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AThe Importance of Physical Design in Semiconductors
When people compare chips such as CPUs and GPUs, they mostly speak about the microarchiteture and the process node. Yet, Physical Design - which brings the two things (microarchitecture and process node) together, is rarely mentioned.
Definition of physical design:
>In integrated circuit design, physical design is a step in the standard design cycle which follows after the circuit design. At this step, circuit representations of the components (devices and interconnects) of the design are converted into geometric representations of shapes which, when manufactured in the corresponding layers of materials, will ensure the required functioning of the components. This geometric representation is called integrated circuit layout. This step is usually split into several sub-steps, which include both design and verification and validation of the layout
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical\_design\_(electronics) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_design_(electronics)
>Physical design is the process of turning a design into manufacturable geometries. It comprises a number of steps, including floorplanning, placement, clock tree synthesis, and routing.
https://semiengineering.com/knowledge\_centers/eda-design/definitions/physical-design/#:\~:text=Physical%20design%20is%20the%20process,which%20is%20synthesized%20from%20RTL.
Some examples:
>However, it should be apparent that clockspeed is not merely determined by the process node—with smaller transistors able to switch faster at a lower voltage—but also by physical design. One possible method for improving performance on the same process node is by working more directly with the fabrication process itself—what is generally known today as design technology co-optimization (DTCO). By leveraging transistor-level optimizations on the 28nm node, Nvidia was able to significantly improve both maximum frequency and power efficiency with its Maxwell architecture without a node improvement.12 nother method is path optimization—essentially identifying slow portions of the design and optimizing them so that the entire chip can operate at a higher frequency. This was what Nvidia leveraged with their Pascal architecture alongside FinFET transistors, and was why Nvidia achieved nearly 45% higher clockspeeds while AMD’s Polaris saw less than a 20% improvement in the same generation.
https://chipsandcheese.com/2021/06/22/nvidias-ampere-process-technology-sunk-by-samsung/
Process library optimisation, path optimisation, Design Technology Co-Optimisation (DTCO) etc... are all several aspects of Physical Design.
#technology #hardware
When people compare chips such as CPUs and GPUs, they mostly speak about the microarchiteture and the process node. Yet, Physical Design - which brings the two things (microarchitecture and process node) together, is rarely mentioned.
Definition of physical design:
>In integrated circuit design, physical design is a step in the standard design cycle which follows after the circuit design. At this step, circuit representations of the components (devices and interconnects) of the design are converted into geometric representations of shapes which, when manufactured in the corresponding layers of materials, will ensure the required functioning of the components. This geometric representation is called integrated circuit layout. This step is usually split into several sub-steps, which include both design and verification and validation of the layout
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical\_design\_(electronics) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_design_(electronics)
>Physical design is the process of turning a design into manufacturable geometries. It comprises a number of steps, including floorplanning, placement, clock tree synthesis, and routing.
https://semiengineering.com/knowledge\_centers/eda-design/definitions/physical-design/#:\~:text=Physical%20design%20is%20the%20process,which%20is%20synthesized%20from%20RTL.
Some examples:
>However, it should be apparent that clockspeed is not merely determined by the process node—with smaller transistors able to switch faster at a lower voltage—but also by physical design. One possible method for improving performance on the same process node is by working more directly with the fabrication process itself—what is generally known today as design technology co-optimization (DTCO). By leveraging transistor-level optimizations on the 28nm node, Nvidia was able to significantly improve both maximum frequency and power efficiency with its Maxwell architecture without a node improvement.12 nother method is path optimization—essentially identifying slow portions of the design and optimizing them so that the entire chip can operate at a higher frequency. This was what Nvidia leveraged with their Pascal architecture alongside FinFET transistors, and was why Nvidia achieved nearly 45% higher clockspeeds while AMD’s Polaris saw less than a 20% improvement in the same generation.
https://chipsandcheese.com/2021/06/22/nvidias-ampere-process-technology-sunk-by-samsung/
Process library optimisation, path optimisation, Design Technology Co-Optimisation (DTCO) etc... are all several aspects of Physical Design.
#technology #hardware
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