Intel will reportedly announce and showcase an advanced thermal module cooling solution to improve laptops’ power dissipation at the upcoming CES. This new innovation will be part of Project Athena and enable fanless and thinner notebooks, according to DigiTimes.
DigiTimes’ sources from the upside supply chain claim that the new thermal module design enhances power dissipation by 25-30%. It would consist of a combination of vapor chambers and graphite sheets.
As DigiTimes describes, thermal modules are traditionally placed between the keyboard and the bottom shell. In Intel’s design, by contrast, a vapor chamber will replace the current modules, and will be attached with a graphite sheet that is placed behind the screen. To make this possible, the hinges have to be redesigned to allow the graphite to go through for conducting the heat.
On the flipside, the new thermal module will allow for thinner and even fanless notebooks. As part of Intel’s Project Athena for premium laptops, many brands would have expressed interest in this new cooling solution and will reportedly showcase products with the module.
An improved cooling design might also be helpful for Intel's first discrete graphics card, DG1, which could help to double Tiger Lake's graphics power with its additional 96 execution units.
Intel will hold its CES keynote on January 6. Last year at CES, Intel announced Project Athena, Ice Lake, Lakefield, the F-series of desktop processors without integrated graphics, the NNP-I, Ice Lake server and Snow Ridge, 3D Athlete Tracking for the Olympics, plans for 10Gbit Ethernet and Wi-Fi 6, and a Mobileye-Ordnance Survey collaboration.