Chips stack up in third dimension, travel by 1,000 times

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Chips stack up in third dimension

IBM is developing the technology for use in its supercomputers.

Stacks of chips, one on top of the other, will power the next generation of superfast PCs, IBM has announced.

Laying chips vertically, instead of side by side, reduces the distance data has to travel by 1,000 times, making the chips faster and more efficient.

Big blue has said that it will start producing the compact silicon sandwiches in 2008.

Chip manufacturer Intel has previously announced that it is also developing similar vertical chip technology.

Last year, the firm unveiled a chip with 80 processing cores and capable of more than a trillion calculations per second (teraflops) that used vertical stacking technology.

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