IBM pushing vertical stacking in next wave of supercomputers

Next-generation cooling technology isn't the only thing IBM's R&D crew is spending time with, as the chip giant has recently made plans to hit up "vertical stacking technology" in order to make the next wave of supercomputers really crank. Supposedly, "laying chips vertically -- as opposed to side by side -- reduces the distance data has to travel by 1,000 times, making the chips faster and more efficient." The new format will place chips directly atop one another and connect them with "tungsten filled pipes etched through the silicon," which will subsequently eliminate the need for wires and increase the speed at which data can flow. The questionably-dubbed "3D chips" will reportedly operate around 40-percent more efficiently than existing renditions, and considering that Intel is purportedly cooking up a similar agenda in their own labs, that "end of 2007" release date is quite likely to be accurate.

[Ben @ Apr 12th 2007 3:07PM]

Cray did this back in the 80's ....

[NovaLand @ Apr 12th 2007 3:14PM]

I stacked chips even when i was in diapers back in the 70's. My mother didn't like the idea tho, but my father handed me pringles like crazy.

[Earl @ Apr 12th 2007 3:42PM]

Sounds like a great idea, but cooling it all is going to be a trip :D Heat rises?
Seems like for cooling efficiency you might want to stick with the stacking idea so you get the decreased travel, but turn the whole thing on its side. Best of both worlds mayhaps?

[Daniel Eslava @ Apr 12th 2007 4:15PM]

Is it just me, or does everytime I check Engadget, (huge fan) I get something new I want to buy... but this will rock, I mean, 1,000 times more fastsr.. gee, I guess we wont have a problme with Vista

[LongshotX @ Apr 12th 2007 5:05PM]

Vista works perfectly fine with the processors out now. You're an idiot.

[Maxime Rousseau @ Apr 12th 2007 5:09PM]

+1 internet ownage point for LongShotX.

[nick @ Apr 12th 2007 5:20PM]

What's really exciting is I heard about this new wave technology like 5-7 years ago from the Economist. So much for fast movement in the world of developing technology.

[David @ Apr 12th 2007 6:52PM]

Just what is questionable about the used of the term "3D"? The term has been around and used generically well before it referred to processors that handled the computations for 3D graphics and refers to the arrangement of objects in space rather than confined to a plane. Currently, all the active devices on a silicon chip exist in a plane, a thin region at the surface. By stacking chips and connecting them with vertical vias, you now have multiple device-containing planes filling the volume of the stack, with as many stacks as is feasible to design and to remove the heat from.

[TIMMAH! @ Apr 12th 2007 7:07PM]

"The new format will place chips directly atop one another and connect them with 'tungsten filled pipes etched through the silicon,'"

So, let me get this straight. So you're saying that computers are just a series of tubes?

[Chris @ Apr 13th 2007 11:51AM]

he he he

[tyecies @ Apr 12th 2007 7:42PM]

but will it run doom?

[NuShrike @ Apr 15th 2007 11:22PM]

This isn't a new idea. The problem was always how to cool such a thing. The reason it's always been a flat chip was then its surface area was equivalent to its volume. With say a cube, its surface area is much much smaller to its volume than the flat chip.

Maybe, they're designing it like those crazy cpu heatsinks where you have a vertical tower of fins. Then, you can maintain more surface area than volume to keep it from melting.

[spec @ May 1st 2007 12:54AM]

What are you smoking Ben? Cray was using descrete logic back then. That tech is lightyears from this. I don't think you understand either technology.