The first truly three-dimensional processor

    Scientists at their University of Rochester, in the state of New York, were able to make a three-dimensional processor. Unlike other developments, this 1.4-gigahertz prototype can be called truly three-dimensional, since its components are built in a three-dimensional matrix, and all layers are integrated among themselves.



    Electric circuits in current chips are located in a two-dimensional plane. And the creation of a three-dimensional processor involves the placement of circuits in space. According to scientists, 3D-processors will be more compact and more productive (and several times) of their two-dimensional progenitors.

    Attempts to make a 3D chip have already been made. For this, several conventional chips were taken as a basis, which were connected by conductors. Rochesters also went further and created an almost full-fledged three-dimensional processor in which all layers, due to the complete synchronization of power supply, work as a single system. This was achieved by drilling in a “cube” (namely, they call their processor at the University of Rochester, saying that the word “chip” no longer fits) millions of holes to provide electrical switching.

    Ebi Friedman, a professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Rochester, noted that previously the processors “grew” only in a horizontal plane, but, due to technology limitations, it cannot go on like this for long. Now, Friedman adds, "we will begin to build them vertically, and it will never end."

    via gizmodo

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