Immediately popping into my mind: what rotates it to facilitate pumping, and also, if the top rotates, how is the thermal transmission between the baseplate and the rotating element being facilitated? It's either have to be through the axle, or you'd need some sort of lubricious, yet thermally conductive compound for the rotating element to flow through, which, not gonna lie, sounds pretty magic to me.<p>Also, I'd need to look into the mechanics of this cylindrical impeller bit more. Boundary layers don't go away magically in laminar flow conditions. They might shrink, but they don't disappear. I also look at the center of their prototype, and all I see is a debris accumulation point that will become more and more obstructed over time in high debris concentration air. There isn't that much preventing dust build up on the top too, which I think may contribute to further build up.<p>Noise, no comment, except I know that if you've got spinning parts you've got harmonics and vibration, audible or not.<p>The burning question for me though, is how does it pan out in test designs. If it keeps stuff cooler under operating conditions, with better MTBF than what we're traditionally using, screw it, it's better.<p>Especially since in a sense you're combining two distinct parts into a single one, which would in theory simplify fabrication. However, that looks to be all metal, so it may not be cheaper than a fan static heat sink combo.<p>Be a fun thing to test and put through it's paces to be sure.