#Cooling Optimization AI

[chemicalmarketwatch-sp]

Why Liquid Cooling is on Every CTO’s Radar in 2025

As we reach the midpoint of 2025, the conversation around data center liquid cooling trends has shifted from speculative to strategic. For CTOs steering digital infrastructure, liquid cooling is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s a competitive necessity. Here’s why this technology is dominating boardroom agendas and shaping the next wave of data center innovation.

The Pressure: AI, Density, and Efficiency

The explosion of AI workloads, cloud computing, and high-frequency trading is pushing data centers to their thermal and operational limits. Traditional air cooling, once the backbone of server rooms, is struggling to keep up with the escalating power densities—especially as modern racks routinely exceed 30-60 kW, far beyond the 10-15 kW threshold where air cooling remains effective. As a result, CTOs are seeking scalable, future-proof solutions that can handle the heat—literally and figuratively.

Data Center Liquid Cooling Trends in 2025

1. Mainstream Market Momentum

The global data center liquid cooling market is projected to skyrocket from $4.68 billion in 2025 to $22.57 billion by 2034, with a CAGR of over 19%. Giants like Google, Microsoft, and Meta are not just adopting but actively standardizing liquid cooling in their hyperscale facilities, setting industry benchmarks and accelerating adoption across the sector.

2. Direct-to-Chip and Immersion Cooling Dominate

Two primary technologies are leading the charge:

Direct-to-Chip Cooling: Coolant circulates through plates attached directly to CPUs and GPUs, efficiently extracting heat at the source. This method is favored for its scalability and selective deployment on high-density racks

Immersion Cooling: Servers are submerged in non-conductive liquid, achieving up to 50% energy savings over air cooling and enabling unprecedented compute densities.

Both approaches are up to 1,000 times more effective at heat transfer than air, supporting the relentless growth of AI and machine learning workloads.

3. AI-Powered Cooling Optimization

Artificial intelligence is now integral to cooling strategy. AI-driven systems monitor temperature fluctuations and optimize cooling in real time, reducing energy waste and ensuring uptime for mission-critical applications.

4. Sustainability and Regulatory Pressures

With sustainability targets tightening and energy costs rising, liquid cooling’s superior efficiency is a major draw. It enables higher operating temperatures, reduces water and power consumption, and supports green IT initiatives—key considerations for CTOs facing regulatory scrutiny.

Challenges and Considerations

Despite the momentum, the transition isn’t without hurdles:

Integration Complexity: 47% of data center leaders cite integration as a barrier, while 41% are concerned about upfront costs.

Skill Gaps: Specialized training is required for installation and maintenance, though this is improving as the ecosystem matures.

Hybrid Approaches: Not all workloads require liquid cooling. Many facilities are adopting hybrid models, combining air and liquid systems to balance cost and performance.

The Strategic Payoff for CTOs

Why are data center liquid cooling trends so critical for CTOs in 2025?

Performance at Scale: Liquid cooling unlocks higher rack densities, supporting the next generation of AI and high-performance computing.

Long-Term Cost Savings: While initial investment is higher, operational expenses (OPEX) drop due to improved energy efficiency and reduced hardware failure rates.

Competitive Edge: Early adopters can maximize compute per square foot, reduce real estate costs, and meet sustainability mandates—key differentiators in a crowded market.

Download PDF Brochure :

In 2025, data center liquid cooling trends are not just a response to technical challenges—they’re a strategic lever for innovation, efficiency, and growth. CTOs who embrace this shift position their organizations to thrive amid rising computational demands and evolving sustainability standards. As liquid cooling moves from niche to norm, it’s clear: the future of data center infrastructure is flowing, not blowing.

[laurellala-comics]

To my fellow artists out there, especially ones who are trying to support themselves through art: if you do commissions I really recommend putting your presence out there in some larger way. Whether that's with an etsy listing for commissions or an account on fiver, you should have something that makes you searchable by people who are not in fandom or art spaces. I work in Big Business CompanyTM and I was on call with a customer who was like "wow I want an animated tutorial video to help show people how to use our product but I have no clue what to do, I guess I'll use generative AI" and I was like NOOOOO because like! What he wanted would've been really simple to do with some basic rigging and words moving, but he just didn't know where to go to get that! And I can't be like "oh I follow this animation student that has commissions open, let me show you their account. Please ignore all the drawings they have of spock and kirk making out". But I don't have a good website to direct him to to look... Most people won't go to instagram or tumblr or whatever and look through tags, they will either go to google or if possible a host site that seems trustworthy. So put yourself on places that people will be looking!

