A thermal optimization of the chip arrangement in the PCB channel oriented vertically and cooled by natural convection has been studied. The objective of this study is to find the chip arrangement that minimizes the maximum temperature of the entire PCB channel. SIMPLER algorithm is employed in the analysis, and the genetic algorithm is used for the optimization. The results show that the chip with a maximum volumetric heat generation rate has to be located at the bottom of the channel, and chips with relatively high heat generation rates should not be close to each other, and small chip should not be located between the large chips.