TSMC and Google push chipmaking boundaries with 3D 'stacking'

TAIPEI -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is working with Google and other U.S. tech giants to develop a new way of making semiconductors more powerful.

The industry's traditional approach of cramming ever more transistors onto a single chip is starting to lose steam. In response, the world's largest contract chipmaker is focusing on chip packaging -- a little-known part of the process of making semiconductors but one that is becoming an industry battleground.