How to overclock CPU with technology that has not been invented yet

I used to work as a computer engineer and spent a lot of time improving speeds of equipment in the semiconductor industry. My focus had always been on parallel processing, multi-tasking and getting the maximum performance out of their computers until they were idling a lot of the time. After that I implemented diagnostic routines to check for potential approaching down times while the machines were on the production floor occupied with their own tasks. This was possible as I had invented a theorem called Finite Event Analysis that works wonderfully under RISC architecture that is unconventional even today.

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What is overclocking on a CPU

Wouldn't you like for your computer to run faster? One way is to overclock the CPU. Overclocking is increasing the computer clock rate to exceed that specified by the manufacturer. It can involve higher operating voltages and there by more heat dissipation from the CPU and other chips on the motherboard. This means efficient cooling is necessary. I'll explain new novel cooling techniques for the motherboard of your computers.

Silicon die temperatures and measurements

The one thing I gained out of all that hard work was that I found out that silicon die temperatures were slightly different from the oven environment temperatures. I discovered this when improving the algorithm of ovens that operated from -40°C to 125°C - military spec.

In the old method I noticed an offset in temperature measured when compared to a thermocouple reading. After some investigation I tried exposing the leads of the temperature sensor. When I did this, I found that the AD590 sensors had the same temperature readings as a thermocouple. From there I figured that in the old method, the die temperature was 5°C lower than the oven temperature because the leads were conducting heat away from the die. This was because the temperature measuring circuit board that was outside the oven was at room temperature.

Increase computer performance by overclocking

Years later, in 2020, I was still using a 10 year old Samsung laptop that had an i7-2630QM processor. It was slowing down and I wondered how the CPU performance could be improved substantially. That was when I learnt about overclocking the CPU for improved performance. Overclocking needed the CPU temperatures to be lowered so that the CPU's would not be damaged and burn up. I remembered those oven experiments of more than 30 years ago and so decided to test them out.

The current technology was based upon cooling the CPU through the CPU packaging. That meant heat transfer had to go through a package that was an insulator. This I thought was an inefficient method of cooling. So, I began testing cooling through the leads or pins of the package as they were directly connected to the die of the CPU. These leads or pins being good conductors of electricity would be excellent conductors of heat too. Using a stand fan or table fan I managed to make the CPU run 45% faster. The Cinebench R20 score improved from about 500 (480 to 527 after servicing the laptop) to 724. That is a CPU speed performance improvement of 45%. This means that I could make the old laptop run 1.45 times faster just with air cooling with a stand fan or table fan blowing through the solder side of the laptop motherboard.

From these experiments I came out with several recommendations: -

1. Motherboard solder side cooling can be effective especially if there are cooling fins on the CPU leads or pins.
2. There has be direct airflow towards those pins to get efficient cooling.
3. There has to be a way to expel the heated air so that hot air will not accumulate within the laptop and force the CPU to overheat.
4. There has to be sufficient room for air to flow across the motherboard to enable more efficient cooling of the CPU. That was why I proposed the double decker laptop design.
5. A double decker laptop design will allow for not only better airflow across the solder side of the motherboard but also provide space for more USB ports and larger capacity internal hard drives.

Please see the video below

Could a small fan be used to cool the laptop?

We can't be using a stand or pedestal fan or a table fan to cool a pried open laptop as it would be more difficult to operate and many people would find it tedious and an inelegant solution. So, I searched around for an air blower fan with a much higher air flow rate. This is because the higher the airflow rate the better the cooling would be. Furthermore, a small powerful air blower fan could be incorporated into the design of future laptops.

I used a Sanyo Denki San Ace B97 12V 3.4A air blower fan, model 9BMB12P2K12. This air blower fan had an impressive airflow rate of 125 CFM (cubic feet per minute). Unlike most PC cooling fans that have an air flow rate of 20 CFM to 70 CFM. Ceiling fans can have an airflow rate of about 70 CFM where as stand or pedestal fans can generate airflow rates of 1000 CFM to 7000 CFM.

After receiving the Sanyo Denki air blower fan in the mail, I fixed it into my laptop at various positions to test the cooling effect. You will notice that I did not want static pressure to build up and block the airflow through the laptop so I removed my internal D:\ drive so that there was a big hole on the side of my laptop to allow heated air to escape. Please do watch the video below.

I have even suggested that some of these features could be in mirrorless cameras:-

The recommendations are as follows: -

1. Do not allow static air pressure to build up within the laptop and prevent fresh air from entering the laptop to cool the CPU, GPU and other components.
2. The airflow should be allowed to freely move across the motherboard and out of the laptop.
3. If there is no base cover the airflow leaks all over the place and not much cooling air flows pass the CPU and GPU. Huge empty spaces in desktop PC's cause difficulties in cooling the CPU's and GPU's unless they implement motherboard solder side cooling.
4. Even though room temperature was between 32°C (89.6°F) and 35°C (95°F) during the experiments, the high-volume airflow of 125 CFM allowed the old technology laptop to run almost 50% faster. Remember I am not running these experiments in an air-conditioned environment. The speed improvement was from about a Cinebench R20 rating of 500 to 744. This is 48% or 1.48 times faster. When I ran it in an air-conditioned enviroment at 24°C the Cinebench R20 score shot to 863 - 73% faster than room temperature operations.

Novel air cpu cooler on motherboard solder side

In conclusion, the I7-2630QM CPU is based upon a 32nm process technology, and is really old. The current technology by Intel and AMD is around 7nm to 14nm and should be easier at being cooled. The Intel i7-2630QM processor has overclocking blocked and operates at 2.0 GHz to 2.8GHz. That is up to 40% faster under the right conditions without overclocking. The experiments, using a novel air cpu cooler, an air blower fan, on the motherboard solder side, show that the laptop can improve in speed with sufficient air cooling at 125 CFM at room temperatures of 32°C (89.6°F) and 35°C (95°F). Its speed can be improved by about 50% under these restrictions. Imagine what CPU performance improvements can be achieved with the later generation CPU's with overclocking under these conditions - 100%, 200% CPU performance?

Worst still, with climate change many places, for example Los Angeles and Kuwait, are experiencing high temperatures of 40°C (104°F) to 45°C (113°F). Under these conditions the two most important cooling requirements would be cooling through the CPU leads or pins and sufficiently high airflow for improved cooling. The Sanyo Denki air blower I used was very noisy. To my knowledge no one has developed a silent high airflow air blower. Whoever develops a silent, high airflow, blower will corner the computer and laptop market.

Looking back over the years I realise that this is truly a revolution in cooling and can change chip and motherboard design. Just imagine that the next generation of computers and semicoductor chips being very different from those we see today. An amazing, brilliant and revolutionary concept. Can I win the Nobel prize for this idea?

Firefly Personal Desktop Computers

Finally, I have done it, constructed an all in one personal desktop computer that can operated at a room temperature of 35°C (95°F) without overheating. It took me about two to three years of experiments to get to this point. Now they are for sale at my website for desktop computer sales. Initially, it will be for those living in the Klang Valley or Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. (dated 20220923)

If you want to know more about my work, inventions and discoveries please checkout my article.

- Dr. Peter Achutha, 6th September 2020

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