New Memory Architectures for SoCs and Multi-Die Systems

By Max Maxfield, EEjournal (February 13, 2025)

Before we dive headfirst into the fray with gusto and abandon (and aplomb, of course), let’s briefly remind ourselves as to the current state-of-play on the chiplet and multi-die systems front. Let’s start with the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are becoming pervasive and ubiquitous. Let’s also remind ourselves that we create our systems using a variety of processing elements, including CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, TPUs, and other hardware accelerators.

The way we design devices like ASICs, ASSPs, and SoCs today is that we purchase intellectual property (IP) blocks for commonly used functions from trusted third-party suppliers. These IPs might be processors, memory controllers, high-speed interfaces, etc. We also create our own “secret sauce” IPs that will differentiate our device from its competitors. All these IPs are known as “soft IPs” because they are represented at an abstraction level known as register transfer level (RTL), which is captured in the form of a hardware description language (HDL) like Verilog or VHDL. The IPs are subsequently integrated and synthesized into a gate- and register-level netlist that will be fabricated on the silicon chip. Everything in this paragraph is a gross simplification (apart from this sentence).

Some of the behemoth companies—like AMD, Intel (and newly spun-off Altera), and Nvidia—have the wherewithal to mount multiple silicon chips (a.k.a. chiplets) on a common silicon substrate. The result is known as a multi-die system. Other, smaller companies dream of having this ability.

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