First-order performance prediction of cache memory with wafer-level 3D integration

The advantages of 3D design can be exploited by reducing the memory access time. In this article, the authors use a simulator based on analytical models to build an optimal processor-memory configuration for two designs: a graphics processor and a microprocessor. One emerging alternative approach to relieving these interconnect constraints is the use of wafer-level 3D integration, which provides a high density of high-performance, low-parasitic vertical interconnects. A wafer-level 3D design is partitionable into multiple chips connected by short vertical vias. This arrangement reduces the length of many global interconnects without introducing any logic complexity. Wafer-level 3D integration also reduces the required number of repeaters, thereby improving the area efficiency and reducing the power consumed within the interconnect network. With micron-size interwafer vias, wafer-level 3D integration allows a large memory bandwidth with little wafer area consumption. We have developed a software program that allows a first-order comparison of cache designs in 2D and 3D IC technologies. We present a first-order estimate of the performance improvements achieved by 3D implementation of cache memory, with emphasis on large caches in deep-submicron technologies.