A scalable 3D heterogeneous multi-core processor with inductive-coupling thruchip interface

Recent battery driven IT devices including smart phone and tablets require versatile functions and high performance with low energy consumption. On the other hand, the initial cost of LSI for design and mask development has increased rapidly, and development of an SoC (System-on-a Chip) for each product has become difficult. Although flexible reconfigurable architectures can be a solution, the performance scalability is also necessary to cope with the wide performance range of products. As a solution, heterogeneous multi-core system using a 3-D wireless inductive coupling interconnect is proposed. This system consists of a MIPS-R3000 compatible embedded CPU and reconfigurable accelerators. Since chips are connected with wireless inductive coupling channels, the number and types of accelerators can be tailored easily depending on the requirement of the product.