"We've moved beyond the era of two dimensional chips.  The costs in terms of power consumption, performance, functionality and die size are simply to great to continue development on that path.  The next wave of chip innovation will center around 3D die stacking, with through silicon vias and very fine grained alignment.  This is absolutely nothing short of a revolution in semiconductor development.

Chips will never be the same!"

"We have reached the perilous edge of die area expansion.  There's simply no where else to go.  Since we can't keep pushing out, we have to move up.  Much like boundary constrained urban areas, the inevitable pressure to grow forces the development of sky scrapers.  For semiconductors, the Z dimension allows us to increase performance and functionality, while keeping power consumption, costs and package size low.

The new frontier is UP!"