Is Cooling the Central Design Issue of Our Time?

by John Keller Military & Aerospace Electronics, July 2005 For years now we’ve lived with the assumption that computer processing power -- and hence systems capability -- doubles about every couple of years. This is the essence of Moore’s Law, which has been an electronics maxim for the past four decades. Few principles in the electronics business have been so constant, dependable, and predictable as Moore’s Law, but a sea change in its guidance may be in the offing. The problem is heat. Fast electronics and tightly integrated packaging that are typical in embedded systems in military and aerospace applications generate substantial amounts of excess heat, and the pace of improvements in integrated circuitry is outstripping our ability to remove the unwanted heat. Read more