Monday, March 2nd 2020

CEA-Leti Makes a 96 core CPU from Six Chiplets

Chiplet design of processors is getting more popular due to many improvements and opportunities it offers. Some of the benefits include lower costs as the dies are smaller compared to one monolithic design, while you are theoretically able to stitch as much of the chiplets together as possible. During the ISSCC 2020 conference, CEA-Leti, a French research institute, created a 96 core CPU made from six 3D stacked 16 core chiplets. The chip is created as a demonstration of what this modular approach offers and what are the capabilities of the chiplet-based CPU design.

The chiplets are manufactured on the 28 nm FD-SOI manufacturing process from STMicroelectronics, while the active interposer die below them that is connecting everything is made using the 65 nm process. Each one of the six dies is housing 16 cores based on MIPS Instruction Set Architecture core. Each chiplet is split into four 4-core clusters that make up for a total of 16 cores per chiplet. When it comes to the core itself, it is a scalar MIPS32v1 core equipped with 16 KiB of L1 instruction and an L1 data cache. For L2 cache, there is 256 KiB per cluster, while the L3 cache is split into four 1 MiB tiles for the whole cluster. The chiplets are stacked on top of an active interposer which connects the chiplets and provides external I/O support.
To connect the chiplets, each die has four unique connectors called the "3D Plug", which is a die-to-die interface. It achieves a throughput of 3 TB/s/mm², while its power efficiency is rated at 0.59 pico Joules per bit. The chip operates at 130 MHz frequency at 0.5 V power, however, it can run at 1.1 GHz given a 1.1 V of power.
Source: WikiChip
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10 Comments on CEA-Leti Makes a 96 core CPU from Six Chiplets

#1
koaschten
The chiplets are manufactured on the 28 nm FD-SOI manufacturing process from STMicroelectronics, while the active interposer die bellow below them that is connecting everything is made using the 65 nm process. Each one of the six dies is housing 16 cores based on MISP MIPS Instruction Set Architecture core. Each chiplet is split into four 4-core clusters that make up for a total of 16 cores per chiplet.
bellow - roar, shout, yell -> below - under
MISP -> MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined Stages)
Posted on Reply
#2
AleksandarK
News Editor
koaschtenbellow - roar, shout, yell -> below - under
MISP -> MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined Stages)
Thanks for pointing out the typos. Corrected it :)
Posted on Reply
#3
MagnuTron
koaschtenbellow - roar, shout, yell -> below - under
MISP -> MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined Stages)
+1
Posted on Reply
#5
bonehead123
ZoneDymobut can it run crysis?
probably, but only at .0000069418 FPS, hahaha :)
Posted on Reply
#6
lexluthermiester
ZoneDymobut can it run crysis?
Actually, no. Crysis is compiled for X86/X64 CPU's. This new CPU is a MIPS type. Unless the game code is recompiled, it will fail to run at all.
Posted on Reply
#7
Tomgang
Wait am I missing something here or are they using 28/65 nm fabrication to make a cpu in 2020?

And here I believed Intel was bad on using old tech by keep using 14 NM.

Those clock speeds are low as he'll. I don't know what this specific cpu is designed for, but besides core count I am not inpressed about this cpu so far.
Posted on Reply
#8
hat
Enthusiast
TomgangWait am I missing something here or are they using 28/65 nm fabrication to make a cpu in 2020?

And here I believed Intel was bad on using old tech by keep using 14 NM.

Those clock speeds are low as he'll. I don't know what this specific cpu is designed for, but besides core count I am not inpressed about this cpu so far.
No idea, but not everything needs to be on a cutting edge process or have cutting edge performance... or maybe this thing will perform really well at whatever it's designed for.

Simple chips, such as the stuff that controls your washing machine, may be made on an even older process...
Posted on Reply
#9
ZoneDymo
lexluthermiesterActually, no. Crysis is compiled for X86/X64 CPU's. This new CPU is a MIPS type. Unless the game code is recompiled, it will fail to run at all.
Well that does it! im not getting one now :mad:
Posted on Reply
#10
BrainCruser
TomgangWait am I missing something here or are they using 28/65 nm fabrication to make a cpu in 2020?

And here I believed Intel was bad on using old tech by keep using 14 NM.

Those clock speeds are low as he'll. I don't know what this specific cpu is designed for, but besides core count I am not inpressed about this cpu so far.
The 28nm process is the best cost efficient process. After that the process becomes more expensive, not less. And if you are aiming for both power efficient and cost efficient design, this isn't a bad choice.
Posted on Reply
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