Beyond water cooling. (Was Re: Peltier devices for cooling)

[Magnus Danielson]

From: "Batz Goodfortune" <batzman at all-electric.com>
Subject: Re: Beyond water cooling. (Was Re: Peltier devices for cooling)
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 10:18:31 +1000

> Y-ellow Magnus 'n' y'all.
> 
> At 09:06 PM 02/12/00 +0100, Magnus Danielson wrote:
> 
> >Actually, for telecommunication curcuits will crystal oscillators detune
> alot.
> >You have to use AT or SC cuts, ovens etc. to overcome the troubles.
> 
> How do those big refrigerated shack things work which they have on the back
> of satellite up stations? They have some kind of weird refrigeration plant
> on the back of them which looks like jet engines. I've never seen inside
> one but I know where one is and I know someone who might be able to get me
> inside one day. If I ask real nicely. :) Should I be scared of being fried
> by microwaves?

No bloody idea how they look and work ;)

But cooling the first stage of a RF input on a dish gives you a boost in noise
level, so for guys probing for satelites in space it is a cheap upgrade than
building a much larger scope in order to receive more signal to play over the
internal noise. Just nitrogen cooling is a big step forward, it's many dBs in
lowered noise floor.

> >>  BTW, I used to work on a huge mainframe computer that was water cooled -
> >> and all discreet transistors.
> >> The IBM 360/95 designed by Seymor Cray!
> >
> >What? I know Seymor spent his days at CDC and made revolutionary computers
> >there, but I never knew he did work for IBM.
> 
> CRAY computers is/was actually owned by IBM. The story goes that IBM saw
> the genius of Seymor but they thought he was just too crazy for their
> image. So they gave him his own company to play with.

Ah. But it does not really account for his CDC days and the IBM 360/95. Or has
I got my timescale wrong so that his CDC days was before the 360/95?

Cheers,
Magnus