IBM researchers are hopeful that using a network of tiny pipes of water to cool next-generation PC chips is possible.  The team of the researchers demonstrated the technology in IBM's 3D chips, where circuits are stacked one on top of the other. The researchers are of the view that water is much more efficient than air at absorbing heat, and thus even with tiny amounts of liquid flowing through could show a dramatic effect.

 

In order to exploit the potential of high-performance 3D chip stacking interlayer cooling is needed. Conventional cooling techniques, which involve the use of fans and heat sinks, do not work as well with the 3D technology, particularly as heat has to be drawn away from between the individual chips. Moreover, this according to the researchers could be solved if conventional coolers attached to the back of a chip do not scale.

 

According to the researchers, pumping liquids around computers is not entirely new. They told that early mainframe computers had water pumped around them. They further added that conventional cooling techniques such as fans and heat sinks do not work as well with the 3D technology, particularly as heat has to be drawn away from between the individual chips.