New York Times: Intel Says Chips Will Run Faster, Using Less Power

I don’t actually care for most of the article, just the title. The article is mostly about the new manufacturing process and rival technology, neither of which I give one hoot about. But one thing that is important is more efficient processors. Right now, computer processors are very energy inefficient. When a process is inefficient, it usually releases energy in one of two ways: sound and heat. The way that most people are familiar with is heat. Stoves are a great example. A stove is just an inefficient electrical circuit that releases its energy in the form of heat. Mind you, stoves are designed this way, otherwise it’d be hard to heat up your food when trying to cook.

Computer processors on the other hand, are not designed to be inefficient. Every electron that leaks out of the circuits is one wasted. These wasted electrons then heat up the surrounding area and would eventually melt the system. But that’s why we have those massive CPU heat sinks, and the box fans to route the hot air away from the CPU and other electronics in the case and fresh cool air back into the case.

This hot air from the inefficient CPU then mixes with the room temperature air. And it does have an effect on the ambient air temperature. For instance, the last few nights here have been fairly cold; it’s dropped below freezing. Instead of turning on the heater, I leave my computer on - usually with a background process running so as to not fully waste the electricity to keep it running. I’m not exactly sure which way is more energy efficient, but I figure since the computer is actually doing work most of the night, that it must be at least as good as the heating system. Plus, by having the computer running instead of the heat, the temperature gradually decreases overnight to a minimum of around 65 F. This would be a little chilly to keep the apartment all the time, but since the temperature then increases to around a maximum of 75 F duing the day, it a nice temperature contrast between day and night, which I find helps me sleep.

Don’t get me wrong. I would much rather have energy efficient CPUs and have to use the heater at night. The energy saved during the day with the computer on would greatly outweigh the convenience at night. So high praise to Intel for attempting to produce a better chip.

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