IBM and 3M is it the future for CPU production

IBM have teamed up with 3M to produce a new form of adhesive which will enable semiconductors to be stacked into silicon towers, making it possible to build microprocessors with up to 100 layers of chips offering around 1000 times the speed which is currently available, allowing a silicon “brick” which can incorporate memory and networking.

The adhesive will need to conduct heat extremely efficiently through the various layers and away from sensitive components such as logic circuits.

Today’s chips, including those containing ‘3D’ transistors, are in fact 2D chips that are still very flat structures,” said Bernard Meyerson, VP of Research, IBM. “Our scientists are aiming to develop materials that will allow us to package tremendous amounts of computing power into a new form factor – a silicon ‘skyscraper.’ We believe we can advance the state-of-art in packaging, and create a new class of semiconductors that offer more speed and capabilities while they keep power usage low — key requirements for many manufacturers, especially for makers of tablets and smart phones.

If successful the new chips would be used across a multitude of devices and may well lead the future development of microprocessors beyond a level thought possible and would bring unbelievable speeds to games, smart phones, gaming and PC users in general.