🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug28.052810.14424@ee.ubc.ca> tau@ee.ubc.ca (AU TRI BANG) writes:
>In article <1992Aug28.051522.7672@ee.ubc.ca> jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison) writes:
>>Do you *need* a heat sink? The 486, 386 etc are in a big ceramic PGA package
>>that's designed to dissipate that kind of heat, as long as you have enough
>>air cooling. If you have problems you think are heat related, maybe something's
>>blocking the air flow in your computer, like a card. If you use rated clock
>>speed, cooling etc. you don't need a heat sink. 
>>
>
>I'm not having problems of any sort.  I just don't like the idea of a
>chip operating at such a high temparature.  Operating it at a lower
>temp should prolong its life, wouldn't it?

I see your point. If the temperature inside the computer near the 486
is very close to maximum rated temp, then yes a heat sink would help
a lot. But if the temperature is below the maxumum ratings, then it
would not make that much difference, if any.

You can open up your computer and touch the 486 and it will be *hot*
not enough to burn you, though (at least at 33 MHz. 50 MHz would be  warmer,
25 MHz cooler). Just remember that this is within spec, and it can get hotter
before it approaches maximum ratings. At rated temp, you can expect years of
reliable service.

I'll look up the ratings, and you can check how much below the max. ratings
you are.

jpm



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 John Paul Morrison                     |
 University of British Columbia, Canada |
 Electrical Engineering                 |   .sig closed for repairs 
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 jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca                     |
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