Cloud native EDA tools & pre-optimized hardware platforms
High-performance computing (HPC) is a hot topic these days, and for good reason. Consider the can containing your favorite soda ¨C countless hours of simulation and engineering work using HPC systems have gone into designing streamlined cans that minimize aluminum waste. Indeed, the benefits of HPC are far-reaching, from its use in mining cryptocurrencies to drug testing, genome sequencing, creating lighter planes, researching space, running artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, and modeling climate change.
Processing massive amounts of data is driving demands for larger and more complex chips at advanced process nodes. What¡¯s more, hyperscalers are transforming the way that data centers are designed and how computing resources are organized. To support their business imperatives of delivering ready access to multimedia resources, fast e-commerce transactions, quick search engine results, and the like, these companies are innovating with new data center architectures¡ªnamely, chiplets or multi-die SoC architectures.
In this blog post, I¡¯ll discuss how splitting SoCs into smaller dies for advanced packaging and using die-to-die interfaces to enable high bandwidth, low latency, and low power connectivity can benefit hyperscale data centers. Additionally, I¡¯ll also cover what¡¯s needed to optimize these applications.
Traditional data centers are built with CPUs or, in some cases, a mix of CPUs, GPUs, and specialized ASICs. For hyperscale data centers¡ªwhich are designed to scale up quickly and in a massive way to support HPC applications¡ªthese types of chips are not sufficient. Their high volumes of data demand the powerful processing that¡¯s been found in larger chips. , the biggest chip ever built. Designed for deep-learning systems, the Cerebras WSE provides the compute, memory, and communication bandwidth to support dramatically faster and more scalable AI research compared with traditional architectures.
However, going big with monolithic dies¡ªand at advanced nodes, no less¡ªis an expensive endeavor and may not result in the most optimal yield. To alleviate the costs as well as yield issues as chip sizes approach full reticle size, designers are choosing multi-die chip architectures. In a multi-die chip architecture, SoCs are partitioned into smaller modules, also called chiplets, in advanced multi-chip packaging. Compared to a monolithic design, where all of the functionality is on a single piece of silicon, this disaggregated approach provides economic benefits from a yield standpoint and also the product modularity and flexibility to mix and match functional blocks in separate chiplets to address different market segments.
Connected by die-to-die interfaces, the chiplets can be placed side by side, which is the prevalent and lower cost approach. Or, the blocks can be assembled in a 2.5D or 3D package to allow even greater density. High-bandwidth memory (HBM) designs, which consist of large 3D stacked DRAM integrated on the SoC, are one of the increasingly popular applications driving the move to 3DICs.
Choosing the right die-to-die interfaces is an important factor that influences chiplet performance. Die-to-die interfaces are functional blocks that provide the data interface between two silicon dies assembled in the same package. For power efficiency and high bandwidth, they take advantage of the characteristics of the very short channels that connect the dies. These interfaces typically consist of a PHY and a controller block that provide a seamless connection between the internal interconnect fabric on the two dies.
While scenarios such as interoperability of devices from different vendors is governed by standards, in the die-to-die space, there currently aren¡¯t yet any such industry standards. Synopsys, however, is involved in defining the standards and driving them to completion via organizations including the .
When it comes to inter-die connectivity, what¡¯s essential are interfaces that can support:
For applications like HPC, hyperscale data centers, AI, and networking, there are four major use cases for die-to-die interfaces:
Synopsys offers a complete die-to-die IP solution that provides the high bandwidth and low latency that SoCs for applications like HPC, AI, and networking demand. Having a complete solution provides an infrastructure that eliminates the need to write pieces of code or develop bridges. The IP solution consists of:
The Die-to-Die Controller and PHY IP are part of a multi-die solution from Synopsys that also includes DesignWare HBM IP for HBM requirements of HPC SoCs and the 3DIC Compiler unified platform for advanced multi-die system design and integration. This multi-die solution helps accelerate SoC designs that require advanced packaging.
The move from monolithic silicon chips to die-to-die architectures will only continue to grow given the rise of compute-intensive, workload-heavy HPC applications. High-bandwidth, low-latency IP that are developed and designed based on ongoing standards specifications are essential to ensuring that hyperscale data centers and the like can deliver on their promise of massive volumes of fast computations for applications as varied as video streaming, vaccine discovery, and storm tracking.