April 20, 2012 -- This article gives a high-level overview of a technique for rapid design of new IC designs using multiple dice packaged in a variety of aggregations allowing for different performance levels and price points to be achieved. The technique relies on a new high-bandwidth low-pin-count communication channel between two or more dice.
The channel allows the on-chip interconnect to be extended to bridge between chips while allowing other signals to be integrated in a low power manner. This arrangement provides the basis of a family of platforms which supports the integration of multiple chips within a package (or on a board) and permits each die to have been designed independently.
By Andrew Jones and Stuart Ryan. (The authors are with STMicroelectronics R&D, Ltd.)
This brief introduction has been excerpted from the original copyrighted article.
