Possible Athlon Heat reason?

Ceramic is not a rock. A better term would be glass, but that's not quite right either.

My guess is that they use ceramic because it is generally an electrical insulator, and also ussually has good thermal conductivity.

Thermal conductivity is a critical characteristic for this kind of packaging. Doesn't matter how good a heatsink you have on top if the heat producing part of the chip cooks before the packaging can conduct that heat up to the heatsink.


In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.

My understanding is that the die is polished silicon, not ceramic. On an Althlon processor the ceramic is the surround that the processor mounts on, bridges, pins etc.

Ceramic is a very good insulator, as you point out, and both silicon and ceramic are mineral. The principal involved is that the layer between the heat and the heatsink is as small as possible.

-* This Space For Rent *-
email for application details