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Hardware Hacking It's funny. Laugh.

Cyrix Hotplate Howto 172

Posted by CmdrTaco from the because-you-can dept.
fimbulvetr writes "Looking to put those old processors to work? Tired of catching flack for having hardware, but no use for it? Worry no more! Doc from rabidhardware.com shows us how to employ 7 Cyrix processors to build a spectacular cooking device. Cooking instructions not included. Void where prohibited."
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Cyrix Hotplate Howto More

Cyrix Hotplate Howto

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  • Finally, a reason to use Cyrix (Score:5, Funny)

    by Willeh ( 768540 ) <rwillem@xs4all.nl> on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:38AM (#11744760)
    While Intel recently made this impossible via their Speedstep technology, Cyrix is right on the bleeding edge of multitaskable (computing/ cooking) CPU's. For this, i salute them.

    • This reminds me (Score:3, Interesting)

      by 2names ( 531755 )
      of some hardware we cooked with in the Army circa 1990...

      5 cavity HV Klystron (satellite transmitter)

      TSSP unit (shouldn't have gotten that hot, but did)

      Hang some grub in front of the dish and crank 'er up to 7200 watts

      Manifold of a diesel generator (obviously)

      Ah, those were the days...

      • Re:This reminds me (Score:4, Funny)

        by DaChesserCat ( 594136 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @12:51PM (#11746212) Journal
        Air Force Cookware, circa 1994 (I was stationed in the Republic of Korea, at the time):
        • floodlights in the hardened shelters; use a couple feet of safety wire and you could make something which would hold your MRE main course right in front of the glass
        • exhaust from a dash 60 (turbine-powered generator and high-volume air compressor, mounted in a semi-mobile cart)
        • F110-GE-120 exhaust (engine in the F-16's at the base); you had to hold on to that MRE packet REAL tight. The launch routine for an F-16 tyically involved 10-20 minutes of standing around while the pilot ran through their checks, with the engine running. No, the afterburner isn't used in this, but you can still hold an MRE packet up in the jet exhaust and get it warm enough to be edible within about 60 seconds. If you accidentally let go of it, well, you could go find it in the fence after the plane finally left.

      • Re:This reminds me (Score:4, Funny)

        by Idarubicin ( 579475 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @01:03PM (#11746396) Journal
        5 cavity HV Klystron (satellite transmitter)
        Hang some grub in front of the dish and crank 'er up to 7200 watts

        The rhythmic thumping noise you hear is an FCC compliance officer banging his head on his desk.

        • The rhythmic thumping noise you hear is an FCC compliance officer banging his head on his desk.

          THAT was funny.

  • Umm (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheKidWho ( 705796 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:38AM (#11744762)
    Wouldnt a Pentium 4 be better for this?

  • Cool idea but... (Score:4, Funny)

    by lecithin ( 745575 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:38AM (#11744767)
    "To do this we'll be using 7 6x86 Cyrix CPUs ranging from 100mhz to 150mhz, dissipating an upwards of 20+ watts each. All chips will be supplied with 5v regardless of their original requirements, which I imagine will also improve the thermal output."

    Wouldn't this void the warranty?

  • Recipe for cooking with Cyrix (Score:5, Funny)

    by miracle69 ( 34841 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:39AM (#11744775)
    1) Host server on Cyrix processor.
    2) Post on Slashdot.
    3) Watch food get cooked.

  • Link dead... (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Atrax ( 249401 )
    ... possibly just me but for now it looks like the fabled slashdot effect is in early action here

  • I call shenanigans! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by YankeeInExile ( 577704 ) * on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:39AM (#11744778) Homepage Journal

    How can a single 7805 rated for a maximum Icc of 1A provide the couple dozen amperes to provide even the output equivalent to an Easy-bake oven?

    My inner child just got the shit kicked out of him by my inner skeptic who says, This should have waited a few weeks for 1 April

    • Yes, that is ridiculous. The only way that could have worked is if the 7805 was defective and it was letting 12V through.

      I also don't understand why they used a 5V regulator when the power supply has a regulated 5V output.

      • Re:I call shenanigans! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by YankeeInExile ( 577704 ) * on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:59AM (#11745009) Homepage Journal

        ...indeed. In the time since my previous posting, I went and looked at the hotplate I have in my kitchen, and it dissipates 850W ... So, even if they could configure a handful of CPUs (with no clock feeding them) as heaters, it would take 42 of them to give the equivalent to a pretty pathetic cooking appliance.