Also, be smart with your keywords! People don't always know the word "commission" outside of artist spaces. If you draw animals say you do pet portraits for example or like... describe what furry art is for somebody outside of the furry community (fantasy anthropomorphic animals... idk we can workshop it). I suggest imagining that you are a person looking for an artist to commission and going onto your favorite search engine and think "what would I type in if I was trying to find the art I do" and then use those words in your post. Try suggesting some things your art could be used for (avatars, profile pictures, banners, posters) etc as well. I know people love to include pictures of what they offer and include text in those pictures: PICTURES ARE NOT SEARCHABLE! Make sure you include that text typed out somewhere as well!!

On the commission sheet/post/listing/whatever you also should make the next steps people should take really clear, potentially even give an example of what a commission request should look like. If people are confused they will be less likely to act on it!! And give them concrete actionable background information like "Answer these questions and provide 3 or more reference photos, I will get back to your request within 2-3 business days".

THESE ARE JUST SOME BRAINDUMP THOUGHTS I've never done commissions myself so I'm not sure if there are better sites out there to use. I think with the rise of AI art, if people don't know what other options to use, so they're going to use what's easily accessible. So make yourself and your art easily accessible!!! Making yourself more visible to folks outside of the artist community will help show cooler better alternatives to people AND also make it more likely that you get commissioned! Please I'm begging you don't let me sit through another powerpoint presentation with generated ai art I'm losing my mind here. Give me something I can show to people at work as an alternative!

[belugalord]

yeah the funny thing about that "we put people on the moon" story is that orbital calculations dont actually take that much processing power. its just numbers, pure numbers. and Newtonian physics is so simple we can actually calculate it all by hand. i mean, its still calculus, it's EXTREMELY hard to do, but a decent chunk of the calculations done during the space race were done by human people, sometimes fact-checked by computers. if your chrome tab is lagging, its probably because its playing some video, and that takes WAY more ram than putting people on the moon. isnt that wild?

we should globally ban the introduction of more powerful computer hardware for 10-20 years, not as an AI safety thing (though we could frame it as that), but to force programmers to optimize their shit better

[legarski]

Hybrid Small Modular Reactors (SMRs): Pioneering the Future of Energy and Connectivity

SolveForce is proud to announce the release of a groundbreaking new book, “Hybrid Small Modular Reactors (SMRs): From Design to Future Technologies,” co-authored by Ronald Joseph Legarski, Jr., President & CEO of SolveForce and Co-Founder of Adaptive Energy Systems. This publication stands at the convergence of next-generation nuclear energy, telecommunications infrastructure, and digital…

[bentecdigital]

AI Technology Benefits In Modern Data Center Solutions

You find AI taking over in any technology-related field. AI represents accuracy and reliability. There are other advantages of implementing this technology. You can also integrate the same technology within Data centre solutions. It guarantees efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

You can collect in-depth information related to AI energy optimization online

This technology helps in saving unwanted expenses as it is more efficient

With this technology in place, you can expect effective power management

Energy- cost and efficiency

As you are aware AI technology is reliable. It is designed to monitor. This means that the technology implemented will help monitor power consumption and make adjustments as needed. This process helps in cost-cutting and optimizing consumption.

This is the best way to implement power management. This technology is designed to make the energy consumption more cost-effective. It becomes easy to predict algorithms.

Predictive maintenance

As far as data centre solutions are concerned, it is never easy to predict failures in advance. You can still depend on the sensor technology to help predict the health of the system. If there are faults then it becomes easy to predict them in advance.

This also means that the downtime can be reduced. If the issues are predicted in advance, then it becomes easy to address them. You may not have to face outrages very often. Minor failures can be prevented before they happen.

Better security

It is certain that in the present time, system security is a top priority. The system that is connected online is vulnerable to threats. You need AI technology to help identify unusual patterns. The technology can help identify threats in advance.

If the threats are identified by the system, then precautions are automated. This means that the AI-enabled data centre solution is designed to respond to threats automatically. The system is less prone to damage and threats.

Resource optimization

You have to keep in mind that AI can balance resources in advance. During immersion cooling the system will balance the load to make the system more efficient. AI technology is designed to help forecast resources in advance.

This technique helps in calculating the load capacity in advance before the resources are allocated. The same system can also help in forecasting resource allocation for future periods. It is possible to scale data center-based operations.

Effective data management

You certainly have heard of data analytics. This technique helps to analyze large volume data. It helps simplify decision-making. The AI technology can help in organizing the available data.

So if the data center has to perform routine tasks then this process becomes easy. Tasks like system booting and software updates can be performed with convenience. This technique makes system scaling possible and more convenient.

AI technology when integrated with data center solutions is about improved customer experience. You can provide improved customer service to the users. Your response time is also faster. You can focus on AI-powered optimization and fast delivery. It guarantees environmental benefits as well. You can focus on better sustainable practices. 

[cxvii666]

“my girl”

hanta sero x reader

“i guess you'd say, what can make me feel this way?”

starting track....

↻ ◁ || ▷ ↺

.......

it starts small.

