Already licensed the technology to partners.
We will see this within a year
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/sandias-floating-spinning-heatsink-promises-30x-better-cpu-cooling-20120625/
Seems cool (ha ha pun!), lots of limitations though, can only be placed horizontally, and in immobile situations (heaven help you if your 2500rpm spinning heatsink is tilted). Will be interesting to see what kind of casing they come up with as well, as again, unlike many traditional fans, touchy = baddy.
The piezo fan I like, though I don't think that it's a given that it will be quieter, as you are creating a jet stream, and depending on your application this will require some sort of jiggery-pokery, as mentioned in video. I'm also curious if there are any problems with air re-circulation in ultra-thin, cramped-quarters applications (say the inside of a phone or tablet for example), especially as these devices trend higher in power consumption.
How would a floating heatsink be able to placed in a different orientation than horizontal? Seems like any other orientation would decrease its efficiency or cause it to simply break down altogether.
Not an expert, but did a little research on the sandia cooler and air bearings in general.
If it's fixed on an axis and given sufficient spin/force the air bearing can maintain separation in other orientations (of course inverted would be bad). I'd venture to say that the gap is less predictable in any orientation other than horizontal. Maintaining the smallest gap possible is very important for this application.