h a l f b a k e r y"Bun is such a sad word, is it not?" -- Watt, "Waiting for Godot"
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
Cooling is a huge problem for supercomputers and as power goes up it will only get worse. That made me think - where is it really cold? Outer space is not so good because a vacuum is a lousy conductor (heat is transferred by radiation only)... On the gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, etc) there are presumably
oceans of liquid methane, nitrogen, and other gases, at around -200C. You could submerge your computer in these oceans and get free cooling, and even take advantage of superconductivity (if you can build superconducting semiconductors somehow).
Of course, there are problems such as the fact that Jupiter is far away... But if you had some very large problems that took relatively little data to specify the problem and to encode the solution (simulating quantum mechanics?) the communication bandwidth wouldn't be a problem. Getting the hardware out there and getting power to the machine, well, that's another category ...
[link]
|
| |
Forgive my ignorance on this matter, but the Arctic or Antarctica aren't cold enough for this? |
|
| |
Well, the poles certainly never get as cold as -200C. On the other hand, I'm not sure Jupiter or Saturn do either. Uranus or Neptune, possibly, but on those planets the "oceans" are typically liquid because of pressure, not temperature. The computers would probably be crushed. |
|
| |
A slightly less grandiose scheme would use liquid Nitrogen, here on Earth. This would be slightly cheaper, and the keyboard and mouse cable would be much shorter. |
|
| |
Of course, if having to live on Jupiter and being crushed and frozen horribly appeals to you, these comjupiters are the only logical suggestion for PC usage. But only then. |
|
| |
Tsk... every skilled geek (and I) knows that immersing your motherboard in LN2 will corrupt your BIOS... |
|
| |
What happened to just blowing through an empty floppy drive as a reasonable method of computer cooling? |
|
| |
You have been misinformed. Jupiter is actually quite hot. And there are no oceans of liquid methane, etc. You might want to try Titan instead. |
|
| |
Mmmm... no Jupiter has a very strong gravity well. I think you chose Jupiter to make your idea sound more *workable*. Seeing as it's so close and all. Plus venus and mercury don't look to cold either >.>. |
|
| |
Jupiter is almost all Hydrogen anyway. And I don't think it has ground either. On the other hand I do remember something about jupiter having a giant rock in the middle covered magma. |
|
| |
No bad idea. Nice try. I think Europa has an ocean under it though. |
|
| |
Might want to try the ice planet Hoth. Much colder. |
|
| |
Mars is quite cold though, despite all its CO2. Me and my CO2... And a couple of Jupiters moons are volcanic. One of em has the highest mountain in the known solarsystem. Jupiter also has a giant never-ending storm on it to. |
|
| |
I know all this stuff, I read every space book in the school library when I was in 1-5 grade. |
|
| |
//when I was in 1-5 grade//, which was, what, last year? How are volcanic Jovian moons and perpetual storms relevant to this post? |
|
| |
Hoth isn't convenient [EvilPickles], it's clearly stated as being far, far away. And it may have heated up by now. |
|
| |
//Hoth isn't convenient [EvilPickles], it's clearly stated as being far, far away. And it may have heated up by now.// Lol. |
|
| |
//which was, what, last year?// No it was back in 1995. I am a 9 grader now. Arse. |
|
| |
//How are volcanic Jovian moons and perpetual storms relevant to this post?// |
|
| |
You always find something to critcize. Whther it is "relevant" to anything OR NOT. |
|
| |
There are so many random shouts of "Arse!" on your posts, I'm beginning to think you're actually Father Jack... |
|
| |
One reason to put it on Jupiter rather than Mars is that liquid nitrogen / methane / whatever has a much higher specific heat than thin air and so will carry more heat away. If just being cold was enough then outer space would do. But vaccuum is a very good insulator. |
|
| |
Thanks for the correction on the temperature of Jupiter. Uranus would be better (smaller and colder). Still, it's pretty far ... Pressure would not be an issue, I don't think. All you have are metals and silicon... |
|
| |