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IBM Water-Cools 3D Multi-Core Chip Stacks

Posted by timothy on from the 3d-cubes-are-the-best-kind-of-cubes dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Water cooling will enable multi-core processors to be stacked into 3D cubes, according to IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory which is demonstrating three-dimensional chip stacks. By stacking memory chips between processor cores IBM plans to multiply interconnections by 100 times while reducing their feature size tenfold. To cool the stack at a rate of 180 watts per layer, water flows down 50-micron channels between the stacked chips. Earlier this year, the same group described a copper-plate water cooling method for IBM's Hydro-Cluster supercomputer. The Zurich team predicts high-end IBM multicore computers will migrate from the copper-plate water-cooling-method to the 3-D chip-stack in five to 10 years." Reader Lilith's Heart-shape adds a link to the BBC's article on these internally-cooled chips.

4 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. 3D cubes are nice, I guess by krog · · Score: 4, Funny

    But they're really gonna rev up performance once they move to 4-cornered time cubes.

    --
    Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
  2. But the question is.... by CowboyNealOption · · Score: 5, Funny

    can it run Vista??

  3. This will never work by iamdrscience · · Score: 4, Funny

    How can IBM be this stupid? You can't cool a stack of chips with water, they'll just get soggy. I know it's hard to be patient, but if your chips are too hot to eat, you're better off just waiting for them to cool down.

  4. Imagine the mistakes of the future by kiehlster · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can see it now, "IBM struck with class-action lawsuit after several incidents of computers being left out in the cold of winter cause the processors to explode due to the natural properties of water expanding into ice. Other incidents with water contamination in liquid nitrogen-cooled 3-D processors have resulted in a similar lawsuit."