        I re-assert: This article is 100% unadulterated bullshit

        • Re:I call shenanigans! (Score:3, Informative)

          by iroll ( 717924 )
          If you want confirmation, just go read his article on lapping [rabidhardware.net] and you'll see that yes, it is tongue-firmly-in-cheek. The silly staged 'cooking' pictures also could have clued you in ;)

          (I'm not an electrical engineer and I caught this one...)
      • Do the math people. In a DC circuit Volts times Amps = watts. A 7805 is a 1 Amp 5 Volt regulator. They are trying to run several 20 Watt IC's? I hate to be a antagonist, but it is not going to work.
        • The 7805 itself may have an internal 1A limit but 1A is plenty for driving a current-boost transistor, at which point the limiting factor becomes pass transistor heatsinking.

          1- connect ~5 ohms resistor between reg-In and power source
          2- connect PNP base to the regulator-resistor node
          3- connect PNP collector to regulator output
          4- connect PNP emitter to power source

          At very low loads, the transistor's base remains reverse-biased so the regulator provides all load current but beyond 200mA, the load's bulk migr

          • Well, someone else has pointed out that the entire site is bogus parody, and we've all got fishhooks in our mouths.

            None of their stuff comes close to the article in the April 1982 (1983?) "Doctor Kilobyte's Personal Popular Recreational Micro Computer World Journal" (Creative Computing's superfamous parody edition) on adding a bolt-on turbocharger to your PDP 11/34.

      • Re:I call shenanigans! (Score:3, Interesting)

        by phasm42 ( 588479 )
        Yeah, the article talks about how it was added to regulate the amperage available, which is not what a 7805 does. They noted it was rated for 1A output, so that means it could normally put out a whopping 5W of power. Plus, since they are going from 12V to 5V, they are eating 7V in the regulator, which works out to 7W @ 1A, so this means that the regulator is dissipating more power than the load it supplies. So I agree, either the 7805 was defective, or the article was BS.
    • IF he was serious about heat generation he would have used a straight wirewound dropper resistor, diode bridge and capacitor - throw in a 2N3055 power transistor shunt circuit and you'd have a nice little spoon warmer!
    • Yeah, I'm not sure how they really got it to work either, but you can put more power through a 7805 if you include a beefy enough heat sink, which allegedly they did. However, 120Watts? That sounds like a bit much. My guess is that he didn't REALLY get 120 watts through, but enough current to warm up the chips nicely. As you know, it only takes one CPU to fry an egg.

      • As you know, it only takes one CPU to fry an egg.
        No, I do not know that, nor do I believe it.

      • Re:I call shenanigans! (Score:5, Informative)

        by Technician ( 215283 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @11:09AM (#11745105)
        My guess is that he didn't REALLY get 120 watts through, but enough current to warm up the chips nicely.

        From a quick Google search on one of these...

        USM 7805 is a 3-terminal positive voltage regulator designed with built in internal current limiting, thermal shutdown and safe-area compensation for maximum flexibility and safety . With adequate heat sinking provided, USM 7805 can deliver up to 1.5A output current.

        I'm with you on your conclusion. The chip at current limiting gives you about 7.5 Watts, not 120 Watts or anything close. I have a night light for the kids that put out the same heat he could have gotten.

        • {snip}
          I'm with you on your conclusion. The chip at current limiting gives you about 7.5 Watts, not 120 Watts or anything close. I have a night light for the kids that put out the same heat he could have gotten.
          {/snip}

          And I got a easy-bake oven that uses a 100 watt lamp that will do the same.

          http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/ezbake.shtml

          On a side note, me and my fellow geeks here in the office debated about how to build a microwave oven into a case. But that got shot full of holes due to the energy req

      • Re:I call shenanigans! (Score:5, Informative)

        by YankeeInExile ( 577704 ) * on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @11:26AM (#11745297) Homepage Journal

        Well, let me backpedal a bit on my flat denial.

        I can imagine designing a system that used a 20W heater to heat a very large mass of metal to a suitable temperature to fry an egg, with sufficient heat capacity to keep that temperature throughout the cooking of the egg

        Now, assume a mass of copper (Specific Heat of 0.385 Joule/g/C)

        I just fried an egg, using my little hotplate. I used a deep-fry thermometer to measure the temperature of the oil at 135C near the middle of the cooking process (just before I turned the egg). From raw egg to breakfast was 3 minutes 30 seconds (plus or minus 15 ... It's difficult to juggle an egg a hotplate a fry pan and a stopwatch without setting the kitchen on fire!)

