IBM sticks chips with 3M tape to make them 1000x faster

No, this isn’t an April Fools Day prank, it’s the future, according to IBM and 3M. IBM has found a partner in an unlikely brand, 3M that’s known best for making adhesive tapes. IBM and 3M are working together to create an adhesive that can be used to stick layers of semiconductors together. Using some 100 such layers, they should be able to create some fast commercial-grade processors. IBM believes that taking this approach should give the ability to create processors that are roughly 1000 times faster than the ones used today. 3M will be working on an adhesive that can stick these layers together but also act as an effective cooling medium that can transfer heat quickly.

IBM’s VP of Research said that it was important to develop these technologies so that products such as tablets and smartphones could take advantage of a vast amount of computing power while keeping power requirements low. IBM and 3M want to take this sticky bonding further by trying to stick thousands of wafers to yield even more power than is possible today. IBM has been in the news recently for developing a fast data transfer system and the world’s largest drive.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?