Sustaining Silicon Reliability in High-Performance CPU Design

Topic: 
Sustaining Silicon Reliability in High-Performance CPU Design
Thursday, December 15, 2016 - 4:30pm to 5:30pm
Venue: 
Packard Building, Room 202
Speaker: 
Dr. Tom Burd, Senior Fellow, Advanced Micro Devices
Abstract / Description: 

As high-performance CPUs shrink into advanced CMOS process technologies, thinning dielectrics and dwindling wire interconnects demand an ever-increasing complexity of reliability analysis, modeling, and design techniques.  This is particularly true for CPUs in notebook and desktop computers, in which to maximize the user experience, it is critical to maximize the voltage and frequency for the small fraction of the lifetime when peak performance is actually needed.  An overview of methodologies and design considerations for maintaining the silicon reliability of high-performance CPUs is presented, with particular focus on dielectric breakdown and electromigration as the two most critical limiters. As dynamic voltage and frequency scaling has become pervasive in the mobile and embedded processor space, these techniques will become essential to a broader spectrum of the semiconductor industry as their respective frequencies continue to increase.

Bio: 

Tom Burd received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley in 1992, 1994, and 2001, respectively.  He joined AMD in 2005, and is currently the physical design architect of a next-generation x86 CPU core.  Previously, Dr. Burd has held various technical leadership roles on multiple high-performance x86 microprocessors, including technical leadership for the silicon reliability of several generations of CPU & APU products.  Prior to joining AMD, he consulted at several Silicon Valley startups, including Telegent Systems, Raza Microelectronics, and Matrix Semiconductor. 

Dr. Burd has authored or co-authored numerous papers in the areas of low-power CMOS design, energy-efficient microprocessor design, CAD algorithms, and high-performance CPU design, and has been awarded several patents. He is currently serving on the ISSCC Technical Program Committee, and has in the past served on the TPC for VLSI Symposium, ICCAD, and Hot Chips. He was the recipient of the 2001 ISSCC Lewis Winner Award for best conference paper, and is the author of the book Energy Efficient Microprocessor Design.