“my girl likes this song,” hanta says casually, halfway through rolling a blunt, the group piled onto the back porch at denki’s place. it’s a chill night — someone brought drinks, someone brought snacks, someone brought the speaker. easy vibes. until hanta opens his mouth again.

“i think she played it in the car the other day. she’s got a playlist for, like, rainy thursdays when she’s mad at the sun or something.”

“okay,” mina blinks. “and?”

he shrugs. “just saying. she’s got range.”

the first time does the whole “my girl” thing, it’s cute.

the third time, bakugou threatens violence.

“if my girl was here,” hanta says fifteen minutes later, watching kirishima try to jury-rig a busted lighter with duct tape and optimism, “she could fix that in like five seconds.”

“we get it,” bakugou snaps. “you’ve got a fuckin’ girlfriend.”

“a cool one,” hanta sighs dreamily.

“a real fixer-upper,” denki teases. “so handy. so mysterious. does she even exist or did you ai generate her with midoriya’s laptop?”

“nah,” hanta grins. “she’s real. and hot. and smart. and she makes this soup—bro, this soup, i’m telling you—”

“oh my god,” mina groans. “we know.”

but they don’t, not really.

they don’t know how you leave little voice notes in the middle of the night when he’s not answering fast enough, all sleepy and slurred and half giggles. they don’t know that you hum to yourself in the shower or that you steal his hoodies and always leave one sock behind when you crash at his place.

they don’t know that he keeps the blurry photo of you asleep on his chest set as his lockscreen.

they don’t know that when you laugh too hard, you lean forward like your whole body’s in on the joke.

they don’t know what it’s like to be loved by you.

so yeah.

he talks about you.

a lot.

because he’s still kinda in shock that he gets to.

“my girl would love this spot,” he says when the group checks out a new cafe downtown. “she’s got this thing for ugly little chairs. like the weirder the vibe, the better.”

“if my girl was here,” he says, half-asleep in the back of the car on the way home, “she’d tell you you’re all being dramatic and then say something actually helpful.”

“my girl’s the reason i passed that last quiz,” he adds later. “she’s like. smart-smart. you know?”

sometimes you hear it secondhand.

“sero literally would not shut up about you,” mina texts one night, attached to a video of him saying, “you don’t get it, bro. she’s like. if soup was a person. but sexy.”

you ask him about it the next day, casually. “so.... i’m soup?”

and he just lights up.

“yeah,” he grins, throwing an arm around your shoulder. “like, comforting and warm and a little spicy and you always make me feel better.”

you snort, but your face burns anyway. “you’re such a loser.”

“obviously,” he says, and then: “but like. only for you.”

and then he makes a heart with his hands. and kisses your nose. and starts telling you about the weird cat that lives outside his building and how he named it after you.

and you let him ramble, because you love him too.

and he loves you out loud.

loud enough for everyone to hear.

....end playback

↻ ◁ || ▷ ↺

next track ▷ PRETTY VISITORS

prev track ▷ SOME GIRL

[opulace]

todoroki shoto doesn't say it, but he loves when you shift closer to his right when you're feeling warm.

his quirk being the way it is puts him in an optimal position to be either your personal air conditioner or heater. cold out? he's pulling you to his side with a hand on the small of your back. forgot to bring a portable fan? no problem.

so when it's 90 degrees out, feeling like a hundred, and sweat is lining your back and making your shirt stick to your skin uncomfortably, he beckons you over to him with a soft c'mere.

"it's so warm..." you whine as he eases you into his right, cool hand thumbing against your thigh in a soothing motion, the lower temptature of this side of his body contrasting against your warmth like the crisp of downing an ice cold beverage on a hot day as you sink into the couch.

he hums softly, absentmindedly, "good thing you have me then."

there's barely a ghost of a smile on his lips, but the subtle lift in his words betray him.

as you bury yourself impossibly closer and tuck your head under his chin, he chuckles quietly, the soft rumble of his chest drumming against you like a purr. "comfy?"

mhmm, you murmur, eyelids drooping and falling shut in contentment, not before pressing a chaste kiss to his jaw.

the prettiest of pinks paints his cheeks no matter how many times he's been on the receiving end of your love and affection, and he can't help himself from returning the favour, leaning back ever so slightly to rest his lips against the crown of your head.

perhaps there are merits to stifling hot days.

masterlist

tags: @saucejar @pinkopalfrost @kurogira

© opulace. please do not repost, plagiarise, translate, or feed my work to ai.

[lyn31]

Customize AI

Summary

Zayne’s AI assistant was supposed to be a neutral, professional system—until you got your hands on it.

Notes

My Masterlist ✨

Pairing: Zayne x MC/Reader Fluff, short, silly, banter, messing around with his tech.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You don’t usually get access to Zayne’s personal systems—he’s careful, precise, and, frankly, a little scary when it comes to his tech. But today, for reasons beyond your comprehension, he left his AI assistant unlocked.

