I’m confused. I did some research online, and learned that cpu’s can essentially double has a hotplate, because 99-100% of electricity consumed is turned into heat. how? doesn’t the cpu use energy to make calcuations and render things? I’m real confused.
In: 1619
When water passes through a waterwheel, you get all the water coming out at the end.
When energy passes through a CPU, you get all the energy coming out at the end. The CPU makes all the energy into heat, because it is easy for electricity moving through wires to become heat, and not so easy to make it into other forms of energy.
Without electricity turning into heat, you cannot calculate. So indeed, your CPU uses energy to calculate, but the way it uses the energy is turning it from one form into another. Everything that “uses” energy turns it from one form into another, frequently as waste heat.
Instead of “using” energy, think of it as “transforming” energy. It is more valuable to have orderly energy than unorderly energy. Everything moving in one direction is useful. Everything moving uniformly randomly is heat: hard to make use of it. Once you make use of orderly energy, it becomes unorderly.
(Something something entropy, is not really ELI5 anymore)
Latest Answers