In terms of cooling, we presently use our massive (and impressive-looking) heatsinks made of heat-conductive metals all in hopes of drawing as much heat as possible away from our chips.
Researchers at MIT have made a notable breakthrough in transforming polyethylene, the most widely used polymer, into a material that conducts heat just as well as most metals while retaining its properties as an electrical insulator.
Another special property of this transformed polyethylene is that it conducts heat very efficiently in just one direction, which makes it highly suitable for cooling a computer chip.
While discoveries such as this are often in an infancy stage that makes it just dream material for computer enthusiasts, the added promise in this latest breakthrough is recognition and interest from Intel.
Ravi Prasher, an engineer at Intel, took notice of the work and characterized the researchers' work as "phenomenal," and added that "this is a very significant finding."
