"Novel Concepts' new IsoSkin is what's known as a thin planar superconducting heat spreader.

The material is indeed thin. At 500 microns, these IsoSkin spreaders could eventually be used to replace the outer "skin" of portable electronics, thereby eliminating the need for heat sinks and fans, according to Novel Concepts. The material dissipates heat 20 times more effectively than copper, the company said, or about 250 watts. "

http://www.extremetech.com/article [...] 568,00.asp


Could this mean, some time in the future, the end of HSFs? Easier paths to extreme overclocking?

Awesome. This might replace copper as the hsf material of choice. Even if computers dont need a hsf oc'ers will. Think, a 10,000% oc with a crappy, $20 hsf.

That's not to mention the applications in ultra-low profile PC's, powered by high-performance CPUs.

AFAIK, thermal dissipation is what is preventing the highest-performance CPUs to reach mobile and ultra-compact PC's.

I found it great too! Just a coat of this new material in the CPU's heat spreader and you're all set. Not even a heatsink may be needed.

I'm a Mechanical Engineer, graduated a year ago. My Manufacturing professor was working on this kind of thing. He wouldn't tell us which Chip maker he was working for though.

Basically, the concept of the how a Heat Sink works just as well on the nano scale as it does in the scale we're all familar with. Basically, things might be getting very small very rapidly if they get the manufacturing worked out. This heat disapation is basically the last real thing keeping you from having a Core 2 Duo in your Cell Phone. (fuel cells should eliminate battery concerns). Brave new world anyone? Not yet, but soon.

You will still need a way to dissipate that heat away from that area of the mobo. I guess if you had good airflow in your system you might not need a cpu fan.

So can I throw away my heater now?

Might want to get a couple more, your not going to be able to use your pc as a hand warmer anymore.

I am finishing my second year of school to be a Mechanical Engineer.

IsoSkin appears to basically be the implementation of heat pipe design to the micro scale.

The issue with this is heat pipes are designed for specific applications. That is they have a very definite heat dump and temperature operating range.

It seems likely that each power class of processor(35watt, 65watt...) and operational temperature range (example 30C to 60C) would need its own model variation of IsoSkin.

This was briefly discussed over at procooling a few days ago.

Also a good idea to look over the company provided charts(through procoolng link).
They are in a range of 40C to 60C, I can't help but wonder what it looks like closer to room temperature and at temperatures greater than 60C.

AMTI needs that for the R600 - someone email that link to amd head dude so they can get the R600 out of the lab and into my pc!

amti suxs! they ruined ati

No, it's AMD that sux for ruining ATi. [/Intel fanboy]

I just wish AMD would hurry up and release the chip that kills the C2D. The competition must continue for real progress!

The Intel fanboy is here to spin the topic towards flaming. Go away dragonsprayer, you don't contribute.

Its been getting pretty tiresome lately listening to all of the Intel rhetoric around here.

I agree. Someone ban him...