The Department of Energy‘s Sandia National Laboratories has developed a radically new way to remove heat from computer components using a design that is 30 times more efficient than current heat exchangers.

In conventional systems, metal fins, combined with a fan, transfer heat away from sensitive part. But heat still gets trapped in the pockets of air in that adheres to and envelops all surfaces, or boundary areas, of the heat exchanger.

The build up of heat, combined with particulate matter and other airborne contaminants, or fouling, eventually reduces performance and adds to the cost of keeping computers cool.

To read the entire article and watch a short video about this computing breakthrough on our sister site Breaking Gov, click here.