IBM to build 1000 times faster PCs

Get ready for next-generation computers and smartphones that are up to 1,000 times faster than the systems you use today.

Computer maker IBM is developing “skyscraper” computers using huge sandwiches of silicon chips by sticking layer after layer of chips covered with tiny components together.The process, for which IBM has roped in glue maker 3M, will make PCs and smartphones up to 1,000 times faster than the existing ones and are expected to be available in market by 2013.

The 3M currently makes heat resistant glues, adhesives used in the aerospace industry and sticky tapes, but the hi-tech glues created for IBM could actually be the key step towards making the next evolutionary leap in computing, the Daily Mail reported.

The attempts at piling chips vertically – known as 3D packaging – has so far been suffering from overheating. But, the new glues could conduct heat through a stack of densely-packed chips and away from logic circuits that could be burnt out by heat. The research aims to create “stacks” of up to 100 layers of silicon, the report said.

Mike Bowman, marketing manager for 3M, said: “This material fits underneath computer chips when they’re attached to printed circuit boards – the unique part of what we’re doing is that our glue conducts heat out to the edge of the sandwich. It will spread heat more evenly through the chip. With conventional chips, with just one or two layers, but once you’re stacking chips, the problem can become very severe.”