Announced the formation of the UCIe (Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express) consortium, aimed at developing open specifications and forming an ecosystem for chiplet technology (chiplet). Chiplets allow you to create combined hybrid integrated circuits (multi-chip modules) formed from independent semiconductor blocks that are not tied to one manufacturer and interact with each other using a standard high-speed UCIe interface.
To develop a specialized solution, for example, creating a processor with a built-in accelerator for machine learning or processing network operations, when using UCIe, it is enough to use existing chiplets with processor cores or accelerators offered by different manufacturers. If there are no standard solutions, you can create your own chiplet with the necessary functionality, using technologies and solutions that are convenient for you.
After that, it is enough to combine the selected chiplets using a block layout in the style of LEGO constructors (the proposed technology is somewhat reminiscent of the use of PCIe boards for composing a computer's filling, but only at the level of integrated circuits). Data exchange and interaction between the chipsets is carried out using a high-speed UCIe interface, and the system-on-package (SoP, system-on-package) paradigm is used for the layout of the blocks instead of the system-on-chip (SoC, system-on-chip).
Compared to SoCs, chiplet technology makes it possible to create replaceable and reusable semiconductor blocks that can be used in different devices, which significantly reduces the cost of chip development. Chiplet-based systems can combine different architectures and manufacturing processes - since each chiplet operates separately, interacting through standard interfaces, blocks with different instruction set architectures (ISAs), such as RISC-V, ARM and x86, can be combined in one product . The use of chiplets also simplifies testing - each chiplet can be tested separately at the stage before integration into a ready-made solution.
Intel, AMD, ARM, Qualcomm, Samsung, ASE (Advanced Semiconductor Engineering), Google Cloud, Meta/Facebook, Microsoft, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company have joined the chiplet technology initiative. The public UCIe 1.0 specification is presented to the public, standardizing the methods of connecting integrated circuits on a common basis, the protocol stack, the programming model and the testing process. Among the interfaces for connecting chipsets, support for PCIe (PCI Express) and CXL (Compute Express Link) is announced.
Source: opennet.ru