Coming Up N3XT, After 2D Scaling of Si CMOS

Abstract

As two-dimensional scaling of Si CMOS crosses the nanometer threshold, from 7 nm, 5 nm, 3 nm, toward 1 nm technology nodes, will it continue to provide the energy efficiency required of future computing systems? A scalable, fast, and energy-efficient computation platform that may provide another 1,000× in computing energy efficiency (energy-execution time product) will have massive on-chip memory co-located with highly energy-efficient computing logic, enabled by 3D integration (e.g., monolithic) with ultra-dense and fine-grained connectivity. There will be multiple layers of memories interleaved with computing logic, sensors, and application-specific devices. We call this technology platform N3XT, Nano-engineered Computing Systems Technology. In this paper, we give an overview of the nanoscale memory and logic technologies that enable N3XT.