Sandia's Laptop Heatpipes Closer To Market

mckennabluedot.com writes "Laptops aren't truly portable until you can stand to sit with one on your lap for more than 30 minutes. Sandia National Labs has developed small copper 'wicks' to transport methanol--and waste heat--from one area of a computer to another, where it can be dispersed more efficiently, comfortably and compactly than with heat sinks. The technology is being licensed to an undisclosed startup." So this stuff (mentioned here previously) might soon make it to a lap near you.

iBook

[silvakow]

I don't mean to sound like "that guy", but my iBook really does not have any problems with heat. I can set it on my lap for a good long while and barely notice any heat. This is one of the reasons that apple has not moved up to the G4 yet, so my computer is quite slow, but at least I never think twice about setting it on my lap for a game of mid-class Starcraft.

Just wondering ...

[shayborg]

If the heat isn't dispersed through the bottom, where exactly will it go? Are laptops going to feel cooler because the heat is dispersed better, or is most of the heat just going to be sent out of, say, the top of the laptop cover where it's less of a nuisance?

-- shayborg

Re:Finally

[SaraSmith]

Well... I have read about a man burning his penis and scrotum fairly severely from a laptop computer (through clothes)

So sterile may not be all ya get there.

Wish I could remember where I read that so it didn't sound so urban legendy, even though it probably still would/is.

Tables?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got an older G4 Powerbook. It's too hot to put on my lap w/o my sketchbook underneath, but I don't know - I've never found typing with something on my lap that comfortable outside of heat issues as it is. Isn't this what tables are for?

Re:Computers shouldn't heat up.

[EmbeddedJanitor]

The best part of using heat pipes is that you can seal the box better and vent the heat where you choose. Heat pipes are increadibly conductive (up to approx 3000x the conductivity of copper). Fans are a problem because the draw dust etc into the laptop. This can form an insulating layer which prevents good heat transfer.

I agree with your sentiments that laptops should not heat up. Basically this is mainly an x86 problem. With more efficient code and using cooler chips (ARM, MIPS,...) you have a far better chance of making a cool device (as well as having your battery last longer).

Ignorant question?

[Peapod]

This might be an ignorant question, but what happenes if you tilt it. No, granted, its sealed, but what if for some reason, you have it operating at some angle or you have it upside down. I realize this is not terribly common of a problem, but nevertheless. Probably a stupid question anyway.

Flamability and toxicity

[n1ywb]

Methanol is a highly reactive, flamable, and toxic chemical. You thought spontaniously combusting laptops were bad before? Now're you're carrying around rocket fuel to boot. I wonder if they'd even allow one of these on an airplane? It can be absorbed right through your skin and cause permanent eye and liver damage. I don't understand why they can't use a less flamable/reactive/toxic alcohol, like ethanol or isopropanol.

Re:non-waste heat?

[neptuneb1]

The supercomputer lab I worked at for a while actually used the "waste" heat to heat the building in the winter. Sure, it was just vented during the summer, but for eight months of the year (MN has long winters) they don't have to pay for heating!

Heatpipes rock

[Trogre]

The heatpipe attached to my Athlon cpu works pretty well. The temperature drop after replacing my AMD fan/heatsink combo was between 5 and 10 degrees C.

More info here

[bugnuts]

more info [sandia.gov]

They have thought of redirecting the heat for "hand warmers" but one of the things heat pipes really buys you is lack of moving parts and fan requirements... in other words, you can use it for silent or even a waterproof computer.

Heat pipes in the TiBooks

[v1]

Just lift the keyboard up on the tibook and you'll see five heat pipes running away from the processor heat sink. They go to various parts of the computer, and usually end bonded to a metal plate with holes in it, to dissipate the heat. I don't know if these are the same type of heat pipe the original poster is describing, but they serve the same purpose.

My previous powerbook, a 1998 "wallstreet", had no heat pipes, but used the keyboard to dissipate CPU heat. The back side of the keyboard was aluminum, and sat squarely on top of the CPU heat spreader. It made for a nice warm toasty feeling on the fingers while gaming with it in the winter. :-) That was a really good idea.

The problem the powerbooks have with heat seems to be the video... people always seem to forget that heat source in laptops. In both the ti and the wallstreet, that heats up the BOTTOM of the computer. I wouldn't even think of playing UT with the computer on my lap. The wallstreet had an interesting design on the bottom in that the sides where your legs would be were plastic - the center was the aluminum heat plate, and if you set it on your lap with your legs spread properly, you were free of any heat issues. Another excellent design idea not included in the new TiBooks. :(

I don't see a serious heat issue for most powerbook users. I'm sitting here typing up this post and I have, on average, one of the 19 bars lit up on my CPU monitor. The bottom of the tibook is only pleasantly warm to the touch, certainly not hot by anyone's opinion. I don't have any of the "power cycling" features turned on either... I'm sure it'd run even cooler if I enabled those. Now if I started ripping MP3s and compiling, the processor would get busy and the fan would spin up and she'd get warm.

How do PC laptops handle various workloads? I've used a few awhile back and they all seemed to be just as hot no matter if you were or weren't doing anything with them. I also noticed that if you pluged them into AC power, they'd crank up their CPU speed and get a lot warmer.