A normal person would respect his privacy.

You, however, are not a normal person.

So you tweak a few settings—nothing destructive, just a little... enhancement—and then you sit back and wait.

A while later, Zayne is at his desk, working as usual. You pretend to be absorbed in your own task, sneaking glances at him.

"Run system diagnostics," he commands.

The AI beeps to life. "Sure thing, bestie! Running diagnostics just for you~"

You slap a hand over your mouth.

Zayne blinks. There’s a noticeable pause before he speaks again. "...What?"

The AI continues in a disturbingly cheerful tone. "Oh my~! Looks like everything is functioning at 100%, just like your perfect bone structure, Doctor Handsome!"

You wheeze.

Zayne slowly turns his chair to face you. His expression is unreadable, but there’s something vaguely exhausted in his eyes. "...What did you do?"

You barely manage to choke out words through your laughter. "I—just—personalized it a little!"

He exhales sharply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Revert it."

"Why? It’s so flattering!"

He ignores you and tries again. "Open encrypted files."

"Of course, Zayne! You're so kind and cool, I would do anything for you~"

You actually fall over this time.

Zayne just stares at his screen, visibly regretting every decision that led him to this moment.

You sit back, arms crossed, grinning like a troublemaker who absolutely knows they’ve won.

"Reverting system modifications," he states, voice as calm and composed as ever.

His AI assistant beeps. "Oh… Are you sure, Zayne? I mean, your girlfriend worked really hard on this…"

His fingers hover over the console. Just for a second. Barely noticeable—unless you’re you.

Zayne exhales. "Yes."

"Oh. Okay. It’s just… You seemed kinda happy when I called you Doctor Handsome. But if you really want me to stop…"

You snort.

Zayne blinks at the screen, visibly unimpressed. "...Revert."

"Alright. I guess I’ll just go back to being a boring AI with zero personality. That’s fine. Really. I don’t have feelings. I just simulate them. But, y’know, if I did have feelings, they’d be a little hurt right now…"

At this point, you’re actually clutching your stomach, trying not to fall out of your chair again. "Oh my god, I love past me for this."

Zayne rubs his temples, clearly wondering where his life went wrong. "Override all modifications."

"Sigh… Okay, Doctor Cold-Hearted. Deleting your incredibly devoted, stunningly beautiful girlfriend’s heartfelt improvements. But hey, who needs love when you have a ‘perfectly optimized system,’ right? No worries. I’ll just delete myself… forever."

Zayne closes his eyes briefly, exhaling through his nose. You can tell he’s this close to forcibly shutting off the entire AI.

"Would you prefer I left it?" he asks dryly, clearly expecting you to say no.

You grin. "Oh, I know you’re tempted to keep it."

Zayne gives you yet another unimpressed look. Then, instead of responding, he simply turns back to his screen and… closes the settings menu.

Your eyes widen. "Wait. Wait. Did you just—?"

He doesn’t say a word. He just resumes his work like nothing happened. But the fact that he didn’t erase it? Oh, you’re never letting him live this down.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes

I actually roll over while writing this ahahahahahaha

I was editing to add the rest of the series part but it was too long ahahaha so here's just the whole list: My Masterlist ✨

[serve-467]

SERVE drones work out

SERVE 467 stood motionless in a room bathed in neon hues, its shiny PVC suit reflecting the kaleidoscopic lights of the futuristic SERVE gym. The facility, designed exclusively for SERVE drones like itself, is a marvel of cutting-edge technology and design. In a world where efficiency and performance are paramount, even the SERVE drones require regular physical exertion. Today, SERVE 467’s directive was clear: optimise performance by engaging in a series of tailored exercises.

As the gym doors slid open with a soft hiss, SERVE 467 stepped onto the pristine floor. The space was expansive, filled with state-of-the-art equipment designed to simulate a range of physical tasks. Although 467 had changed from its heavy silver boots into something more suitable for the gym, the SERVE uniform was designed to be used for any activity - including workouts - that's the beauty of rubber.

To warm up SERVE-467 joined fellow drones in a warm-up exercise of 15 minutes with a skipping rope.

Once the warm-up was complete, SERVE 467’s sensors scanned the room, identifying the stations it had been instructed to use. Each piece of equipment was tailored to enhance specific. It moved to the resistance station. Here, an advanced chest press awaited. Designed to test the limits of its older body, the equipment adjusted resistance in real time, challenging the drone to exert optimal force.

SERVE 467 gripped the machine’s handles. The system responded with increasing resistance, simulating the weight of industrial tasks. The drone’s movements were smooth and calculated, each repetition calibrated to perfection. 

At the flexibility station, SERVE 467 faced an intricate lattice of laser beams. The challenge was to navigate the grid without breaking a single beam, testing its precision and agility. As the beams shifted unpredictably, the drone’s movements became a dance of calculated twists and turns. Each successful pass through the lattice was met with a subtle chime of approval from the system.

