corona discharge effect cooling The cooling technology under development by Kronos and Thorn Micro Technologies employs a device called an ionic wind pump (also known as an electrostatic fluid accelerator). The basic operating principle of an ionic wind pump is corona discharge, an electrical discharge near a charged conductor caused by the ionization of the surrounding air. The corona discharge cooler developed by Kronos works in the following manner: A high electric field is created at the tip of the cathode, which is placed on one side of the CPU. The high energy potential causes the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air to become ionized (positively charged) and create a corona (a halo of charged particles). Placing a grounded anode at the opposite end of the CPU causes the charged ions in the corona to accelerate towards the anode, colliding with neutral air molecules on the way. During these collisions, momentum is transferred from the ionized gas to the neutral air molecules, resulting in movement of gas towards the anode. The advantages of the corona-based cooler are its lack of moving parts, thereby eliminating certain reliability issues and operating with a near-zero noise level and moderate energy consumption. Soft cooling Soft cooling is the practice of utilizing software to take advantage of CPU power saving technologies to minimize energy use. This is done using halt instructions to turn off or put in standby state CPU subparts that aren't being used or by underclocking the CPU. While resulting in lower total speeds, this can be very useful if overclocking a CPU to improve user experience rather than increase raw processing power, since it can prevent the need for noisier cooling. Contrary to what the term suggests, it is not a form of cooling but of reducing heat creation. Undervolting Undervolting is a practice of running the CPU or any other component with voltages below the device specifications. An undervolted component draws less power and thus produces less heat. The ability to do this varies by manufacturer, product line, and even different production runs of the same product (as well as that of other components in the system), but processors are often specified to use voltages higher than strictly necessary. This tolerance ensures that the processor will have a higher chance of performing correctly under sub-optimal conditions, such as a lower-quality motherboard or low power supply voltages. Below a certain limit,