What AMD Learned From Its Big Chiplet Push

Over the final 5 years, processors have gone from being single items of silicon to a set of smaller chiplets that collectively act as in the event that they’re one massive chip. This method signifies that the CPU’s useful items may be constructed utilizing the know-how that fits every bit finest. Sam Naffziger, a product-technology architect at AMD, was an early proponent of this method. Naffziger not too long ago answered 5 chiplet-size questions from IEEE Spectrumon the subject.

What are the primary challenges you’ve seen for chiplets-based processors?

Sam Naffziger: We began out 5 or 6 years in the past with the EPYC and Ryzen CPU traces. And on the time, we solid a fairly broad web to seek out what package deal applied sciences could be finest for connecting the die [small block of silicon]. It’s a posh equation of price, functionality, bandwidth densities, energy consumption, and in addition manufacturing capability. It’s comparatively straightforward to provide you with nice package deal applied sciences, however it’s a totally completely different factor to really manufacture them in excessive quantity, affordably. So we’ve invested closely in that.

How may chiplets change the semiconductor-manufacturing course of?

Naffziger: That’s undoubtedly one thing that the business is working via. There’s the place we’re at as we speak, after which there’s the place we’d go in 5 to 10 years. I believe as we speak, just about, the applied sciences are basic goal. They may be aligned to monolithic die simply high quality, or they’ll operate for chiplets. With chiplets, we have now far more specialised mental property. So, sooner or later one may envision specializing the method know-how and getting efficiency advantages, price reductions, and different issues. But that’s not the place the business is at as we speak.

How will chiplets have an effect on software program?

Naffziger: One of the objectives of our structure is to have or not it’s utterly clear to software program, as a result of software program is difficult to alter. For instance, our second-generation EPYC CPU is made up of a centralized I/O [input/output] chiplet surrounded by compute dies. When we went to a centralized I/O die, it lowered reminiscence latency, eliminating a software program problem from the primary technology.

“One of the goals of our architecture is to have it be completely transparent to software, because software is hard to change.”

Now, with the [AMD Instinct] MI300—AMD’s upcoming high-performance computing accelerator—we’re integrating each CPU and GPU compute dies. The software program implication of that type of integration is that they’ll share one reminiscence handle area. Because the software program doesn’t have to fret about managing reminiscence, it’s simpler to program.

How a lot of the structure may be separated out onto chiplets?

Naffziger: We’re discovering methods to scale logic, however SRAM is extra of a problem, and analog stuff is certainly not scaling. We’ve already taken the step of splitting off the analog with the central I/O chiplet. With 3D V-Cache—a high-density cache chiplet 3D-integrated with the compute die—we have now break up off the SRAM. And I’d count on sooner or later there can be tons extra of that sort of specialization. The physics will dictate how high quality grained we are able to go, however I’m bullish about it.

What has to occur for mixing and matching completely different firms’ chiplets into the identical package deal to turn into a actuality?

Naffziger: First of all, we want an business customary on the interface. UCIe, a chiplet interconnect customary launched in 2022, is a vital first step. I believe we’ll see a gradual transfer in the direction of this mannequin as a result of it actually goes to be important to ship the following degree of efficiency per watt and efficiency per greenback. Then, it is possible for you to to place collectively a system-on-chip that’s market or buyer particular.

Sam Naffziger is a senior vice chairman, company fellow, and product-technology architect at AMD and an IEEE Fellow. He is the recipient of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society’s 2023 Industry Impact Award.