Technique for interconnecting integrated circuits

Abstract

Two integrated circuit dies (12, 14) each having a processing core (20, 48) and onboard memory (30, 32, 60, 62) are interconnected and packaged together to form a multi-chip module (10) . The first die (12) is considered primary and the second die (14) is considered secondary, and they are connected by an interposer (16). The first and second die may have the same design and thus the same resources such as peripheral components (28, 56) and memory and preferably have a common system interconnect protocol. The core of the second die is disabled or at least placed in a reduced power mode. The first die includes minimal circuitry (34, 26) for interconnecting with the second die. The second die has some required interface circuitry (52) and address translator (50). The result is that the cores of the first die are able to perform transactions with respect to the memory and other resources of the second integrated circuit as if the memory and other resources were on the first die.

Description

technical field [0001] This application relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly to the interconnection of integrated circuits. Background technique [0002] There have been many reasons for interconnecting multiple integrated circuit dies to form a single packaged device. One use is to add memory to a given package. Another use is to join two dies that are normally used together but are difficult to make using a process that works for both. An example is logic circuits and RF circuits used in mobile phones. Sometimes there are interconnect issues or interference issues that must be addressed. Sometimes in any case there is a problem to be solved due to the particular combination of dies being implemented. Regardless of the reason for the bonding of multiple dies, there are problems that arise to overcome the need to have multiple dies. The ability to combine multiple functions on a single die is still limited, and thus the problems associated with multiple...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The ability to combine multiple functions on a single die is still limited, so the problems associated with multiple dies remain

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