Back from the holidays and hoping everyone had a great time with friends and family. Now that the madness has past we can begin to look towards a new year, and 2015 seems to be one filled with many new prospects. One exciting advent is possible arrival of working multi-layered computer processors. Developers claim these will leap processing speeds ahead by entire orders of magnitude. Now that is something worth getting excited over!
The somewhat fluid term three-dimensional circuitry has been coined in reference with several technological routes currently being explored by semiconductor manufactures. While methods of approach may differ between companies, the basic idea remains the same. Adding an extra dimension to circuitry could provides capabilities well beyond that of a flat processor topology.
Researchers at Stanford University have been making progress on what they describe as ‘high-rise chips’. These tiny structures use vertical carbon nanotube elevators to transport data between floors. This article from Stanford News explains the technology in better detail. [LINK]
This illustration represents the four-layer prototype high-rise chip built by Stanford engineers. The bottom and top layers are logic transistors. Sandwiched between them are two layers of memory. The vertical tubes are nanoscale electronic “elevators” that connect logic and memory, allowing them to work together to solve problems.
Credit: Max Shulaker, Stanford
Back in 2011, IBM announced that, through a partnership with 3M, it had developed a method for manufacturing multi-layered processors by means of an new and effective heat-dissipating adhesive. While this approach does use multiple layers of processors, the approach is a bit different than what Stanford is working on. There is a video in the link that demonstrates how the technology works.
While stacking processors and nanotube data elevators are great sounding, I’m still waiting for the day when photonic processors are upon us. These innovations are definitely steps in the right directions, but going from electricity to light as a means of processing information will bring a quantum shift like nothing we’ve seen yet, or at least that is what I think. Mario Paniccia, current director of the photonics technology lab at Intel Corporation, discusses some of the efforts Intel has made towards photonics in this great presentation from 2011.
Here is a more recent short discussion with Mr. Paniccia on the subject of photonics:
Whether or not we may actually see these next generation processors in the coming year depends on a lot of factors, and once they do enter the scene, rest assured that it will be at least another decade before they will be affordable for consumer use. Either way, I’m definitely looking forward to what new innovations the approaching year will bring. Happy New Tech Year to you all!
– J
Brave New Tech World 