Comment Alpha prototypes had this too. (Score 2, Interesting) 245
There was work done by Hamurgen and Fitch at DEC where they experimented with using heat pipe technology to cool chips way back in 1992.
They needed a liquid with a high heat of vaporization, and a boiling point in the 30-50C range. They tried mixtures of water and alcohol, but settled on just water, pumped down to 1/3 ATM.
They went looking through the "steam tables" and found that nobody had ever looked at the sub-atmospheric range of pressures, and had to derive all of the thermodynamic properties themselves.
It was pretty quiet, but made a funny little 'tick' noise right when it started boiling.
More details at http://www.research.compaq.com/wrl/techreports/abs tracts/92.1.html
and http://www.research.compaq.com/wrl/techreports/abs tracts/90.9.html
-Jeff Bell
They needed a liquid with a high heat of vaporization, and a boiling point in the 30-50C range. They tried mixtures of water and alcohol, but settled on just water, pumped down to 1/3 ATM.
They went looking through the "steam tables" and found that nobody had ever looked at the sub-atmospheric range of pressures, and had to derive all of the thermodynamic properties themselves.
It was pretty quiet, but made a funny little 'tick' noise right when it started boiling.
More details at http://www.research.compaq.com/wrl/techreports/ab
and http://www.research.compaq.com/wrl/techreports/ab
-Jeff Bell
