[Beowulf] /. Cooler room or cooler servers?

[Joshua Halpern]

Jim Lux wrote:

> 
> At 04:27 PM 4/7/2005, Mark Hahn wrote:

> This what I would imagine off hand...  Comparable computational power of 
> a given IC fabrication technology (feature size/voltage/etc) will 
> dissipate similar amounts of power. And this is what you said you measured.

Shifting away from silicon to large bandgap semiconductors could be a 
way out.  In principle such devices could operate at much higher 
temperatures.  The development push is coming from operation in hostile 
environments, such as car engines and stand alone operations where 
cooling is not available.

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Aug/bch20040827026691.htm

At this point I would guess that the best material would be silicon 
carbide rather than  gallium nitride.  This is all pie in the sky right 
now but there are no first principle obstacles just money and time.

Joshua Halpern