Fine-Grained Voltage Boosting for Improving Yield in Near-Threshold Many-Core Processors

Abstract

Process variation is a major impediment in optimizing yield, energy, and performance in near-threshold many-core processors. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis on yield losses in near-threshold many-core processors. Based on our analysis, we propose energy-efficient yield improvement techniques for near-threshold many-core processors: SRAM cell arrays and Wordline driver voltage Boosting (SWBoost) and Cache voltage Boosting (CBoost). Results reveal that SWBoost and CBoost improve a chip yield by up to 66% and 83%, respectively. Furthermore, runtime energy overheads of SWBoost and CBoost are only 0.46% and 0.54%, respectively, which are much lower than conventional voltage boosting techniques.