TESLA: Using microfluidics to thermally stabilize 3D stacked STT-RAM caches

Abstract

In this work, we develop a 3D architecture that utilizes STT-RAM for the last level cache (LLC). 3D integration enables large LLCs to be stacked onto a die. However, 3D architectures suffer from higher operating temperatures due to increased power densities. The elevated temperatures can adversely impact the STT-RAM performance and reliability. The objective of this paper is to address the limits of integrating STT-RAM in 3D chip stacks from a thermal perspective and propose a novel stacking structure that minimizes heat-induced problems. Specifically, we analyze the system-level impact of increased temperatures and propose a novel technique to dynamically adjust the flow rate of the liquid interlayer cooling at run time to reduce the STT-RAM temperature and alleviate temperature-induced problems that cause the performance degradation and prevent overcooling the STT-RAM die and minimize the pump energy consumption. Evaluation results reveal that our approach achieves up to 19.1% performance improvement and 14.6% power reduction over an architecture that does not include an insulating layer.