        So, I soaked 850 (power output of hot plate) watts into my breakfast for 210 seconds, or a total energy input of 178.5 kJ. So, how much copper do I need to heat to a 135, such that after sucking out 175,000 joules it will be about 120. Fifteen degree drop , 175000 joules, comes to about 30 kg of copper.

        To heat 30 kg of copper to that 135 in the first place (from an ambient of, let's say 25) will take 110 * 30000 * 38.5 equals 1.27 MJ.

        At twenty watts, a mere 17.6 hours, assuming your heater and the block of copper are in a perfectly insulated space. Putting it in the real world will make it take longer (in fact, probably an infinite amount of time because of radiation loss).

        Learn the difference between heat and temperature

        • Well, I am sure the article is tongue in cheek. THough I suspect that you might be able to do something with newer processors.

          However, unless you fry your egg on high (I don't), the energy requirements may be much lower. For example, I made an omelet today with my stove on Medium. I am guessing that the omelet was probably cooked to about 150F or 65C. Now, obviously the pan and burner would have been hotter than this, but somehow your measurements don't seem quite right to me.

          • Well, what you caught is that: Only a small fraction of the total energy from my hot plate went into my egg (And you're right -- it was kinda overcooked ... it's challenging to prepare breakfast and do thermodynamics in your head).

            The argument could be made that the CPU-powered-block-of-metal cooker would suffer similar inefficiencies, thus requiring the same amount of energy overkill ...

            Another error was a more serious procedural error: I started timing from cold-pan/cold-oil, not from hot-pan/hot-

    • Re:I call shenanigans! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ch-chuck ( 9622 )
      not only that, the processors are only getting power - won't they need a clock source (unless it's integrated) - you need transistors rapidly switching to generate the heat, unless he's just turned the entire die into a silicon resistor.
    • Not only that but the 7805 is going to be dissipating more power than all the cpus put together if it's being driven from 12V.
    • Personally I have ran a 7805 up to 3A current draw for about 1 hour.

      I had an insane amount of heat sink on it (ok 2 of them, one was bonded to the plastic face also) as well as using heat sink great from the military that has a higher heat transfer capabilities than arctic silver. (Ok my brother was an EE in the air force and I still have a small tub of this stuff.)

      did it get hot? you bet your butt. a finned heatsink rated for a gigantic switching transistor was not comfortable to touch, and I ran water
  • Just get a single P4 chip, no need for 7 individual cyrix chips... Intel is always thinking about people like me who don't want 7 things... I want 7 things in one... ;)

  • Cool (Score:2, Funny)

    by Fallus Shempus ( 793462 )
    ... er ....

  • First menu will be... (Score:5, Funny)

    by danormsby ( 529805 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:39AM (#11744786) Homepage
    Fish and chips anyone?

  • 7 Cyrixes, 20+ Watts each (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:40AM (#11744792) Homepage
    OK, 7 processors * 20 Watts each = 140 Watts. Isn't that about the thermal envelope of a P4? Don't the top of the line P4EEs make 165 Watts?

    That said, an interesting use of old CPUs. I wouldn't think that they would be hot enough, but I guess it makes sense. I heard that when the Intel guys finished designing the origional Pentium, someone gave the head designer a hotplate as a gift because the hotplate had the same thermal dissapation (W/cm^2) as the Pentium.

    That said, the hack would have been more impressive if the processors were running Seti@Home at the time. But then it would be hard to get them all right next to eachother like that.

    • Yes, but the main issue is spreading the heat over the area of the pan and avoiding hotspots. With one P4, you'd have one spot where heat was being introduced to the pan. With seven, you have more points of contact. This is why you'll see professional chefs prefer gas stoves instead of electric because flame heats a large area while the electric typically heats where the pan touches the element, which may only be a few spots if the pan and/or the element aren't perfectly flat.
  • 7 cyrix procesor or for those with a bit more cash, a single p4 presscot , incidently was the webserver running on a cyrix as it apears to be out for the count so heres a coral cach link on nyud http://www.rabidhardware.net/index.php?id=44.nyud. net:8090 [rabidhardware.net]
  • "All chips will be supplied with 5v regardless of their original requirements, which I imagine will also improve the thermal output. "

