• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

OPENEDGES Successfully Validated Its 7nm HBM3 Testchip

Nomad76

News Editor
Staff member
Joined
May 21, 2024
Messages
735 (3.42/day)
OPENEDGES Technology, Inc the leading provider of memory subsystem IP, is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, The Six Semiconductor Inc (TSS), has successfully brought-up and validated its HBM3 testchip in 7 nm process technology. The IP validation testchip and the HBM3 PHY were brought up within the first month to 6.4 Gbps, and further tuning has resulted in successful operation of the HBM3 memory subsystem overclocked to 7.2 Gbps.

To date, there are only a handful of IP vendors that have taped out and demonstrated HBM3 memory subsystems, as test shuttle and HBM3 DRAM die stack sample availability are both highly limited. OPENEDGES is thrilled to be amongst one of the few companies to have demonstrated an HBM3 memory subsystem in silicon.





"Our confidence in the capabilities of our highly experienced engineering team allowed us to take on the extremely challenging HBM3 PHY IP and testchip development. We are very pleased to demonstrate our excellence with the smooth and successful bring-up of our HBM3 testchip.", said Farhad Haghighi Zadeh, TSS Principal Engineer and project lead for the HBM3 PHY and testchip.

The HBM3 PHY utilizes state-of-the-art architecture to maximize timing and voltage margins over process, voltage and temperature variations, while minimizing interruption to data traffic. The HBM3 PHY IP has the capability to support up to 16 independent and asynchronous channels, each with 2x32-bit DWORD pseudo-channels.

Additional features include fast frequency switching (multiple frequency set points), transient error handling (e.g. ECC, parity of data and command/address signals), as well as lane repair (Interconnect Redundancy Remapping), which detects, repairs, and remaps automatically in case of interconnect issues, making them transparent to the memory controller.

The development of an HBM3 memory subsystem is significantly different than that of other traditional DDR variants, as the memory controller/PHY SoC is in a 2.5D integration alongside the HBM3 die stack, the silicon interposer, and the package substrate. There is a high degree of physical architecture coherency required such that the tens of thousands of SoC micro-bumps are assigned, connected, and verified correctly. As such, it requires sophisticated design of physical constructs to carefully handle intertwined dependencies across multiple layers of design hierarchy. For example, the micro-bump array assignment would affect the PHY floorplan at the chip level, as much as it affects the RDL routings on the silicon interposer. On top of this, there is a persistent need for solid vertical delivery of power and grounds amongst a sea of signals; something that requires advanced planning—alongside the high-speed signal routings—as opposed to an afterthought.

The methodology used in the development of an HBM3 PHY testchip lend themselves very well to future chiplet designs. From the early physical planning on signal routings and power/ground deliveries, to co-planning of bumps and BGA balls along with the package substrate routings and planes, to the physical verification and cross-checks required; these are just some of the expertise and practical know-how required in the planning and development of an advanced memory subsystem chiplet.

With the silicon-proven success of its HBM3 PHY and testchip, proven design methodology and expertise, and complete portfolio of memory subsystem IPs, OPENEDGES is positioned to be the memory subsystem IP vendor of choice for the chiplet space.

"We are very proud of the successful bring-up and amazing results of our HBM3 testchip, demonstrating not just our capability to execute designs, but also to bring-up and tune the memory subsystem to maximize performance", said Richard Fung, CEO of TSS. "With the product development philosophy of bringing the latest DDR technologies to mature technology nodes, our lineup of advanced memory subsystem IPs is the perfect fit for anyone looking to build an IO chiplet with memory interfaces. Our memory controllers and PHYs are fully integrated, fully verified, ready to be deployed in our customers' chiplet products."

"The successful validation of our HBM3 test chip is not just a milestone, but a testament to the value of our technology," said Sean Lee, CEO of OPENEDGES Technology. "We continue to make significant progress in validating our IPs at the advanced nodes, taking further steps to empower our partners with superior performance and reliability".

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
 
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Messages
1,773 (0.60/day)
Location
NH, USA
System Name Lightbringer
Processor Ryzen 7 2700X
Motherboard Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming
Cooling Enermax Liqmax Iii 360mm AIO
Memory G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB (8GBx4) 3200Mhz CL 14
Video Card(s) Sapphire RX 5700XT Nitro+
Storage Hp EX950 2TB NVMe M.2, HP EX950 1TB NVMe M.2, Samsung 860 EVO 2TB
Display(s) LG 34BK95U-W 34" 5120 x 2160
Case Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic (White)
Power Supply BeQuiet Straight Power 11 850w Gold Rated PSU
Mouse Glorious Model O (Matte White)
Keyboard Royal Kludge RK71
Software Windows 10
Are most HBM chips produced on the 10+nm nodes? (What they enigmatically call 1z or 1b or whatever) will this 7nm give them some advantage?
 
Joined
May 7, 2020
Messages
145 (0.09/day)
Ofcourse, the smaller the better.
But why do they keep advertising HBM to us?
 
Joined
Jan 3, 2021
Messages
3,605 (2.49/day)
Location
Slovenia
Processor i5-6600K
Motherboard Asus Z170A
Cooling some cheap Cooler Master Hyper 103 or similar
Memory 16GB DDR4-2400
Video Card(s) IGP
Storage Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
Display(s) 2x Oldell 24" 1920x1200
Case Bitfenix Nova white windowless non-mesh
Audio Device(s) E-mu 1212m PCI
Power Supply Seasonic G-360
Mouse Logitech Marble trackball, never had a mouse
Keyboard Key Tronic KT2000, no Win key because 1994
Software Oldwin
Ofcourse, the smaller the better.
But why do they keep advertising HBM to us?
Because we will pay for them, indirectly, one way or another.

Are most HBM chips produced on the 10+nm nodes? (What they enigmatically call 1z or 1b or whatever) will this 7nm give them some advantage?
I'm struggling to understand this PR ... apparently they aren't designing or making the HBM chips and stacks themselves. They designed the test chip with a HBM3 PHY (physical interface to the memory chips). It's the large chip in the package. Maybe they designed the memory controller too but that's unclear. These components are usually developed by Synopsys, Cadence or Rambus and licensed out to everyone else.
 
Top