Scientific American on 3-D Chips

m5shiv writes: "Scientific American is running a feature on 3-D Memory Chips. These devices look like they will significantly reduce the cost of PDA's and other handheld devices as well as replacing analog film. By stacking devices vertically, density goes up considerably. The company, Matrix Semiconductor, appears to have some very interesting investors such as Kodak, Sony and Microsoft."

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building 3D chips one layer at a time

[mblase]

It doesn't seem to be discussed in this article, but there is much progress being made on "3D copiers," computerized machines that will build complicated 3-dimensional objects one layer at a time out of ice or plastics. Because of how these objects are constructed, shapes that would be impossible to carve from a solid mass can be "molded" from the bottom up or from the inside-out.

If 3D chip design proliferates, I predict that these two technologies will eventually merge. Sophisticated chips will be assembled one layer at a time, perhaps one layer of atoms at a time, with electronic pathways twisting and turning through a three-dimensional block of material designed to ferry heat away from the core of the device. The main advantage, of course, would be enabling shorter pathways from one part of the chip to another, improving further as design improves. Perhaps in time motherboards would be replaced by "motherblocks" and the entire computer will become far more portable.