  • article text.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:43AM (#11744832)
    From the printable version: http://www.rabidhardware.net/index.php?id=44&print able=yes
    Welcome to the 21st century. The age of conservation, renewable materials and Jolene Blalock. As we're urged to replace our gaming equipment on a weekly basis, many tonnes of silicon, lead, and copies of Daikatana make it into our planet's landfills.
    At RabidHardware we strive to be environmentally sound (so says our lawyers). By re-using hardware we would have so hastily discarded in our youth, we can now give our dear Earth a new lease on life. Seeing how the Great White North is in the middle of one of the more colder winters as of late, and I'm on a budget (read: cheap bastard), I figure we could get two birds stoned at once with this latest project: A CPU-driven hotplate.
    Enter the intrepid Cyrix(tm) Central Processing Unit. Instead of piling the landfills with these retired, non-biodegradable heathens (or donating them to NASA for shuttle heat shielding), we may as well put em to further use. So what do we do instead you ask? Well, there is only one thing a Cyrix CPU does well besides reflecting heat, and that is producing it.
    To do this we'll be using 7 6x86 Cyrix CPUs ranging from 100mhz to 150mhz, dissipating an upwards of 20+ watts each. All chips will be supplied with 5v regardless of their original requirements, which I imagine will also improve the thermal output.
    These be my materials:
    - 7 Cyrix CPUs (1x PR120, 4x PR166s, 2x PR200s)
    - Lexan sheet for CPU base
    - aluminum/copper/cookie sheet for hotplate surface
    - AT 250W power supply
    - wire, solder, fixin's
    - 7805 Voltage Regulator

    After a quick look at this handy chart, I've decided to use pins A7 (core voltage) and B10 (ground) for our electrical connections.
    Step 1 - Processors
    First off, clean up the procs in question, as stuff like ancient heatsink compound or warranty stickers (that haven't already burned off of course) will impede heat transfer!
    Most important thing we need to do is supply power to these little thermo-electric heaters of ours. All we need to do is run a 12v rail from the power supply into the voltage regulator (which will output +5v @ 1A) and connect the procs in parallel:
    I realize there may be a better way to do this but we don't have time for rational thought. After all, my bacon expires tomorrow and I am VERY hungry! I also realize we could just use the 5v rail directly off the power supply. The reason for the VRE though is to regulate the amperage available to our hotplate while adding an extra stop-gap to keep our high quality power supply from exploding (prematurely?). SAFETY FIRST!
    Feel free to remove the surrounding pins for easier soldering, sure as hell won't be needing them anymore!
    Step 2 - Goop
    Next off, we'll need to create our most excellent thermal interface. The Arctic Silver 3 which I've had in my toolkit for several years should do nicely, as it has a peak temperature of 180c. Feel free to don a piece of plastic or your favourite straight razor (preferably bloodless) to develop that sexy paper-thin layer of arctic goop, but I'm sort of in a rush.
    You may have noticed we've also attached a heatsink to the regulator. Unfortunately, as Thermaltake or Alpha haven't made performance VRE heatsinks (yet), I had to go with a generic brand. Don't worry though, we'll make up for the performance loss later.
    Once you've got your transfer medium installed, it's time to add the hotplate surface. I went with a generic piece of metal from a cookie sheet, but a aluminum or copper sheet would do better. I'm assuming you'll be lapping the side that the procs will be in contact with, right? Once it's ready, position your hotplate surface and press down to further spread around that silvery goodness.
    Now is probably as good a time as any to mention: As with any of my projects, make sure you have a fire extinguisher and bomb squad nearby. Again, SAFETY FIRST!
    At RabidHardware we're always in for any extra per

    • Re:article text.... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Technician ( 215283 )
      Thanks for the mirror.

      I'm just wondering why he decided to cook on the chips. He should just cook on the linear voltage regulator. The voltage drop on the regulator going from 12 volts to 5 is 7 volts. It's a 1 amp regulator feeding the chips. It puts out 5 watts of power to the chips (if they don't overload the regulator and trip the current regulation) while the regulator is putting out 7 watts. Things will be warmer near the 7805. This is especialy true if the chip goes into current limiting (very
      • I was wondering the same thing: how was he going to get 20 Watts of power out of each chip when he was only supply 5 Volts at 1 Amp (ie, 5 Watts) - of course, that would only be for a single chip, with the parallel implementation he built it is much less than that.

