U.S. Innovation, Manufacturing Are Alive and Well. Exhibit A: IBM and 3M Collaborate on 3D Chips

IBM and 3M's Breakthrough Stacked Chip Technology Will Be 1,000 Times Faster Than Today's Chips

Two of America's oldest and most successful manufacturers, 3M (founded in 1902) and IBM (founded in 1911), have teamed up to collaborate on a new 3D computer chip stacking process that could revolutionize computer technology.  According to a report posted just several hours ago on a Wall Street Journal blog,  

"Such three-dimensional structures could be 1,000 times faster than today’s individual chips, IBM estimates, ushering in much more powerful portable devices, PCs and server systems. Electronics companies now routinely stack a few chips together–particularly memory chips, for use in small devices like cellphones–but IBM is talking about bonding 100 or more chips together, including high-performance microprocessors.

What role will 3M play?

"Microprocessors generate heat, and gluing chips together would cause them to melt. That’s where 3M comes in. The Minnesota-based materials company will work with IBM to develop special heat-dissipating adhesives that can safely conduct heat away from chips, and processes that can coat hundreds or thousands of chips with glues at one time."

"You want to ultimately make a brick of silicon,” says Bernard Meyerson, IBM’s vice president of research. “That does not exist today.”

MP: Watch the video above to see how the chip-stacking process works.  The commercial availability of brick-style computers might be several years away, but this new developing breakthrough innovation from two old-line, 100-year old iconic American manufacturers tells us that "Made in the USA" is alive and well, and America is still the World's No. 1 Innovator.