Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!ekalenda
From: ekalenda@cup.portal.com (Edward John Kalenda)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Accessory to double speed of 486 PCs
Message-ID: <36894@cup.portal.com>
Date: 14 Dec 90 03:09:22 GMT
References: <2370004@hpwrce.HP.COM>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 23

> I heard a rumor that 25 MHZ 486 PCs can be made faster by installing a 
> commercially available product based on a heat sink. Rumor has it that the 
> product allows one to double the speed of the cpu. It's supposed to cost 
> only $50, and is sold by a company called something like SI Labs.
> 
> Can anyone provide more information on this product?

The December issue of Byte magazine has an article on the ICECap from Velox
Computer Technology. The ICECap keeps the chip at 0 degress Centigrade and
adjusts the input voltage to the chip to minimize delays. They had an
experimental Everex Step 486/50 based on it.

The ICECap is based on the Peltier effect, "a thermoelectric cooling system
based on the principle that passing current between two physically connected,
dissimilar materials produces cooling on one side and heat on the other".

Apparently, the increase in system cost would only be $600 so we should
be seeing something based on it. I'd guess late in 1991 for the fisrt units
to hit the street. Expect to pay through the nose, they'll charge you for
running fast, not just for the cost of the part.

Ed
ekalenda@cup.portal.com