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To: Mani1 who wrote (21378)	12/2/2000 9:31:18 PM
From: ptanner	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 275872

Mani, Re: isonics claims You wrote: "The best I can tell the company makes NO claims about the 35 degree reduction. The Register as always is clueless. Actually, the company does make a very specific claim as follows: Q. What extra benefits do bulk silicon-28 wafers offer to justify their higher price? A. Thermal modeling has indicated that the peak temperature in the logic core of a microprocessor can be reduced by about 30 degrees centigrade by the use of silicon-28 bulk wafers. This large temperature decrease will allow heat sinks and fans to continue to be used instead of more expensive cooling solutions like thermoelectric or cryogenic coolers as the clock speeds of microprocessors are increased to several gigahertz in the next few years. Link: isonics.com Isonic's 30-degree (F or C?) is very specific to the core logic area of the processor - the hottest spot. However, assuming this was the source of the Register's 35-degree number it was taken out of context (peak core temperature). I agree with the concept that the thermally enhanced silicon will yield more uniformity (good for increasingly small process geometries) as well as provide more even heat distribution throughout the chip. This should help increase the potential transfer to the heatsink, basically through providing an integral thermal spreader. (In catching up on posts you and Goutama have noted this benefit but also said it would be relatively minor in the overall heat transfer process). As chips get smaller, the thermal cooling challenge should become quite interesting - my Duron was tiny when I applied the pencil trick. It was also interesting that the white paper (http://www.isonics.com/silicon.htm) on Si-28 projected 1.6 gHz processors using 160W by 2004. The P4 is basically at 1.6 GHz any day now but with much lower thermal power and with its large die size much lower thermal density. Still, Intel provides an integral heat spreader in the package and the heat sink assembly is also special. The thermal aspects have become extremely important to a processor which is planned to become mainstream in the next 1-2 years. All of this is just my honest opinion from what I have learned here and on the web. -PT

To: Mani1 who wrote (21378)	12/2/2000 9:33:58 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Respond to of 275872

Mani, I am sure the company would not make such a broad claim. All such claims would have to be situation specific, ie a comparison between two Athlons, one pure isotope and the other the natural distribution.. One good aspect is this will certainly help the heat problems of the Athlon and sister chips at higher speed by making less heat. Bill