A vertex detector for the future linear collider

The Linear Collider Flavour Identification collaboration (LCFI) was formed in 1998 with the purpose of exploring a new design for a CCD pixel vertex detector, to be deployed at the future e+e- collider. A very ambitious R and D programme has been laid out, and funding has been officially confirmed recently. The programme will consist of multiple steps, the final goal being to produce a detector capable of being read out almost a thousand times faster than what has been done so far, with a material budget of less than 0.1% of a radiation length per layer and a polar angle coverage for tracks up to vertical bar cos θ vertical bar=0.96. In these proceedings I will describe the new design in detail, and report on the status of the R and D project