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IBM Stacks Chips 'Vertically'
Techtree News Staff, Apr 12, 2007 1803 hrs ISTIBM has just developed a technology to 'vertically' connect chips inside products ranging from cell phones to supercomputers, AP reports.
According to an Associated Press (AP) report, IBM has just developed a technology to 'vertically' connect chips inside products ranging from cell phones to supercomputers.
The advancement promises to prolong battery life in wireless devices, and eventually speed-up data transfers between the processor and memory chips in computers.
Besides, the new technique does away with long metal wires currently used to transfer information and electrical charge between chips.
Typically, memory and processor chips are spaced inches apart from each other, causing transmission lags as chipmakers multiply the number and voracity of calculating cores on their processors.
IBM's all new solution has two chips sandwiched on top of one another - with the distance between them measured in microns (millionths of a meter) - and held together by 'vertical' connections etched in silicon holes filled with metal.
The vertical connections are referred to as "through-silicon-vias," which allow multiple chips to be stacked together with greater information flow between them.
IBM said its three-dimensional approach creates the possibility of up to 100 times more pathways for information, and shortens by 1,000 times the distance that information on a chip needs to travel.
Lauding the initiative, one researcher said, this is a big step - a really historic move. While it has been studied to death, this is the first time a company is saying 'we can connect two chips in the vertical direction'.
The new technology holds the most promise for use in computers, but will initially be used in wireless communications chips when production begins next year.
And, this is not the first time that stacked chips are being used in cell phones, but IBM's technology eliminates the need for wires wrapped around the outside of the chips.
The company said it could have memory-on-processor technology by 2009 for use in servers, supercomputers, and other machines as well.
The advancement promises to prolong battery life in wireless devices, and eventually speed-up data transfers between the processor and memory chips in computers.
Besides, the new technique does away with long metal wires currently used to transfer information and electrical charge between chips.
Typically, memory and processor chips are spaced inches apart from each other, causing transmission lags as chipmakers multiply the number and voracity of calculating cores on their processors.
IBM's all new solution has two chips sandwiched on top of one another - with the distance between them measured in microns (millionths of a meter) - and held together by 'vertical' connections etched in silicon holes filled with metal.
The vertical connections are referred to as "through-silicon-vias," which allow multiple chips to be stacked together with greater information flow between them.
IBM said its three-dimensional approach creates the possibility of up to 100 times more pathways for information, and shortens by 1,000 times the distance that information on a chip needs to travel.
Lauding the initiative, one researcher said, this is a big step - a really historic move. While it has been studied to death, this is the first time a company is saying 'we can connect two chips in the vertical direction'.
The new technology holds the most promise for use in computers, but will initially be used in wireless communications chips when production begins next year.
And, this is not the first time that stacked chips are being used in cell phones, but IBM's technology eliminates the need for wires wrapped around the outside of the chips.
The company said it could have memory-on-processor technology by 2009 for use in servers, supercomputers, and other machines as well.
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(3) Comments
Anonymous
,ds, on Apr 13, 2007 03:35 PM
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Dale DeWitt
,Kansas City, on Apr 13, 2007 12:55 AM
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