Researchers from Intel and Purdue University in Indiana have developed “ionic wind” technology that uses magnetism to increase the movement of air across the surface of a semiconductor. The technology promises to be 250% more effective at cooling chips than conventional fan-based systems, the researchers claim.

Details of ionic wind theory will appear in a Journal of Applied Physics article. It will describe how charged particles, or ions, can be made to act as a “breeze” – wafting from one positively charged end of a computer chip to the other negatively charged end, dislodging heated air molecules that normally become stuck to the surface of a power hungry CPU.

It is likely to be at least another three years before ionic wind technology ca\n be miniaturized sufficiently to be used commercially systems. In the meantime cooling continues to be a pressing problem for systems engineers, as their success in cramming ever more chips, with ever more transistors into smaller and smaller spaces is resulting in a growing thermal management crisis.

It remains to be seen whether ionic wind technology will be the breakthrough engineers are looking for to prevent over-heating becoming a barrier to continued data centre performance increases. Indeed, it may yet turn out to be just the latest a growing line of exotic technologies, such as inkjet water-spray chip cooling, that are being proposed as the latest cool solution to the IT industry’s current hot problem.