        This has to be a "joke" - while in theory it would work if everything was connected properly, in actuality I bet it does nothing (just hooking up voltage isn't going to heat it up very much anyhow - you have to actually do something with the proce

        • Indeed. I didn't think about the current maths, but I was sure it was a spoof when I realized he wasn't even _clocking_ the chips. They're not going to draw nearly as much power that way. :)

  • Mirror (Score:4, Informative)

    by SmokeHalo ( 783772 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:45AM (#11744858)
    Here [mirrordot.org] is a mirror, as I have found the site to be /.'d already.
    • Awww, somehow I was hoping that they would be cooking directly on top of the processors. What a disappointment.

    • Re:Mirror (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Technician ( 215283 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @11:54AM (#11745603)
      Thanks for the mirror with good photos that shows off the hoax very nicely.

      Hoax??

      Yes.. Here are the facts some of which are taken from the photos.

      In a DC series circuit the current is equal in all parts.

      In a DC circuit Volts * Amps = Watts.

      The 7805 regulator is a linear regulator, not a switching regulator.

      The current for the chips goes from a 12 volt supply through the 5 volt regulator to the chips.

      The regulator drops 7 volts (from 12 to 5) while the chips get 5 volts.

      The current the chips draw goes through the regulator and at about the same current. (the regulator uses some current ot operate)

      From that the regulator has to dump more heat than the chips! To cook the eggs and bacon on the chips, the regulator (without a large heatsink in the photo) would have fried it's own crater in the table top as it would have put out more heat than the chips.

      Since a 7805 is current regulated and thermaly protected, I doubt the chips got more than 7 watts. Every try cooking bacon on a 7 watt night light? It's about the same heat as his hotplate but better concentrated to a small area. A night light would have cooked the bacon better. Even then, it would not be done enough to eat safely.

      Don't be fooled. The eggs and bacon was cooked on a regular stove, not the chips.

      The logo for the article should have been the foot. Then I would have laughed instead of picking the fraud apart. ;-)
  • I've got a box full of old processors and other hardware, maybe i'll build myself one of these.

  • Google's cache (Score:1, Informative)

    by stil__maar ( 848945 )
    Google is your friend. http://64.233.183.104/search?hl=nl&q=cache%3Ahttp% 3A%2F%2Fwww.rabidhardware.net%2Findex.php%3Fid%3D4 4&btnG=Zoeken&lr=

  • BOFH (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sounds like a chapter from the BOFH cook-book.

  • A wonderful insult to Cyrix (Score:3, Funny)

    by British ( 51765 ) <british1500@gmail.com> on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:50AM (#11744907) Homepage Journal
    You know you have failed in the processor market when people are cooking up ideas to use your processors to cook food instead of crunch numbers.

  • Since article is /. ed (Score:5, Funny)

    by CmdrGravy ( 645153 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @10:55AM (#11744964) Homepage
    To make a simple processor BBQ just get a big box of old processors, a can of petrol and a metal brazier.

    Put the chips and the petrol in the brazier, set it on fire and cook stuff on top. If the flames begin to die down add more wood, chips ( if you have them ) or any other junk to sustain the heating reaction.
  • How long until someone uses a bunch of TBirds to make a coffee roaster?

    • I have a 1.3 GHz TBird that the old CPU cooler died with, so I replaced it with an XP cooler. I had to mount it off-center, because of the mobo capicitors getting in the way. So it didn't connect with my CPU correctly. It went from room temperature to 80 C in about 20 seconds sitting on the bios screen.

  • Will my food cook faster if I use processors that support MMX, SSE or 3DNow!?
    • No, but your fowl will be more colorful and musical with MMX, folding layers will be easier with SSE and with 3DNOW! your souflées will reach new horizontal highs and have incredible depth.
  • is to find a way to hardness the latent computer proscessing power of the George Forman Grill. You know it exisits.
    • Now what we really need is to find a way to hardness the latent computer proscessing power of the George Forman Grill. You know it exisits.

      Ah, but will it run Linux? (^_-)

      Now, perhaps it might not run on that, but there must be a number of household items with moderate processing power that *could* run some hacked-about form of Linux.

      Question is, which is the least "appropriate" appliance that Linux has been run successfully on? For example digital TV set-top box? Microwave oven? Toaster?
      • "Question is, which is the least "appropriate" appliance that Linux has been run successfully on? For example digital TV set-top box? Microwave oven? Toaster?"

        bah!! No imagination!! Think outside the box! Like coffee maker!

        hair dryer!

        Electric razor!

        Blender!

        garage door opener!

        electric can opener or toothbrush!

        automatic cat litter box! [littermaid.com]

        mod me up or down i dont care my karma's so high i see stars

        • bah!! No imagination!! Think outside the box!

