tag: stacked die

Performance Plus Lower Power
By Ed Sperling - 06 Oct, 2011 - Comments: 0

A new race is beginning in the SoC world. While performance has been supplanted by battery life as the top goal for the next process node, that prioritization isn’t going to last. The ultimate challenge will be to achieve both—higher performance with substantially lower power. This is the subject of research inside of dozens of companies and universities, and there are several different... » read more

Will Wide I/O Reduce Cache?
By Ed Sperling - 25 Aug, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler In an ideal world, all new SoC technologies would make the lives of design engineers easier. While this may be true of some techniques, it is not the case with one advanced memory interface technology on the horizon, Wide I/O. There are claims that Wide I/O could reduce cache, but so far this is not widely understood. In fact, exactly how Wide I/O will be used, wha... » read more

Solving Memory Subsystem Bottlenecks In 3D Stacks
By Ann Mutschler - 28 Jul, 2011 - Comments: 0

In today’s do-or-die market environment, many SOC makers strive to differentiate their product based upon the rate at which it performs processing. Closely coupled are power concerns that have led to dominance of a multi-core approach, while economic considerations have resulted in the dominance of the Unified Memory Architecture, where all the processors share access to external DRAM. Stacki... » read more

Bigger Pipes, New Priorities
By Ed Sperling - 28 Jul, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler From the impact of stacking on memory subsystems to advances in computing architecture, Micron Technology is at the forefront in the memory industry. System-Level Design sat down to discuss challenges, as well as some possible solutions, that plague memory subsystem architects with Scott Graham, general manager for Micron’s Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) and Joe Jeddeloh,... » read more

The Challenge of 3D
By Ed Sperling - 06 Jul, 2011 - Comments: 0

Juan Rey, senior director of engineering for Mentor Graphics' Design To Silicon Division, talks about 3D stacking and 3D structures on chips. [youtube vid=YiH5IkxiEHU] » read more

Not So Fast
By Ed Sperling - 01 Jul, 2011 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor engineering has always been about taking two steps forward and one step back. Or, if you’re more cynical, you don’t really move at all. You just get better at what you do. The cynical approach is that nothing is really new because it’s all been done before. In effect, 2.5D packages are multi-chip modules with a better business case and more advanced versions of what exist... » read more

Standards Wanted
By Ed Sperling - 30 Jun, 2011 - Comments: 0

Over the next few years, as the industry moves to stacked die of various sorts—2.5D, 3D, system-in-package, package-on-package, and probably some others we haven’t considered yet—there will be a major need for standards. We will need standards for placement, interconnects, power leakage, characterization of IP and a slew of other things we haven’t even thought about yet. Most compani... » read more

Need To Know Basis
By Ed Sperling - 16 Jun, 2011 - Comments: 0

There’s a great and often over-used line out of movie scripts when the hero stumbles upon something that doesn’t make sense and he’s told, “That’s on a need-to-know basis.” The same seems to be true in low-power engineering. While everyone talks about the need for reducing the power inside of chips, the reality is that only the really advanced SoC and processor companies are taki... » read more

Cyclical Behavior
By Ed Sperling - 26 May, 2011 - Comments: 0

As we head into yet another DAC, this may seem like a bad case of déjà vu. While there’s plenty of new stuff—and even some new companies—there are some key trends that seem very familiar. Here are four to consider: 1. Cloud computing. For anyone who’s old enough to remember time-sharing on university computers, cloud computing should look very familiar. The scheduling is more so... » read more

Understanding Frog Behavior
By Ed Sperling - 20 May, 2011 - Comments: 0

Change is rarely something people can grasp, particularly in technology. Unless it involves a completely new way of doing things—witness the PC, the cell phone and the Internet, for example—most change involves evolutionary improvements. This is the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water. Heat the frog up slowly and it will cook. Throw the frog into boiling water and it will leap to s... » read more

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