Exploring AMBA AXI on-Chip interconnection for TSV-based 3D SoCs

In this paper, we propose a methodology for enabling Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture (AMBA) Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI) protocol on Through Silicon Via (TSV) based 3D System-on-Chips (SoCs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that explores such a topic. The proposed methodology relies on a novel TSV-aware AXI bridge to save chip area taken up by TSVs, by serializing communication on TSVs, and further improve TSV reliability by using redundant or larger TSVs. Several AXI bridges can form a 3D Network-on-Chip (NoC) on a 3D SoC so as to allow high-performance communication and scalability of design.