"As you cross boundaries between chips, that's where the pipe has been narrow."

More likely, it's between cheese curls and taco chips.

Higher densities reduce the time a signal takes to travel between chips.

As a result, even tiny increases in the breathing space between chips add sharply to the travel time of the signals and slow the machine's operation.

This promises to speed up communication between layered chips, compared to planar layout.

This was a problem, because the delay-power penalty on data transfers between chips limited performance.

Yet both companies have said that the line between such chips and conventional microprocessors is beginning to blur.

This is usually done by having lots of features on each chip and making sure the buses between chips are encrypted.

Performance is high because no speed is lost moving signals between chips that perform separate functions.

The player can choose between black or white chips.