Processors, like any other electronic component, They have a certain power consumption which can vary depending on many aspects such as their own configuration and also depending on the workload they have to face. So, for example, the Ryzen 9 7950X can consume a maximum of 225 watts at full load, while the Intel Core i9-143900K can exceed 300 watts and the Ryzen 7 7800X3D will be around 83 watts.

Like any other component, processors get the power they need from the motherboard, which gets the power it needs from the power supply. They can generate a lot of heat during normal operation, a problem that some scientists have tried to turn into something positive by finding ways to solve it. convert this heat into energy.

The idea is very interesting because it could lead us to a scenario in which the processor would be able to convert the heat it generates into some of the energy that would allow them operate in a semi-autonomous manner. It would not be able to function completely autonomously, without an additional supply of energy from a power source, because without said source it would of course not be able to start generating heat.

Processors that use heat to generate power, is that really possible?

Thanks to the research carried out in Europe, we can say that we are one step closer to achieving it. This research allowed us to discover a an alloy of silicon, germanium and tin that can convert waste heat into electricitywhich represents a very important undertaking that could help us make much more efficient and partially self-sufficient processors.

Until now, the biggest problem scientists have encountered when trying to find a way to use this waste heat has been in materials, and that is that very few materials are able to convert heat into electricity and none of them could be applied directly in semiconductor manufacturing processes.

This reality made scientists think about the possibility of looking for an alloy that would compensate for the shortcomings of these individualized materials, and this was a success, because this alloy can use the heat generated. even below 80°C for conversion into electrical energy and can also be relatively easily integrated into the semiconductor manufacturing process.

Design of this alloy can be produced on a wide variety of chips, not only in processors, which makes this achievement all the more important because it opens the door to a new era in the world of electronic computing in terms of self-sufficiency, sustainability, efficiency and autonomy. For example, think about how a smartphone equipped with this type of technology could improve, or what advancements it would enable in a laptop computer.

It is currently in the early stages of a it can take years before we see this discovery integrated into commercial solutions, but it’s still interesting, and like I said, it opens up a whole world of possibilities.

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