A report by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council claims that TSMC’s projected delivery of 3D chips could match Intel. Mind you, Intel announced last May that it would start shipping its first 3D chips with tri-gate transistors by the end of the year.
However, TSMC will offer an entirely different technology with 3D interconnect, dubbed through silicon vias (TSV). It basically uses vertical connections that pass through various layers of die within the same package.
The upshot of both technologies is that it allows an increase in transistor density by up to 1,000 times and a power consumption reduction of up to 50 percent, but it will probably take a couple of years before we see 3D chips in every gadget.
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