International Business Machines Corporation

Qualcomm Incorporated

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Daniel Lawrence Stasiak

Rajat Chaudhry

Michael Fan Wang

David Howard Allen

Andrew Douglas Davies

Hassan Naser

Tilman Gloekler

Todd Swanson

James Scott Neely

Martin Saint-Laurent

Joachim Gerhard Clabes

Lawrence Joseph Powell, Jr

Sanjay Bhagawan Patil

Jente Benedict Kuang

Sei Seung Yoon

Chulmin Jung

Mack Wayne Riley

Jeffrey Douglas Brown

Stephen Douglas Weitzel

Rui Li

Donald Lee Freerksen

Bin Liang

Scott A Hilker

Balaram Sinharoy

Daniel Mark Dreps

Charles Ray Johns

John Edward Sheets, Ii

Kenneth Parker Rodbell

Michael Stephen Floyd

Frank David Ferraiolo

Mark Richard Nutter

Peter Juergen Klim

Michael Norman Day

Anthony Gus Aipperspach

Christopher McCall Durham

Nazmul Habib

Stanley Everett Schuster

Philip Joseph Oldiges

Albert James Van Norstrand, Jr

Susan K Lichtensteiger

David Michael Friend

Peter William Cook

Kazuaki Yazawa

Hiroki Kihara

Richard Andre Wachnik

Nghia Van Phan

Iwao Takiguchi

Mary Joseph Saccamango

Munehiro Yoshida

Nathan Paul Chelstrom

Tetsuji Tamura

Owen Chiang

Cynthia Rae Eisner

Frederick Jacob Ziegler

Pong-Fei Lu

Matthew A Cooke

Steven Ross Ferguson

Chiaki Takano

Bradley Craig White

Bruce Balch

Alexander Itskovich

Byron D Scott

Michael J Mueller

Peter Hofstee

Calist Friedman

Martin Pierre Saint-Laurent

An integrated circuit module, system and method of providing power and signals is disclosed that includes a silicon chip and a package substrate having voltage connections and signal connections. The silicon chip includes a silicon substrate having a top surface, a bottom surface and circuitry formed therein, one or more front-side metal layers formed on the top surface of the silicon substrate, one or more back-side metal layers formed on the bottom surface of the silicon substrate, and one or more through silicon vias (TSVs) formed through the silicon substrate for creating a conductive pathway from the back-side of the silicon substrate to the front-side of the silicon substrate, preferably closest to the silicon substrate.

Method and apparatus for supplying power to VLSI silicon chips

An integrated circuit package with a buffer providing radiation protection to memory elements and components is described. The integrated circuit packages and the incorporated buffers provide a protective distance between potential sources of internal radiation particles within the integrated circuit package and any memory elements/components which may be sensitive to radiation such as alpha particles. This protective distance allows for the integrated circuit packages to be completed or assembled without needing added more expensive or redundant memory components.

Reducing error rates with alpha particle protection

An approach to creating a semiconductor chip including a semiconductor substrate with one or more topside metal layers and one or more backside metal layers. The approach creates the semiconductor chip with one or more semiconductor devices with wiring interconnects in the one or more topside metal layers on the semiconductor substrate and one or more inductors in the one or more backside metal layer. Furthermore, the approach creates the semiconductor chip with one or more through silicon vias extending through the semiconductor substrate connecting the one or more inductors in the one or more backside metal layers and the one or more semiconductor devices with wiring interconnects in the one or more topside metal layers on the semiconductor substrate.

Semiconductor device with backside inductor using through silicon vias

Structure and method for a backside capacitor using through-substrate vias (TSVs) and backside metal plates. The structure includes: a substrate, a device layer over the substrate, a first plurality of metal layers connected to the device layer, where the device layer and the first plurality of metal layers are disposed on a first side of the substrate, and a second plurality of metal layers disposed on a second side of the substrate opposite the first side, where the second plurality of metal layers form at least one capacitor and where a plurality of through-substrate vias (TSVs) extend between the first plurality of metal layers and the second plurality of metal layers.

