IBM researchers, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin, have prototyped a new method for cooling microprocessors stacked on top of each other, creating a 3-D processor that could keep Moore's Law running strong for the next decade. Key to the effort is water, which seems to be the only material that can keep the stack from burning up. 3-D chip stacks would have an aggregated heat dissipation of close to 1 kilowatt with an area of 4 square centimeters and a thickness of about 1 millimeter, IBM reported.
June 05th 2008