Faster Computing With Dry Ice

Computer experimenters like to try "overclocking" their computers to make the CPU processor chip run faster, so the computer can handle more data in less time. Serious "gamers" (players of computer games) want the blazing speed. The big problem is heat: the CPU chip has something like 700-million transistors in a chip the size of a large postage stamp. Ordinary desktop computers have a separate fan blowing across a metal "heat sink" that fits tightly against the chip to remove heat. Higher-capacity cooling systems use tubes of fluid to conduct heat from the CPU to larger cooling fins.

Recent experiments have used dry ice in copper containers full of alcohol to get chip speeds up to five gigahertz, two or more times the speed attainable with ordinary cooling. The setup is very experimental, requiring neoprene insulation of the container to avoid water condensation running down onto the motherboard, and careful neoprene gasketing around the CPU and its socket. The alcohol is used to conduct heat from the copper container to the dry ice, as the alcohol would not freeze at the -109 degree F temperature of the dry ice. The container has to let the CO2 gas escape from the alcohol as the dry ice sublimates, and contain any alcohol splashing that results from the CO2 bubbling out of the dry ice. Another safety consideration is that the alcohol is flammable.

Don't expect your laptop to be dry-ice cooled anytime soon, but in the computer lab, dry ice has enabled performance of the newest computer CPU chip designs to reach a new upper limit.

Call Continental Carbonic toll-free at 800-DRY-ICE2. Visit our News Archive to find out about more ways to use dry ice. Use your ZIP code to find your closest Continental Carbonic location.