A co-synthesis methodology for power delivery and data interconnection networks in 3D ICs

Abstract

A stable voltage supply is critical for multiprocessor system-on-chips (MPSoCs) to operate at near-optimal performance levels. The problem of IR drops in a Power Delivery Network (PDN) is very severe in 3D MPSoCs with network-on-chip (NoC) fabrics where the current in the PDN increases proportionally with the number of device layers. At the same time, with the increasing core counts in today's power-hungry MPSoCs, the already hard problem of voltage island-aware Network-on-Chip (NoC) design has become even more challenging. Even though the PDN and NoC design goals are non-overlapping, both the optimizations are interdependent. Unfortunately, designers today seldom consider design of the PDN while synthesizing NoCs. In this work, for the first time, we propose a novel system-level co-synthesis methodology that minimizes 3D NoC energy while meeting performance goals; and simultaneously optimizes the 3D PDN design while satisfying IR-drop constraints. Our experimental results show that the proposed co-synthesis methodology meets IR-drop constraints while minimizing energy consumption for several real-world applications, improving upon results from traditional system-level methodologies that perform PDN design and NoC synthesis separately.