Jason Stinson

A 45 nm 8-Core Enterprise Xeon¯ Processor

This paper describes a 2.3 Billion transistors, 8-core, 16-thread, 64-bit Xeon® EX processor with a 24 MB shared L3 cache implemented in a 45 nm nine-metal process. Multiple clock and voltage domains are used to reduce power consumption. Long channel devices and cache sleep mode are used to minimize leakage. Core and cache recovery improve manufacturing yields and enable multiple product flavors from the same silicon die. The disabled blocks are both clock and power gated to minimize their power consumption. Idle power is reduced by shutting off the unterminated I/O links and shedding phases in the voltage regulator to improve the power conversion efficiency.

A 65-nm Dual-Core Multithreaded Xeon® Processor With 16-MB L3 Cache

This paper describes a dual-core 64-b Xeon MP processor implemented in a 65-nm eight-metal process. The 435-mm2 die has 1.328-B transistors. Each core has two threads and a unified 1-MB L2 cache. The 16-MB shared, 16-way set-associative L3 cache implements both sleep and shut-off leakage reduction modes. Long channel transistors are used to reduce subthreshold leakage in cores and uncore (all portions of the die that are outside the cores) control logic. Multiple voltage and clock domains are employed to reduce power

A 1.5-GHz 130-nm Itanium/sup /spl reg// 2 Processor with 6-MB on-die L3 cache

This 130-nm Itanium 2 processor implements the explicitly parallel instruction computing (EPIC) architecture and features an on-die 6-MB 24-way set-associative level-3 cache. The 374-mm/sup 2/ die contains 410 M transistors and is implemented in a dual-V/sub t/ process with six Cu interconnect layers and FSG dielectric. The processor runs at 1.5 GHz at 1.3 V and dissipates a maximum of 130 W. This paper reviews circuit design and package details, power delivery, the reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features, design for test (DFT), and design for manufacturability (DFM) features, as well as an overview of the design and verification methodology. The fuse-based clock deskew circuit achieves 24-ps skew across the entire die, while the scan-based skew control further reduces it to 7 ps. The 128-bit front-side bus has a bandwidth of 6.4 GB/s and supports up to four processors on a single bus.

Power reduction techniques for an 8-core xeon ® processor

This paper presents the power reduction and management techniques for the 45nm, 8-core Nehalem-EX processor. Multiple clock and voltage domains are used to reduce power consumption. Long channel devices and cache sleep mode are used to minimize leakage. Core and cache recovery improve manufacturing yields and enable multiple product flavors from the same silicon die. Clock and power gating minimize power consumed by disabled blocks. An on-die microcontroller manages voltage and frequency operating points, as well as power and thermal events. Idle power is reduced by shutting off the un-terminated I/O links and shedding phases in the voltage regulator to improve the power conversion efficiency.

A 1.5GHz third generation Itanium 2 processor

This 130nm Itanium/spl reg/ 2 processor implements the Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) architecture and features an on-die 6MB, 24-way set associative L3 cache. The 374mm/sup 2/ die contains 410M transistors and is implemented in a dual-Vt process with 6 layers copper interconnect and FSG dielectric. The processor runs at 1.5GHz at 1.3V and dissipates a maximum of 130W. This paper reviews circuit design and package details, power delivery, RAS, DFT and DFM features, as well as an overview of the design and verification methodology. The fuse-based clock de-skew circuit achieves 24ps skew across the entire die, while the scan-based skew control further reduces it to 7ps. The 128-bit front-side bus supports up to 4 processors on a single bus with a bandwidth of up to 6.4GB/s.

A 1.5 GHz third generation Itanium/spl reg/ processor

A third-generation 1.5 GHz Itanium/spl reg/ processor implements the Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) architecture and features an on-die 6 MB, 24-way set associative L3 cache. The 374 mm/sup 2/ die contains 410M transistors and is implemented in a dual-V/sub T/ 0.13 /spl mu/m technology having 6-level Cu interconnects with FSG dielectric and dissipates 130 W.