At its Foundry Direct Connect event, Intel unveiled prototypes that have been undergoing testing for years. According to the information revealed by the teams in charge of this work, the prototypes could cool up to 1,000W using direct liquid cooling on a processor. Surprisingly, just as we presented a crazy project based on a 14900KS a few days ago, it seems that Intel is also opting for direct liquid routing through the processor’s integrated heat sink (IHS). In detail, Intel has developed a tiny waterblock placed directly at the heart of the IHS, allowing the liquid to get as close as possible to the die without coming into contact with it. Intel claims that this design can cool processors up to 1,000W with standard coolant.
Direct watercooling in the IHS: Intel claims to be able to dissipate 1000W
Direct-die solutions are nothing new. However, Intel claims that its design offers 20% better thermal performance thanks to its proprietary technology. By reducing the distance between the heat source (the silicon) and the heat dissipation path (the thermal solution), Intel can deliver more power to the processor while keeping its operating temperatures within safe limits. However, regarding the arrival of all this on your next processor… That’s not for now. Intel is conducting this project primarily to address the concerns of data centres. This is clearly where energy requirements are exploding. Intel’s recent flagship server chip, the Xeon 6980P, already packs 128 cores with a nominal TDP of 500W. Understandably, this is a very important issue for the brand, especially if you think about the loads of high-end AI systems and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions. The cooling system could also find its way into workstations… For the moment, Intel has not mentioned any consumer product outlets for this cooling technology.
