The economics of active versus passive substrate MCMs for the cost-effective implementation of massively parallel processors

Author

Jalowiecki, I. ; Dislis, C. ; Bazazan-Noghani, W.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Electron., Brunel Univ., Uxbridge, UK

fYear

1997

fDate

2-4 Apr 1997

Firstpage

303

Lastpage

308

Abstract

This paper presents the key features of a cost-modelling framework devised for passive substrate MCMs and describes the extension of the framework for active-substrate MCMs. A case study is described, comprising a processing node for a Modular Massively Parallel Computer (Modular-MPC), incorporating 4096 fine-grain processing elements. A comparison is made between a passive-substrate MCM and a functionally identical active-substrate MCM implementation, detailing the characteristics and methodologies associated with both variants. The natural regularity of the architecture enables an active-substrate solution, with dynamic electronic reconfiguration combined with simple discretionary assembly. The cost study shows that under certain circumstances, the active-substrate MCM solution offers a favourable and cost-effective solution

Keywords

costing; economics; integrated circuit manufacture; multichip modules; parallel machines; active-substrate MCM; cost-effective implementation; cost-modelling framework; dynamic electronic reconfiguration; economics; massively parallel processors; modular massively parallel computer; passive substrate MCM; Assembly; Computer architecture; Concurrent computing; Cost function; Design for experiments; Parallel processing; Semiconductor device modeling; Substrates; Testing; Very large scale integration;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Multichip Modules, 1997., International Conference on

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3787-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICMCM.1997.581194

Filename

581194