When you're discussing iPods, the size could very well matter. Your iPod could be getting smaller. Again. According to Bill Watkins, the former chief executive for Seagate, a well known computer components manufacturer, his new company, Vertical Circuits, has figured out how to cram 10 pounds of music in a two pound music player. The company has developed a type of flash memory that is capable of holding high-speed memory information that is considerably smaller than what computer and iPod manufacturers are using in their products now without compromising sound integrity or quality and leaving a lot of room for bigger, more powerful batteries and LCD displays.



According to Watkins, companies like Dell and Apple will make quite a bit of money for technology that makes their products thinner and thinner. The difference of a single millimeter is a big deal for these companies. His new venture specializes in what the industry is referring to as 3-D stacking technology. It's a semiconductor method of standing chips one on top of the other and forming electrical connections between them. This means they can communicate with one another faster and reduce the need to stretch wires from one component to another in the device. It also utilizes the vertical space of the product better. They have developed ways of connecting these small memory chips to other specialized chips such as graphics chips and computational chips.

However, Vertical Circuits are primarily now focusing on connecting the flash memory chips used in devices such as iPods in a more efficient manner. Most of the methods used right now to connect these flash memory chips require the use of bulky packaging in order to get the electric to flow between the chips, and in a world where hand held devices are progressively getting smaller, inner bulk is not the way manufacturers want to go. Vertical Circuits has developed a solution to this problem that keeps the chips from bulking while maintaining the connection.

The solution is a silver ooze - for a lack of better description - that bonds the chips together and reduces the need for wires or other ways to connect the chips and form an electrical connection. Higher capacity chips can be used because this ooze helps save space in the devices. While 1.6 millimeters may not seem to be a very big distance, it's like a mile when you are talking about the space available between the covers of an iPod. And it's the difference between using a larger battery for longer playing time or adding a bigger screen onto the device.

Devices using this silver ooze concoction are scheduled to start appearing on the market some time towards the end of 2009. However, there is concern that as these handheld devices grow smaller more things can go wrong with them. They will be more prone to damage from dropping that will knock the chips out of alignment and could cause memory issues. Smaller units with bigger batteries could also be prone to overheating. The smaller these devices get, the more work repairs shops may be seeing in the future.