Why Chiplets Have Become Essential in a Post-Moore’s Law World

admin_mirabilis

Chiplets Have Become Essential in a Post-Moore's Law World

For a generation of engineers, Moore’s law has proved to be a constant. The industry has continued to advance forward year after year with the promise of performance gains holding steady. That is until recently. With Moore’s law at least slowing (if not outright failing) and Dennard Scaling also long over, the era of guaranteed performance gains has come to an end. With the shift toward a more vertically integrated approach from most of the fabless players, the question of what to do in a post-Moore’s law world is one that needs solving. 

Moore's Law
Moore's Law (till 2020)

The Challenges Beyond Moore’s Law

As we’ve pushed transistors to their smallest possible size, we’re facing three big issues:

  1. Physical Limits: Chips are now so small – down to 2 nm process nodes that the physical limit of shrinking sizes is going to be reached.
  2. Cost: Designing chips at the leading transistor nodes has become prohibitively expensive. 
  3. Diminishing returns: Smaller doesn’t always mean better anymore. The performance gains from designing on the latest process nodes are no longer proportional to the effort and cost involved.

What Are Chiplets?

Chiplets are modular integrated circuits (ICs) that can be assembled together into a more powerful package. Unlike traditional monolithic designs where all components are built onto a single piece of silicon, chiplet-based architectures use multiple smaller dies, interconnected within the same package. Allowing for more flexibility in the overall design. 

Why Chiplets Are a Game-Changer

Overcoming Manufacturing Limits whilst reducing cost

Chiplets enable manufacturers to sidestep some of the physical limitations associated with shrinking transistors. Instead of relying on cutting-edge fabrication processes for an entire chip, manufacturers can use advanced nodes where necessary (e.g., for high-performance cores), while relying on more mature, cost-effective processes for other components (e.g., I/O controllers or memory interfaces). 

The ability to mix and match chiplets fabricated at different nodes leads to significant cost savings. For example, by separating high-performance logic from lower-priority components, manufacturers can optimize the cost structure without sacrificing performance in areas that will make the most difference. 

Design Flexibility

Chiplets offer an unparalleled level of design flexibility. Manufacturers can create custom combinations of chiplets for specific tasks, whether that’s high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), or consumer electronics. As vertical integration grows across the industry, a one size fits all approach is no longer competitive. 

The Role of Early Architecture Exploration in Chiplet Design

Early architecture exploration plays a pivotal role in the design of chiplets. By modeling and simulating different architectural configurations at the start of the design process, engineers can identify optimal combinations of chiplets, compute engines, and interconnect options. 

Simulation and modelling has a huge impact on the power and performance decisions that design teams need to make. Through virtual prototyping, designers can see how different chiplet combinations will behave in real-world scenarios, allowing them to fine-tune configurations before further physical development. The ability to evaluate power consumption, thermal dissipation, and signal integrity through simulation ensures that chiplet designs are managed efficiently. 

Conclusion

In a world where Moore’s Law is no longer the driving force behind performance gains, chiplets offer a new way for companies to differentiate their designs in an ever increasingly competitive market. Early architecture exploration and simulation tools, such as VisualSim Architect, are vital for optimizing power, performance, and cost in chiplet-based designs, empowering engineers to make informed decisions at the outset of the design process. Mirabilis Design, through VisualSim, is at the forefront of the chiplet revolution and has enabled customers in a variety of market segments to simplify and optimize their chiplet designs.