Design Space Modeling and Simulation for Physically Constrained 3D CPUs

Abstract

Design space exploration (DSE) is becoming increasingly complex and 3D integration compounds the problem by imposing a more complex design space. Moreover, 3D design is a new frontier of CPU design, expected to rely more heavily on statistical modeling than designer intuition. Past work has used regression modeling with random sampling of the design space. In this paper we propose a directed simulation technique where intermediate predictions more efficiently direct simulation resources. Our results show over 98% model accuracy while simulating less than 5% of the design space and reducing simulation time more than 4.5x compared to random sampling.