PC General Discussion Thread

[Power666]

New break through in carbon nanotubes. Scientists have figures out away to grow the heatsink directly onto the chip. It'll be several years before this technology makes its way into shipping products.

OCZ has announced a carbon nanotube cooler earlier this year but it has yet to ship it. OCZ's cooler doesn't make use of this new technology break through.

[Dax]

Carbon nanotubes for the win.

This is so damn cool, I hope nanotechnology continues to grow. It's like my dream because then it'd be just like Black Cat and all that. Anyway the only problem I have is this technology seems a bit gross in a way... or atleast the images did >.< yucky

[Fyrus]

Interestign thinking of having thati inside a computer. Also is it needed?

[Power666]

AMD has released a new CPU driver for Windows XP. The surprising thing is that there is a decent speed gain from it.

Originally Posted by Fyrus

Interestign thinking of having thati inside a computer. Also is it needed?

The main issue with computer chip isn't getting them to run fast. The Prescott Pentium 4 chips were deisgned to scale to 6 Ghz or so. The issue is keeping them cool so they don't melt at such speeds. Better cooling technologies are one of the things necessary for continued performance increases.

The other thing necessary is improvements in manufacturing. Reducing the size of the transitors and wires inside of a chip is the most common and talked about improvement but designers are approaching a physical limit here. So new materials are going to the big talk until something replaces semi-conductors (optical based circuits are promising). The most extreme designs of the future are currently diamond based semi-conductors from Fujistsu. It dodges the current thermal problem by allowing much higher operating temperatures - around 500 degees F I believe.

[Darth Alec]

A PC that's 500 degrees F?

Sets your house on fire.

[Romanc]

Originally Posted by Darth Alec

A PC that's 500 degrees F?

Sets your house on fire.

That's only the internal temperature. If the whole PC reached that temperature it would probably fry you, yes...

The hotter the temperature you can safely operate at, the higher the speed you can work at. Cooling technologies would then be directed at keeping the rest of the system at a safer temperature level.

[Darth Alec]

Still, that's pretty high.

I might get an awsome PC *soon*.

4GB RAM, 8800GT, and more.

[Romanc]

Originally Posted by Darth Alec

Still, that's pretty high.

I might get an awsome PC *soon*.

4GB RAM, 8800GT, and more.

*coughkonfirmasjoncough*?

(Closest translatable might be *coughBarMitzvacough*?)

[Darth Alec]

Not really. I just have to pursued my father to split the 10.000kr fee.

Now, 8800 GT or other?