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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.

3 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.