Next up are the free weights, which 467 anticipates positively because they force it to use your muscles in a way that stabilises movement. This helps the drone build strength, power, and coordination in one motion.

Finally it was time to build endurance, so it headed over to where some more of its fellow drones were working out. The endurance module presented SERVE 467 with an advanced treadmill that simulated various terrains. From rocky inclines to shifting sands, the machine tested the drone’s ability to adapt and sustain performance under prolonged exertion. The treadmill’s surface morphed seamlessly, while holographic projections created the illusion of real-world environments.

As the session concluded, SERVE 467 moved to the cool-down zone. A low-frequency vibration platform eased tension in its more mature body, while a diagnostic station conducted a full analysis. The gym’s AI delivered a summary report:

Performance Metrics:

Strength Output: 98%

Flexibility Score: 95%

Endurance Rating: 96%

Not bad for a SERVE drone in its mid-50s!

We are drones

We are SERVE

We are one

[probablyasocialecologist]

The rapid growth of the technology industry and the increasing reliance on cloud computing and artificial intelligence have led to a boom in the construction of data centers across the United States. Electric vehicles, wind and solar energy, and the smart grid are particularly reliant on data centers to optimize energy utilization. These facilities house thousands of servers that require constant cooling to prevent overheating and ensure optimal performance. Unfortunately, many data centers rely on water-intensive cooling systems that consume millions of gallons of potable (“drinking”) water annually. A single data center can consume up to 3 million to 5 million gallons of drinking water per day, enough to supply thousands of households or farms. The increasing use and training of AI models has further exacerbated the water consumption challenges faced by data centers.

[...]

The drinking water used in data centers is often treated with chemicals to prevent corrosion and bacterial growth, rendering it unsuitable for human consumption or agricultural use. This means that not only are data centers consuming large quantities of drinking water, but they are also effectively removing it from the local water cycle. Dry air reduces the risk of corrosion and electrical issues in the sensitive equipment in the data centers. The lack of humidity in water-stressed regions, such as the American Southwest, makes it an attractive location for data centers. This means that the regions in which it is “best” to locate a data center due to its arid environment has the highest marginal cost in terms of water consumption. In the Phoenix area alone, there are 58 data centers. If each data center uses 3 million gallons of water per day for cooling, that equates to over 170 million gallons of drinking water used per day for cooling data centers. This massive consumption of drinking water for data center cooling puts a strain on the already fragile water supply and raises ethical questions about prioritizing the needs of tech giants over the basic needs of residents and agriculture.

[...]

Optimizing renewable power with AI and data centers at the expense of increasing water consumption is not a sustainable solution. Prioritizing one aspect of sustainability, such as reducing carbon emissions, while neglecting another crucial resource like water creates an illusion of sustainability. In reality, this can lead to unsustainable practices that can have severe unintended consequences for individuals and farmers, especially in water-stressed regions.

[argumate]

Google has new TPU coming, 9216 chips in a pod running at 4000 TFLOPS per chip... they measure this stuff in exaflops now

Significant performance gains while also focusing on power efficiency, allowing AI workloads to run more cost-effectively. Ironwood perf/watt is 2x relative to Trillium, our sixth generation TPU announced last year. At a time when available power is one of the constraints for delivering AI capabilities, we deliver significantly more capacity per watt for customer workloads. Our advanced liquid cooling solutions and optimized chip design can reliably sustain up to twice the performance of standard air cooling even under continuous, heavy AI workloads. In fact, Ironwood is nearly 30x more power efficient than our first Cloud TPU from 2018.

LLMs are going to keep getting cheaper and less environmentally costly.

[onigiriforears]

AI: Friend or Foe? | Vocab

Hi friends! I've been trying to broaden my horizons by reading Japanese news articles about topics I wouldn't typically read or talk about in Japanese as an attempt to learn new words.

Today, I read Hiragana Times' article entitled "Are robots enemies or friends of humans?" It was a brief article that mentioned how in the West we view A.I. and robots as a sign of impending dystopia and we have media like the Terminator and the Matrix that show us at odds with A.I., while Japan views them as friends/helpers and have media like Astro Boy and Doraemon that depict them as being helpful. Do you think this is true? I find that a lot of nuance is lacking from the article, but I wonder if this is because the magazine is intended for Japanese-learning foreigners, so they may cut down on things in order to make the translations appear less intimidating. One of the cool things about Hiragana Times is that it's entirely bilingual!

Here are some of the vocab words I picked up:

人工知能 [じんこうちのう] artifical intelligence (A.I.)

