# All Heat, No Useful Work

- Show: [The Amp Hour](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour)
- Published: 2026-05-25
- Length: 1h 05m
- Episode: 724
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-05-25-all-heat-no-useful-work
- Listen: https://theamphour.com/724-all-heat-no-useful-work/

## Summary

Dave Jones and Chris Gammell discuss the massive energy demands and infrastructure challenges of AI data centers, noting that 100% of input power becomes heat and requiring extensive cooling and diesel backup. They cover supply chain constraints, including a three-year backlog for transformers and a 40% surge in bareboard PCB prices driven by AI server demand. The conversation shifts to practical electronics work, where Chris details building a power-injecting Tag-Connect debug board and using Claude to implement SMP firmware updates over web serial, while Dave shares his frustration with a solar monitoring service's price hike and his son's struggles with Linux at school.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-05-25-all-heat-no-useful-work#t=0) Introduction: Dave Jones and Chris Gammell
- [2:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-05-25-all-heat-no-useful-work#t=123) AI Data Center Infrastructure and Energy Demands
- [10:32](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-05-25-all-heat-no-useful-work#t=632) Transformer Shortages and PCB Price Increases
- [22:30](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-05-25-all-heat-no-useful-work#t=1350) SMD Assembly Tools and Debugging Techniques
- [33:12](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-05-25-all-heat-no-useful-work#t=1992) Chris Gammell's Power-Injecting Tag-Connect Board
- [40:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-05-25-all-heat-no-useful-work#t=2403) Solar Monitoring Service Cancellation and AI Coding
- [49:58](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-05-25-all-heat-no-useful-work#t=2998) Dogfooding, Ubuntu, and Linux Reproducibility

## Topics

- [PCB design & layout](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pcb-design)
- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [Sourcing & supply chain](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/sourcing-and-supply-chain)
- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [Direct-to-consumer & e-commerce](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/direct-to-consumer)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Cloudflare (company)
- IBM (company)
- Tesla (company)
- NBN (other)
- Optus (company)
- Telstra (company)
- Unitree (product)
- JLC (company)
- PCB Way (company)
- AliExpress (other)
- Mantis (product)
- Tigano (product)
- Inspectus (company)
- Manfrotto (product)
- No Starch Press (company)
- Claude (other)
- Zephyr (other)
- Ubuntu (other)
- Canonical (company)
- Debian (other)
- Veritasium (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [EP 186: Mobile Bottlenecks, Skyrocketing AI CapEx, and the Compute Crunch](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2026-08-03-ep-186-mobile-bottlenecks-skyrocketing-ai-capex-and-the-compute-crunch) (The Circuit)
- [The state of play of data center development](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2025-06-12-the-state-of-play-of-data-center-development) (Catalyst)
- [Navigating the electricity gauntlet](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2023-08-17-navigating-the-electricity-gauntlet) (Catalyst)
- [Frontier Forum: An energy-first approach to data centers](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2024-10-22-frontier-forum-an-energy-first-approach-to-data-centers) (Catalyst)
- [Can chip efficiency slow AI's energy demand?](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2024-07-18-can-chip-efficiency-slow-ais-energy-demand) (Catalyst)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-05-25-all-heat-no-useful-work. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to The Amp Hour.