Skip to Content

Cool Chips

February 28, 2003

As computer chips get smaller and faster, they become little electronic furnaces-and a lot of research goes into finding better ways to carry away the heat so the chip can do its work without melting. One new solution from the University of Pennsylvania: carbon nanotubes, each only one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair. Studied since their discovery in 1991 for their strength and electrical properties, nanotubes could be the world’s best heat conductors as well. Materials scientist John Fischer and physicist Alan Johnson measured the speed of sound waves traveling down the tubes as an indirect gauge of heat propagation and found it to be about 10,000 meters per second. Contrary to expectations, connections between tubes in a bundle did not slow the waves. This suggests that single tubes or bundles of aligned tubes could be used to carry heat away from computer chips.The University of Pennsylvania is seeking to license the application to device makers such as Advanced Micro Devices and Intel.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.