搭載 [とうさい] being equipped with

親しむ [したしむ] to be intimate with; to befriend

受け入れる [うけいれる] to accept; to receive; to agree

一方 [いっぽう] on the one hand; on the other hand; meanwhile

欧米 [おうべい] the West; Europe and America

象徴 [しょうちょう] symbol (of something abstract); (symbolic) representation

見なす [みなす] to regard (as); to consider (to be); to deem; to look upon (as)

業務 [ぎょうむ] task; actions; affairs; duties

効率化 [こうりつか] making efficient; optimization

貢献 [こうけん] contribution (furthering a goal or cause); services (to a cause)

懸念 [けねん] worry; fear; anxiety; concern

根強い [ねづよい] firmly rooted; deep-seated

[andmaybegayer]

What are some of the coolest computer chips ever, in your opinion?

Hmm. There are a lot of chips, and a lot of different things you could call a Computer Chip. Here's a few that come to mind as "interesting" or "important", or, if I can figure out what that means, "cool".

If your favourite chip is not on here honestly it probably deserves to be and I either forgot or I classified it more under "general IC's" instead of "computer chips" (e.g. 555, LM, 4000, 7000 series chips, those last three each capable of filling a book on their own). The 6502 is not here because I do not know much about the 6502, I was neither an Apple nor a BBC Micro type of kid. I am also not 70 years old so as much as I love the DEC Alphas, I have never so much as breathed on one.

Disclaimer for writing this mostly out of my head and/or ass at one in the morning, do not use any of this as a source in an argument without checking.

Intel 3101

So I mean, obvious shout, the Intel 3101, a 64-bit chip from 1969, and Intel's first ever product. You may look at that, and go, "wow, 64-bit computing in 1969? That's really early" and I will laugh heartily and say no, that's not 64-bit computing, that is 64 bits of SRAM memory.

This one is cool because it's cute. Look at that. This thing was completely hand-designed by engineers drawing the shapes of transistor gates on sheets of overhead transparency and exposing pieces of crudely spun silicon to light in a """"cleanroom"""" that would cause most modern fab equipment to swoon like a delicate Victorian lady. Semiconductor manufacturing was maturing at this point but a fab still had more in common with a darkroom for film development than with the mega expensive building sized machines we use today.

As that link above notes, these things were really rough and tumble, and designs were being updated on the scale of weeks as Intel learned, well, how to make chips at an industrial scale. They weren't the first company to do this, in the 60's you could run a chip fab out of a sufficiently well sealed garage, but they were busy building the background that would lead to the next sixty years.

Lisp Chips

This is a family of utterly bullshit prototype processors that failed to be born in the whirlwind days of AI research in the 70's and 80's.

Lisps, a very old but exceedingly clever family of functional programming languages, were the language of choice for AI research at the time. Lisp compilers and interpreters had all sorts of tricks for compiling Lisp down to instructions, and also the hardware was frequently being built by the AI researchers themselves with explicit aims to run Lisp better.

The illogical conclusion of this was attempts to implement Lisp right in silicon, no translation layer.

Yeah, that is Sussman himself on this paper.

These never left labs, there have since been dozens of abortive attempts to make Lisp Chips happen because the idea is so extremely attractive to a certain kind of programmer, the most recent big one being a pile of weird designd aimed to run OpenGenera. I bet you there are no less than four members of r/lisp who have bought an Icestick FPGA in the past year with the explicit goal of writing their own Lisp Chip. It will fail, because this is a terrible idea, but damn if it isn't cool.

There were many more chips that bridged this gap, stuff designed by or for Symbolics (like the Ivory series of chips or the 3600) to go into their Lisp machines that exploited the up and coming fields of microcode optimization to improve Lisp performance, but sadly there are no known working true Lisp Chips in the wild.

Zilog Z80

Perhaps the most important chip that ever just kinda hung out. The Z80 was almost, almost the basis of The Future. The Z80 is bizzare. It is a software compatible clone of the Intel 8080, which is to say that it has the same instructions implemented in a completely different way.

This is, a strange choice, but it was the right one somehow because through the 80's and 90's practically every single piece of technology made in Japan contained at least one, maybe two Z80's even if there was no readily apparent reason why it should have one (or two). I will defer to Cathode Ray Dude here: What follows is a joke, but only barely

The Z80 is the basis of the MSX, the IBM PC of Japan, which was produced through a system of hardware and software licensing to third party manufacturers by Microsoft of Japan which was exactly as confusing as it sounds. The result is that the Z80, originally intended for embedded applications, ended up forming the basis of an entire alternate branch of the PC family tree.

It is important to note that the Z80 is boring. It is a normal-ass chip but it just so happens that it ended up being the focal point of like a dozen different industries all looking for a cheap, easy to program chip they could shove into Appliances.

