International Business Machines Corporation

Sridhar H Rangarajan

Sourav Saha

George Antony

Harry S Barowski

Haoxing Ren

Joachim Keinert

Diyanesh B Chinnakkonda Vidyapoornachary

Vinay K Singh

Kirk David Peterson

Saravanan Sethuraman

Christopher J Berry

Ricardo H Nigaglioni

John B DeForge

Ankit N Kagliwal

Warren Edward Maule

Mary Prilotski Kusko

James Douglas Warnock

Thomas Edward Rosser

Raghu G GopalaKrishnaSetty

David James Hathaway

William Vincent Huott

John Maxwell Cohn

Alexander Joel Suess

Anil Bindu Lingambudi

Andrew A Turner

Arindam Raychaudhuri

Diyanesh Babu C Vidyapoornachary

Robert C Redburn

Sumantra Sarkar

Shrinivas Shenoy

Ashish Jaitly

A method for adding an electrical interconnection within a three-dimensional integrated circuit (3-D IC) is disclosed. The method may include creating, within a design file of a 3-D IC that specifies a layout for a first chip of the 3-D IC, design data corresponding to a set of through-silicon via (TSV) reservation areas. The method may also include receiving an engineering change order (ECO) and releasing, in response to the ECO, at least one TSV reservation area for reuse. The method may also include adding, by re-using at least one TSV reservation area, an electrical interconnection within the design file of the first chip of the 3-D IC.

Integrated circuit design changes using through-silicon vias

Optimizing error correcting code (ECC) in three-dimensional (3D) stacked memory including selecting, as an ECC memory chip, a memory chip of a plurality of memory chips in a 3D stacked memory structure, wherein the 3D stacked memory structure comprises the plurality of memory chips stacked vertically and coupled together using through-silicon vias; determining that an error has been detected in one of the plurality of memory chips in the 3D stacked memory structure; selecting, based on the detected error, an order of an ECC decoder of the ECC stored in the ECC memory chip; and correcting the detected error in the 3D stacked memory structure using the ECC stored in the ECC memory chip.

Optimizing error correcting code in three-dimensional stacked memory

Methods that can manage power for memory subsystems are provided. One method includes providing power to a set of memory devices via a set of power modules, determining a first amount of power being consumed by the set of memory devices, and in response to a predetermined event, modifying a second amount of power provided to the set of memory devices via a set of spare power modules. Systems and apparatuses that can include, perform, and/or implement the method are also provided.

Power management for memory subsystems

An aspect includes receiving a request to write data to a memory that includes a stack of memory devices, each of the memory devices communicatively coupled to at least one other of the memory devices in the stack via a through silicon via (TSV). The write request is received by a hypervisor from an application executing on a virtual machine managed by the hypervisor. In response to receiving the request a latency requirement of accesses to the write data is determined. A physical location on a memory device in the stack of memory devices is assigned to the write data based at least in part on the latency requirement and a position of the memory device in the stack of memory devices. A write command that includes the physical location and the write data is sent to a memory controller.

Three-dimensional stacked memory optimizations for latency and power

An aspect includes receiving a request to access one or more memory devices in a stack of memory devices in a memory. Each of the memory devices are communicatively coupled to at least one other of the memory devices in the stack via a through silicon via (TSV). A current operating mode of the memory is determined in response to receiving the request. Based at least in part on the current operating mode of the memory being a first mode, a chip select switch is activated to provide access to exactly one of the memory devices in the stack of memory devices. Based at least in part on the current operating mode of the memory being a second mode, the chip select switch is activated to access all of the memory devices in the stack in parallel. The request is serviced using the activated chip select switch.

Three-dimensional stacked memory access optimization

A computer-implemented method for modifying an original design of an integrated circuit in accordance with an engineering change order (ECO) design includes cloning complex logic gate having multiple logic functions with cloned logic gates in parallel with the corresponding complex logic gates in the original design and the ECO design and expanding each cloned logic gate to corresponding base functionality logic gates to provide an expanded original design and an expanded ECO design using the processor. The method also includes modifying at least a portion of the expanded original design to have a circuit topology that is the same as the expanded ECO design in order to have an input from the expanded original design to an output structure be the same as the input from the expanded ECO design to the output structure in response to an expanded original design input and an expanded ECO design input being non-equivalent.

Integrated circuit logic extraction using cloning and expansion for engineering change order

A method includes receiving a circuit design comprising an input scan chain comprising a plurality of latches connected by one or more scan connections, dividing the plurality of latches into one or more clusters, determining a number of scan controls for each cluster, placing the determined scan controls in selected locations; and adjusting the scan connections based on the scan control location. A corresponding computer system and computer program product are also disclosed.

Adjusting scan connections based on scan control locations

A method, executed by a computer, includes receiving a scan chain design comprising a plurality of parallel scan chains, each parallel scan chain comprising one or more serially connected single-bit registers, each parallel scan chain having a scan chain length. The plurality of parallel scan chains are interspersed with a plurality of stumpmuxes that enable access to the plurality of parallel scan chains and segment each parallel scan chain into a plurality of scan chain segments. The method further includes conducting a determining operation comprising determining a parallel scan chain having a longest scan chain length, and conducting a swapping operation comprising swapping scan chain segments attached to a selected stumpmux to reduce the longest scan chain length and produce an updated scan chain design. A computer system and computer product corresponding to the above method are also disclosed herein.

Scan chain latency reduction

A method and system to identify a region of a design block of an integrated circuit for redesign are described. The method includes dividing the design block into grids, each of the grids including a corresponding number of logic elements. The method also includes filtering each of the grids based on a specified criteria, the filtering including determining a number (B) of the corresponding logic elements among a total number (A) of the logic elements in each grid that meet the specified criteria. The region is a set of two or more of the grids based on a result of the filtering.

Critical region identification

A through-silicon via access device (TSVAD) for establishing an electrical connection to a through-silicon via (TSV) located in a planar stack of semiconductor chips is disclosed. The TSVAD may include a switching circuit, having a conductive pad terminal, a TSV terminal, an input terminal coupled to a sending logic circuit, an output terminal coupled to a receiving logic circuit, and logic devices to, in response to control signals, couple the TSV terminal to the conductive pad terminal, in one configuration, and couple the TSV terminal to another terminal in another configuration. The TSVAD may also include a control circuit to generate control signals to cause an input selection circuit to drive a signal from the sending logic circuit onto the input terminal, and to cause an output selection circuit to drive a logic signal from the output terminal to the receiving logic circuit.

Through-silicon via access device for integrated circuits

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a computer-implemented method for inserting diagnostic circuit elements in a scan chain of a chip may include creating, via a processor, a segment for each latch of a plurality of latches in the scan chain to create a plurality of adjacent and connected segments, merging, via the processor, the two adjacent and connected segments to form a super-segment comprising all latches contained in the two adjacent and connected segments based on the objective function, and inserting, via the processor, a logic circuit element between the super-segment and a segment that is adjacent and connected to the super-segment in the scan chain, where the logic circuit element allows diagnostic isolation of the scan chain super-segment.

Growing community of inventors

Bengaluru, India

Sridhar H Rangarajan