Performance modeling of the interconnect structure of a three-dimensional integrated RISC processor/cache system

Abstract

In order to investigate the performance potential of three-dimensional integrated circuits (3-D IC's) for high performance computer systems a comparative study of the interconnect structure of a RISC processorkache system is presented. The wiring structure, wiring dimensions and line drivers are optimized for 3-D system alternatives. The realizations are compared to a conventional printed circuit board (PCB) and a typical multichip module (MCM) implementation of the system with respect to cache access time and power dissipation. The impact of electrical parameters of interconnection lines as well as associated package parasitics on second level cache read access is investigated. Case studies show reductions of effective switching capacitances of more than an order of magnitude and reductions of second level cache access time of over 30% for optimized 3-D systems compared to conventional PCB realizations.

A thermally-aware performance analysis of vertically integrated (3-D) processor-memory hierarchy

“…The work in [9,10] shows that significant improvement in the Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.…”

“…Besides the benefits of interconnect performance [5,6], this scheme leads to increased transistor packing density, smaller chip area, lower power dissipation, and provides means to integrate dissimilar technologies (digital, analog, RF circuits, etc) in the same chip, but on different active layers. Alongside research into developing processing technology for 3-D ICs [5,7], several works in the literature have explored possible applications for this revolutionary technology [5,7,8,9]. One of the most promising applications is that of integrating a processor-andmemory system on a single 3-D chip.…”

Thermal Challenges of 3D ICs

“…In [9,42,43,44], several possible applications for this revolutionary 3D technology have been explored. One of the most promising applications is that of integrating a processor-and-memory system on a single 3D chip.…”

Design for 3D Integration and Applications

“…This, by itself, gives a fairly natural case for 3D, that has been only lightly explored, and then mainly in the context of general purpose computer architecture. For example, 3D caches can lead to 10% -50% reductions in cache latency, depending on the benchmark used [9] [8]. Other applications that are likely to benefit form logicon-memory include digital signal processing, graphics and networking.…”