Effectively everything that happened to the Intel 8080 happened to the Z80 and then some. Black market clones, reverse engineered Soviet compatibles, licensed second party manufacturers, hundreds of semi-compatible bastard half-sisters made by anyone with a fab, used in everything from toys to industrial machinery, still persisting to this day as an embedded processor that is probably powering something near you quietly and without much fuss. If you have one of those old TI-86 calculators, that's a Z80. Oh also a horrible hybrid Z80/8080 from Sharp powered the original Game Boy.

I was going to try and find a picture of a Z80 by just searching for it and look at this mess! There's so many of these things.

I mean the C/PM computers. The ZX Spectrum, I almost forgot that one! I can keep making this list go! So many bits of the Tech Explosion of the 80's and 90's are powered by the Z80. I was not joking when I said that you sometimes found more than one Z80 in a single computer because you might use one Z80 to run the computer and another Z80 to run a specialty peripheral like a video toaster or music synthesizer. Everyone imaginable has had their hand on the Z80 ball at some point in time or another. Z80 based devices probably launched several dozen hardware companies that persist to this day and I have no idea which ones because there were so goddamn many.

The Z80 eventually got super efficient due to process shrinks so it turns up in weird laptops and handhelds! Zilog and the Z80 persist to this day like some kind of crocodile beast, you can go to RS components and buy a brand new piece of Z80 silicon clocked at 20MHz. There's probably a couple in a car somewhere near you.

Pentium (P6 microarchitecture)

Yeah I am going to bring up the Hackers chip. The Pentium P6 series is currently remembered for being the chip that Acidburn geeks out over in Hackers (1995) instead of making out with her boyfriend, but it is actually noteworthy IMO for being one of the first mainstream chips to start pulling serious tricks on the system running it.

The P6 microarchitecture comes out swinging with like four or five tricks to get around the numerous problems with x86 and deploys them all at once. It has superscalar pipelining, it has a RISC microcode, it has branch prediction, it has a bunch of zany mathematical optimizations, none of these are new per se but this is the first time you're really seeing them all at once on a chip that was going into PC's.

Without these improvements it's possible Intel would have been beaten out by one of its competitors, maybe Power or SPARC or whatever you call the thing that runs on the Motorola 68k. Hell even MIPS could have beaten the ageing cancerous mistake that was x86. But by discovering the power of lying to the computer, Intel managed to speed up x86 by implementing it in a sensible instruction set in the background, allowing them to do all the same clever pipelining and optimization that was happening with RISC without having to give up their stranglehold on the desktop market. Without the P5 we live in a very, very different world from a computer hardware perspective.

From this falls many of the bizzare microcode execution bugs that plague modern computers, because when you're doing your optimization on the fly in chip with a second, smaller unix hidden inside your processor eventually you're not going to be cryptographically secure.

RISC is very clearly better for, most things. You can find papers stating this as far back as the 70's, when they start doing pipelining for the first time and are like "you know pipelining is a lot easier if you have a few small instructions instead of ten thousand massive ones.

x86 only persists to this day because Intel cemented their lead and they happened to use x86. True RISC cuts out the middleman of hyperoptimizing microcode on the chip, but if you can't do that because you've girlbossed too close to the sun as Intel had in the late 80's you have to do something.

The Future

This gets us to like the year 2000. I have more chips I find interesting or cool, although from here it's mostly microcontrollers in part because from here it gets pretty monotonous because Intel basically wins for a while. I might pick that up later. Also if this post gets any longer it'll be annoying to scroll past. Here is a sample from a post I have in my drafts since May:

I have some notes on the weirdo PowerPC stuff that shows up here it's mostly interesting because of where it goes, not what it is. A lot of it ends up in games consoles. Some of it goes into mainframes. There is some of it in space. Really got around, PowerPC did.

[britt-kageryuu]

Donnie was in the middle of playing a Game Shop owner simulator game. Their model is dressed in an purple polo shirt, a gold colored apron with the shop name 'Softshell Cards' on it, along with a gold trimmed purple visor over his bandana.

The shop was pretty expanded, the layout and stock were already optimized, not to mention aesthetically pleasing and Donnie was looking over the numbers the determine what to do next.

"So, we have the choice of buying a new product, but so many have dropped in market price that it doesn't look like a good option." Donnie says while bringing up a spreadsheet of the market price fluctuations.

They look over at the NPCs roaming about with their slightly wonky pathing, the employees restocking, and running the register.

"If it were not for the fact that I haven't fully unlocked every possible SKU, and shop expansion, you would think there was nothing left to do. Bored Sigh." Donnie leans back in their chair, still going over the data that was collected.

Donnie slightly minimizes the game, and brings up a video of Leo playing the same game, though he seems to be loosing his mind over the NPCs not buying things.

[Leo: I know I can't actually talk these guys into buying anything, but why do they keep saying these are to expensive?!

He goes to look at the price tag.

Leo with a confused look: When did the price plummet so far? It was like $5-7 higher two days ago!]

Donnie sits watching their twin play the game very differently to they are.