On-die capacitor for a VLSI chip with backside metal plates

A computer-readable storage medium for controlling voltage droop storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a device to perform operations including receiving a first voltage to a first input of a first component of a device. The first voltage corresponding to a first logical value causes a first internal power supply of the first component to be charged using an external power supply. The operations further include providing a second voltage to a second input of a second component of the device in response to a first voltage level of the first internal power supply satisfying a second voltage level. The second voltage corresponding to the first logical value causes a second internal power supply of the second component of the device to be charged using the external power supply.

Voltage droop control

Voltage droop control is disclosed. A device includes a first component coupled to an external power supply and a second component coupled to the external power supply. The first component includes a first input configured to receive a first voltage, a first internal power supply configured to be charged by the external power supply in response to the first voltage corresponding to a first logical value, and a voltage droop controller configured to output a second voltage via a first output. The second voltage corresponds to the first logical value in response to a first voltage level of the first internal power supply satisfying a second voltage level. The second component includes a second input configured to receive the second voltage from the first output.

An apparatus includes a first node configured to provide a first supply voltage to a first device and a second node configured to provide a second supply voltage to a second device. The apparatus further includes a bus configured to communicatively couple the first device and the second device. The apparatus also includes a switch configured to couple the first node and the second node.

Supply voltage node coupling using a switch

The present invention provides for notifying threads. A determination is made whether there is a condition for which a thread is to be notified. If so, a notification indicia is broadcasted. A flag is set in at least one memory storage area as a function of the notification indicia wherein the setting the flag occurs without the intervention of an operating system. Therefore, latencies for notification of threads are minimized.

Broadcasting a condition to threads executing on a plurality of on-chip processors

A design structure is embodied in a machine readable medium for designing, manufacturing, or testing integrated circuitry. The design structure includes first hardware for executing first software in response to macros that describe the integrated circuitry, and for generating a set of constants in response to the execution of the first software. Second hardware is for receiving the set of constants from the first hardware, and for executing second software in response to the macros and the set of constants, and for estimating a power consumption of the integrated circuitry in response to the execution of the second software.

Method and system for estimating power consumption of integrated circuitry

A method is provided for characterizing performance of a chip having at least one voltage island and at least one performance screen ring oscillator (PSRO). An on-chip performance monitor (OCPM) is incorporated on the voltage island. Performance measurements of the voltage island are generated with only the voltage island under power. Performance measurements of the performance screen ring oscillator (PSRO) are generated with only the voltage island under power. Performance measurements of the performance screen ring oscillator (PSRO) is compared to the performance measurements of the on-chip performance monitor (OCPM) to determine a systematic offset due to the voltage island. Performance models are adjusted using the systematic offset due to the voltage island.

Voltage island performance/leakage screen monitor for IP characterization

A method, system, and computer program product are provided for distributing net power accurately. A workload is simulated operating on an integrated circuit. Net switching activity is determined for a set of nets and a set of subnets in the integrated circuit. Net switching data is generated based on the net switching activity. A net power value is calculated for each individual net and each individual subnet using the net switching data and a net capacitance for each individual net or subnet. Each calculated net power value is assigned to one of a set of source devices that drives the individual net or subnet, wherein the net power is distributed accurately. A net power assignment list is generated based on the assigning of each net power value to one of the set of source devices that drives the individual net or subnet.

Distributing integrated circuit net power accurately in power and thermal analysis

Structure for estimating power consumption of integrated circuitry

A method, a computer program, and an apparatus are provided for generating circuit energy models for a macro using multiple clock gating inputs. Circuit energy models are used to estimate system power consumption. The present invention enables circuit energy models to be created for macros that contain multiple clock gating inputs. Energy tables are created based upon the macro's input switching factor and the clock activation percentage. The clock activation percentage is produced by turning on and off the multiple clock gating inputs during the simulations. These energy tables are generated from a minimum number of power simulations. By using clock activation percentage as a parameter accurate power estimations are produced.

Method and apparatus to generate circuit energy models with multiple clock gating inputs

First hardware is for executing first software in response to macros that describe integrated circuitry, and for generating a set of constants in response to the execution of the first software. Second hardware is for receiving the set of constants from the first hardware, and for executing second software in response to the macros and the set of constants, and for estimating a power consumption of the integrated circuitry in response to the execution of the second software.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Daniel Lawrence Stasiak