Thermal Grizzly and Noctua have teamed up on a new WireView Pro II that monitors a GPU’s 12V-2×6 power connector. It tracks power through each pin, warns of uneven load, and can trigger an emergency shutdown if it detects a serious problem. The Noctua version adds an aluminium heatsink and a 40 mm fan that stays off at lower loads and only turns on when needed, keeping the device quieter while helping with cooling. It costs $189.90, which is not cheap for a GPU monitoring device.

Thermally induced warpage, caused by differences in the rate at which materials expand when heated, is becoming problematic in large chips/packages. #semiconductor# #warpage# #NTE# #CTE# @mcgc_en @AmkorTechnology @brewerscience #advancedpackging# @Synopsys

The limiting factor was thermal protection system cycle time. Tile inspection and bond-line verification still forced multi-day turnaround. Flight 13 data and visual inspection changed that. Elon: “I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but I think I’d consider the heat shield problem solved at this point. All indications from data and visual inspection is we have solved it. That doesn’t mean we won’t make improvement, but we do not see any technical obstacles to achieving rapid reusability at this point.” The core technical barrier is cleared. Refinements continue. The remaining work is iteration, not invention. This moves Starship from high-performance test vehicle to logistics truck. Cadence becomes a manufacturing and operations problem. Mars propellant amortization and orbital compute scale follow.

E/O structures are all thermaly biased and very sensitive. Waveguide loss (even SiN) is quite high relative to Cu coax cable. There are so many fundamental problems with this. Unclear if they are delusional or throwing cope out there to mislead people.

Rising power density and chiplet complexity drive thermal considerations earlier in the design process. #thermal# #datacenters# #multiphysics# #advancedpackaging# #3DIC# #semiconductor#

Dan Rasky is a longtime NASA thermal protection / entry systems expert and he knows a great deal about heat shield technology. Him and the others commenting do want SpaceX to succeed with Starship and follow the program, however saying SpaceX heat shield tech is a “dead end” is just another reason why NASA is where it is and why SpaceX is where they are. Full Reusability is the unlock.