Date of Graduation

12-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Computer Engineering (MSCmpE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Computer Science & Computer Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Di, Jia

Committee Member

Thompson, Dale R.

Second Committee Member

Parkerson, James P.

Third Committee Member

Smith, Scott C.

Keywords

2D to 3D conversion methodology; 3D chip design; Low power chip design; Multi-threshold cmos

Abstract

A new and exciting approach in digital IC design in order to accommodate the Moore's law is 3D chip stacking. Chip stacking offers more transistors per chip, reduced wire lengths, and increased memory access bandwidths. This thesis demonstrates that traditional 2D design flow can be adapted for 3D chip stacking. 3D chip stacking has a serious drawback: heat generation. Die-on-die architecture reduces exposed surface area for heat dissipation. In order to reduce heat generation, a low power technique named Multi-Threshold CMOS (MTCMOS) was incorporated in this work. MTCMOS required designing a power management unit (to control when and which gates are powered), a MTCMOS gate library, and a state saving D-Flip-Flop. This thesis demonstrates converting a traditional 2D chip to a low heat 3D chip design with the use of MTCMOS technology using industry-standard CAD tools.

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