IBM sees stacked silicon sitting in fluid because the technique to power future PCs

Generally, the mix of microchips, electricity and fluids is commonly considered a very bad thing. IBM, however, thinks it could combine those three to make super small and super powerful computers sooner or later. The belief is to stack hundreds of silicon wafers and utilize dual fluidic networks between them to create 3D processors. In this type of setup, one network carries in charged fluid to power the chip, while the second one carries away an identical fluid after it has picked up heat from the active transistors. Obviously, 3D chips are already at the way , and liquid cooled components are nothing new, but powering a computer by fluids in preference to wires hasn’t ever been done before. Bruno Michel, who’s leading Big Blue’s research team, has high hopes for the technology, because future processors will need the additional cooling and reduced power consumption it could provide. Michel says he and his colleagues have demonstrated that it’s possible to exploit a liquid to transfer power via a network of fluidic channels, and so they to devise build a working prototype chip by 2014. If successful, your smartphone could eventually contain the facility of the Watson supercomputer . Chop, chop, fellas, those futuristic fluidic networks aren’t going to construct themselves.

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This post is tagged: computers in the future, power consumption, powerful computers, silicon wafers, supercomputer, transistors