Cpu Energy Efficiency And Speed

[chewy0914]

I'm curious what happens to the energy that goes into a cpu?(gpu?)
Is it eventually grounded out? Does the electricity get reused? Same with a gpu?(ram/other)

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If not currently reused would there be a reductions in cpu power use if it was?


I posted on blocks and vacuums in the power lines of motherboards/cpu's/other.
I'm curious if the build up points and vacuums were removed, or some type of vacuum was created to pull the electrons how fast could a cpu/gpu operate?
Speed of electrons/faster?

 

[positivedoppler]

The portion of the electricity that does useful work is recycled. The part that get dissipated via resistance is turned into heat and is lost. Typically the faster the cpu the higher the current is needed to turn on/off that transistors. Higher current results in more heat getting dissipated on internal resistance of the cpu.

 

[Ken g6]

I'm curious what happens to the energy that goes into a cpu?(gpu?)
Is it eventually grounded out?

It would help if you'd taken a physics course. But in simplest terms the electrons flow to ground while the energy goes to heat.

Does the electricity get reused? Same with a gpu?(ram/other) If not currently reused would there be a reductions in cpu power use if it was?

"Electricity" being "reused" doesn't really make sense.

Imagine ping pong balls being propelled through a (significantly larger) tube (or a series of tubes!) by compressed air. This is like electrons in a wire. The air is the "electric field", the tube is the wire, and the balls are electrons.

The pressure of the compressed air is the "voltage". Well, technically, it's the difference between the compressed air and the air at the end of the tube(s). Which leads to your "vacuum". Pulling the ping pong balls or electrons out effectively just increases the voltage.

As for "blocks", there are a couple of answers. First, electrons have to be blocked at certain points by "transistors" to perform computations. Without that your computer doesn't compute. But, yes, blocking electrons does lose energy and release heat. Using less voltage (less air pressure for the ping pong balls) does result in less heat loss, but for technical reasons involving the chemistry of transistor materials, a minimum voltage is required for them to operate. And of course if the voltage is lower the electrons/ping pong balls take longer to get moving again once a transistor stops blocking them. Hence you can't run a CPU as fast with low voltage as you can with high voltage.

As for dead-end wires, they're like a tube with a cap on one end. No voltage/air flows through a dead-end section, so no electrons/ping pong balls move and no energy is lost there. In some cases CPUs actually do this. It's called "power gating" and it works very well indeed for lowering power use.

 

[mavere]

Considering the post history, this guy is either a troll or someone who just discovered computers yesterday and decided on using Anandtech's forums as a stream-of-consciousness diary.

 

[DrPizza]

Some of the responses seem inappropriate for this forum. However, the question also seems inappropriate for this particular area. Vacuum to pull electrons??? (in a gpu) Locking this thread and sent you a PM.