          The use of the expression "think outside the box" is one of the most box-constrained uses of language *ever*.

          It reminds me of tedious management ****s who are too damn stupid to see the irony of this.

          So there :-P
  • Nothing like a tasty, l33t breakfast... and it's nutrutious, too! (well, more nutritious than the usual l33t f00ds, anyhow)

  • Fire for food (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Monkey ( 795756 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @11:12AM (#11745131)
    Ok, that is cool. But as I am stuck with an electric stove at home I have a bit of a rant to add.

    Electric coils don't heat evenly, and I always get nasty hot spots when cooking. (Yum, burnt on the left side, raw on the right)

    To get around this nasty problem I use my cast-iron for almost everything I cook. It's big and heavy and disperses the heat better than anything else I own. If you don't have one, a 12" cast iron skillet is one of the best pan investments you can make.

  • Nothing beats... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Quiet_Desperation ( 858215 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @11:24AM (#11745274)
    ...cooking with gas.

    Electric stoves are for amateurs.

    Just like electric windings are for armatures.

    Do you see?

  • Eggs XP (Score:3, Informative)

    by Rufus211 ( 221883 ) <rufus-slashdot@@@hackish...org> on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @11:28AM (#11745319) Homepage
    I personally preffer to fry my eggs on an Athlon XP [ncku.edu.tw]. Just make sure it's an original Athlon as new ones run too damn cool.
  • altough I say - shit this. Pentium 4 with it's 115W of heat output would be far better suited for this.

    1:0 Intel to Cyrix

  • Truth in computing (Score:3, Funny)

    by Gridpoet ( 634171 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @11:34AM (#11745387)
    well...on the upside... now if someone comes into your room and asks you all sarcastic "are you cooking somthing in here or what?" you can say
    "YES!"

  • Missing sentence (Score:4, Funny)

    by lahvak ( 69490 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @11:36AM (#11745403) Homepage Journal
    The sentence that is often missing in articles like this one is "Before proceeding further, make sure you have a back-up copy of your house".
  • I think they kept a couple of Cyrixs aside to use in their server.
  • Here is post of mine [slashdot.org] on Slashdot where I mentioned that a CPU hotplate would be cool.

    Just for future reference if we are going to make my posts come true - I'd like a Porsche or Paris Hilton.

    Thanks.

  • hard to believe (Score:3, Informative)

    by VAXman ( 96870 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @11:51AM (#11745564)
    I have a hard time believing this. What are the processors actually doing? If you simply power up processors without being connected to chipset or memory they won't do a whole lot. Most likely it would get through reset (assuming reset doesn't do any chipset queries, etc.), then put out a Code Fetch for the reset vector, which would never come back, then it would go into some sort of shutdown state. So I find it hard to believe that just powering up processors would produce that much heat. There are specific workloads which could be used to maximize power throughput, but obviously they are not at work here.
  • This article is bullshit. He's putting out 5 watts. You absolutely cannot cook an egg or bacon on 5 watts. That's like trying to cook the egg by rubbing a piece of rough cloth over the shell really fast.

    Why was this not obvious to the OP and the mods? Jeezus what a waste of bandwidth.

    -rsw

  • A waste - Cyrix VALUABLE for pinball (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Krellan ( 107440 ) <(moc.nallerk) (ta) (nallerk)> on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @02:58PM (#11747861) Homepage Journal
    Bad idea to just burn up old Cyrix chips: if you have a Cyrix motherboard of just the right make and model, you can flip it on Ebay as it will be quite valuable.

    The reason is that Williams Pinball made their final two pinball machines with Cyrix motherboards, before going out of business in 1999: "Revenge From Mars [pinballzone.com]" and "Star Wars Episode I [pinballzone.com]".

    Because they went out of business before completing their plans to make the game software more portable to newer motherboards, these pinball machines work ONLY with these certain Cyrix motherboards!

    The motherboard is Cyrix [pinball2000.de] MediaGX [marvin3m.com], BAT form factor, with the CX5520 bridge. Not CX5510, and not CX5530. CPU speed should be 233 Mhz (33x7), but 266 and 200 are also rumoured to work.

    A motherboard that matches this description is quite rare these days, and sells for $300 or more -- ironically, twice the price [emtel.com] of that motherboard when it was new!

    So, if you have an old Cyrix motherboard sitting around, it just might be a gold mine, think of that before melting those chips onto a hotplate....

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