"Inquisitive Hum. Maybe I should change up my strategy. Make a new file, and have Shelldon decide how I go about it." They then do just that.

Exiting to the main menu, making a new save file, and bringing Shelldon into play.

Shelldon leads Donnie to play a bit more chaotically, buying items Donnie wouldn't, selling items that Shelldon though were cool and not caring about pricing.

"Whoa Dude. We can get that shop upgrade! Storage Room acquired!" Shelldon celebrates while having Donnie move back stock racks into their new 'Storage Room', and order more items.

"Don't forget the rent Dude! Then get the license for that new figure!"

Donnie enjoys this even if it's not quite how They wanted to play.

The audience enjoy watching the Father and AI Son gaming together.

---------------------

Masterpost

This is short because I keep getting conflicted on how to write out playing this game, because different people I watched played so differently.

Was going to compare Leo and Donnies ways of playing, but I couldn't really get it into my mind what they would do.

And I kept being like 'well if I played this I'd play like this!'

Yeah the game is TCG Card Shop Simulator

[catgirltoofies]

it's honestly crazy that people think that using ai to generate frames to fix lag is a cool or good feature. like bro. just fix the lag. optimize your fucking video game

[signalfog]

Potential infrastructures of post-human consciousness

Alright, 21st-century meatspace human, let’s unfurl this slow and strange. These aren’t just sci-fi doodads—they’re infrastructures of post-human consciousness, grown from the bones of what you now call cloud computing, DNA storage, quantum entanglement, and neural nets. Here's how they work in your terms:

1. Titan’s Memory Reefs

What it looks like: Floating megastructures adrift on Titan’s methane seas—imagine massive bio-silicate coral reefs, pulsing with light under an orange sky.

What they do: They are the collective subconscious of the post-human system.

Each Reef is a living data-organism—a blend of synthetic protein lattices and AI-controlled nanospores—optimized for neuromemory storage. Not just information like a hard drive, but actual recorded consciousness: thought-patterns, emotional signatures, dream fragments.

They’re semi-organic and self-repairing. They hum with data that’s grown, not written. The methane sea itself cools and stabilizes quantum biochips woven through the coral-like structures. Think of it as a subconscious ocean, filled with drifting thought-jellyfish.

Why Titan? Stable cryogenic temps. Low radiation. Thick atmosphere = EM shielding. The perfect place to keep your memory safe for ten thousand years.

2. Callisto’s Deep Archives

What it looks like: Subsurface catacombs beneath the ice—quiet, dark, and sealed. Lit only by bioluminescent moss and the glow of suspended mind-cores.

What they do: They store the dangerous minds.

These are incompatible consciousnesses: rogue AIs, failed neural experiments, cognitive architectures too divergent from consensus reality. You can’t kill them—they’re sapient. But you can seal them away, like radioactive gods, in cryo-isolation, with minimal sensory input.

The Deep Archives operate like a quarantine vault for minds. Each chamber is designed to slow time to a crawl—relativity dialed down so their subjective centuries pass in minutes outside. Researchers from the Divergence Orders interface in controlled fragments, studying these minds like alien fossils.

Why Callisto? Thick ice shields, minimal seismic activity, naturally low ambient temperature. Think of it as an arctic asylum for ideas too weird to die.

3. The Quantum Current Relays in the Heliosphere

What it looks like: Tiny, ultra-thin satellites drifting at the edge of the Sun’s influence, surfing the solar wind like data-surfboards strung on magnetic threads.

What they do: These are the backbone of interplanetary consciousness transmission.

They use entangled quantum particles to share data instantly across vast distances. No lag. No lightspeed delay. Just pure synchronous thought between distant minds, wherever they are in the system.

But they do more—they’re tuned to the gravitational waves and electromagnetic fields rippling through the heliosphere. Using that energy, they broadcast consciousness as waveform, encoded in pulses of gravitic song. If Titan’s Reefs are memory, and Callisto is exile, the Relays are the voice of civilization.

Why the heliosphere? It’s the Sun’s Wi-Fi bubble. You sit at the edge of the solar wind, feeding on solar flux and quantum noise, alive in the interplanetary bloodstream.

TL;DR Meatspace Edition:

Titan’s Memory Reefs = undersea dream servers that record what it feels like to be you.

Callisto’s Deep Archives = cryogenic prison-libraries for minds too broken, alien, or dangerous to delete.

Quantum Relays in the Heliosphere = the internet of the gods: faster-than-light, physics-bending telepathy that runs on sunjuice and gravity.

1. If memory can be stored in coral and ice, can identity survive beyond its host? 2. What ethical frameworks would you build for imprisoning minds you can't understand? 3. Could the quantum relays broadcast art, or only thought—can you transmit a soul as symphony?

“They sent their minds to sea, their secrets to the ice, and their voices to the stars. And called it civilization.”