttering [the orbiters] Odyssey and MAVEN would have significant impacts on the relay network.' 'Odyssey, operating in a sun-synchronous orbit that passes over the rovers at about 7 pm each day, is uniquely positioned to receive data from the rovers at the end of their work day.' 'The return of this data on that timeline facilitates next-day planning, which enables the rover teams to ensure that each day on Mars is a meaningful one.' MAVEN, he adds, 'has a very robust radio system. It can move more data than any of the other orbiters and actually holds the record for the most data returned from a single relay session.' 'Losing access to either (or both) of these orbiters would require the rover projects to slow down their operations and reduce the amount of data that can be returned from the surface of Mars.' That would threaten not only twin-planet communications with these robotic scouts, but also with any astronaut corps sent to Mars in the future. But if an alternative future emerges—one where NASA's Mars Exploration flights are instead revived with a new boost in financial backing, Gladden says, 'We can more intentionally build up the relay network to continue supporting the robotic exploration of Mars and hopefully be ready for human explorers.' The fantastical Mars orbiters can image the atmospheric entry and touchdown of spacecraft sent from ... More Earth, including those carrying future astronauts (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via Xinhua) (Xinhua/NASA/JPL-Caltech via Getty Images) One of the Jet Propulsion Lab's foremost scientists says the futuristic outpost is still hoping against hope that the president's plan for NASA will be overturned by Congress. 'It is very, very important to understand that the budget process is not yet concluded.' 'Though the president's budget proposed the shuttering of these [Mars Relay] efforts,' he says, 'Congress has the final say in how much money is allocated to NASA.' 'They can itemize that budget to specifically reinstate missions that were zeroed out by the president's proposed budget.' 'This does occasionally happen,' he adds. There are already signs that the most powerful advocates of NASA retaining its position as the supreme global leader in spaceflight and in exploring the solar system could rally to overturn the president's plan to strip down the agency. The US Congress has the power to overturn the president's plan to radically downsize NASA, and save ... More the agency's world-leading planetary exploration missions (Photo by) Senator Ted Cruz, a longtime champion of NASA and its breakthroughs across the realm of space, recently introduced a special appropriations bill that would astonishingly add $9.99 billion to NASA's funding, which would allow it to catapult even higher ahead of the other world space powers. Cruz's White Knight legislation specifically provides $700,000,000 for the procurement of 'a high-performance Mars telecommunications orbiter that is capable of providing robust, continuous communications for … future Mars surface, orbital, and human exploration missions.' The senator's amazing lifeline to NASA also reverses a death sentence the president's plan placed on the colossal Space Launch System rocket and Orion space capsule - a sentence that was set to take effect after the Artemis III lunar mission that would land the first Americans on the Moon since the last millennium. Cruz's special appropriation would extend the lifetime of the SLS/Orion at least through the late 2020s. Back at JPL, Roy Gladden, torchbearer of the Mars Relay Network and of its future, says the $700 million outlined in Senator Cruz's NASA-rescue bill 'would be fantastic if that were to come around.' Cruz's NASA-wide boost, and the specialized allocation for orbital spacecraft around the Red Planet, could push forward the construction of a next-generation Mars relay constellation, he says, and the lofting of the first American discoverers to trek across the flame-colored planet. This future-tech version of the Mars Network, Gladden predicts, could in turn become the seed of a fantastical Solar System Internet that connects the Earth's eight billion citizens with the robots and aeronauts spreading out to explore all the planets and moons circling the Sun.
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Warren Buffett Is Giving Away $6 Billion — Here's Who Is Getting It
Warren Buffett, a billionaire investor and philanthropist, announced he's donating $6 billion to five charities The charities that will receive the funds include his three children's charities and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, whom he was a trustee with from 2006 to 2021 Buffett's estimated net worth is $152 billionWarren Buffett is giving away $6 billion — his biggest donation in almost two decades — to five charities by the end of the month. The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and philanthropist, 94, announced in a press release on Saturday, June 28, that he is giving away $6 billion in Berkshire Hathaway shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust and four other charities. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is one charity that Buffet has worked closely with over the years, as he has served as a trustee for the charity between 2006 and 2021. According to the trust's website, Buffett has pledged a total of $36 billion to the charity through 2022. Another charity that will be receiving a portion of the $6 billion is the charity he started with his first wife, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which is focused on family planning and reproductive health. The Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation, which were founded by his three adult children Susan, 72, Howard, 70, and Peter, 67, respectively, will also get a portion of the funds. The donations will be delivered to the charities on June 30. He converted over 8,000 Class A shares and over 12 million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway shares in order to make the donation, which is his largest donation since 2006, according to Forbes. 'The mathematics of the lifetime commitments to the five foundations are interesting,' Buffet said in a statement. 'The schedule for annual grants was made on June 26, 2006, and has since been supplemented by significant grants to four of the five recipients.' 'When originally made, I owned 474,998 Berkshire A shares worth about $43 billion and those shares represented more than 98% of my net worth. I have converted A shares into B shares before making contributions,' he added. Buffett, whose estimated net worth is $152 billion, also shared in his statement that upon his death, 'about 99½%' of his estate is 'destined for philanthropic usage,' per his will. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Last year it was reported that the Nebraska businessman planned to donate his fortune to a charitable trust after his death, according to the Associated Press. His three children would be in charge of the trust and have 10 years to allocate the money to charities of their choice. 'It's not so easy to give away money if you want to do it smart, if you want to be intelligent about it,' Howard told the AP in September 2024. 'It's pretty amazing that he's giving us this opportunity.' He also plans to continue to donate to the Gates Foundation and to his family's charities annually until his death, per AP. Read the original article on People Inicia sesión para acceder a tu portafolio
TechCrunch
26 minutes ago
- TechCrunch
Authors call on publishers to limit their use of AI
In Brief An open letter from authors including Lauren Groff, Lev Grossman, R.F. Kuang, Dennis Lehane, and Geoffrey Maguire calls on book publishers to pledge to limit their use of AI tools, for example by committing to only hire human audiobook narrators. The letter argues that authors' work has been 'stolen' by AI companies: 'Rather than paying writers a small percentage of the money our work makes for them, someone else will be paid for a technology built on our unpaid labor.' Among other commitments, the authors call for publishers to 'make a pledge that they will never release books that were created by machine' and 'not replace their human staff with AI tools or degrade their positions into AI monitors.' While the initial letter was signed by an already impressive list of writers, NPR reports that another 1,100 signatures were added in the 24 hours after it was initially published. Authors are also suing tech companies over using their books to train AI models, but federal judges dealt significant blows to those lawsuits earlier this week.
