Researchers and Stanford engineers are creating a new approach to the layout of computer processors and memory chips (called Nano-Engineered Computing Systems Technology, or N3XT) where processors and memory are stacked on top of one another like a high-rise architecture.
This could cause immediate problems involving heat, but Stanford mechanical engineers Kenneth Goodson and Mehdi Asheghi have a solution.
“Just as skyscrapers have ventilation systems, N3XT high-rise chip designs incorporate thermal cooling layers,” reports Phys.org, “This work, […] ensures that the heat rising from the stacked layers of electronics does not degrade overall system performance.”
A working prototype has been demonstrated as “a thousand times more efficient in carrying out many important and highly demanding industrial software applications,” according to Phys.org.
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