The ETA10 liquid-nitrogen-cooled supercomputer system

Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1989 · IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Transactions on Electron Devices; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/16.30952· OSTI ID:5242411

Carlson, D M; Sullivan, D C; Bach, R E; Resnick, D R ^[1]

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1. ETA Systems, Inc., St. Paul, MN (USA)

A supercomputer was developed using CMOS circuit technology operating at liquid-nitrogen temperatures. As many as 2000 packaged circuit chips of up to 20 000 gates each operate at a temperature below 90 {Kappa} (which approximately doubles the speed of the circuit chips). Extensive utilization of built-in self-test provides for device and interconnect testability from the wafer at the foundry to the central processor product immersed in nitrogen. The devices have been packaged and interconnected with special attention to materials choices to assure reliability of the connection structures. Laboratory cryogenic cycling studies have been completed at the device and the printed circuit board levels. Heat-transfer experiments were conducted to validate nucleate boiling peak heat flux limits of --12 W/cm/sup 2/ in liquid nitrogen. A vacuum-jacketed cryostat vessel was developed to provide the central processor chips with their liquid-nitrogen environment and to allow several thousand signal wires to connect to them with minimal heat leak. A closed-loop cryogenic refrigeration system was developed to recondense the gaseous nitrogen generated from the boiling heat transfer in the cryostat. The cryogenic system controls the nitrogen flows and pressures during normal operating conditions and provides automatic warm-up/cool-down of cryostats and central processor electronics.

• OSTI ID: 5242411
• Journal Information: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Transactions on Electron Devices; (USA), Journal Name: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Transactions on Electron Devices; (USA) Vol. 36:8; ISSN IETDA; ISSN 0018-9383
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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42 ENGINEERING
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75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
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99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
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AUTOMATION
BOILING
CLOSED-LOOP CONTROL
COMPUTERS
CONTROL
CONTROL EQUIPMENT
COOLING
CRYOSTATS
DATA
DESIGN
DIGITAL COMPUTERS
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY TRANSFER
EQUIPMENT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HEAT TRANSFER
INFORMATION
LOW TEMPERATURE
MOS TRANSISTORS
NITROGEN
NONMETALS
NUCLEATE BOILING
NUMERICAL DATA
PERFORMANCE
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
REFRIGERATION
RELIABILITY
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SUPERCOMPUTERS
THERMOSTATS
TRANSISTORS