CoMeT: An Integrated Interval Thermal Simulation Toolchain for 2D, 2.5D, and 3D Processor-Memory Systems

TL;DR

CoMeT is a novel thermal simulation toolchain that models both cores and memory in 2D, 2.5D, and 3D processor-memory systems, enabling better thermal management research for high-density packaging.

Contribution

It introduces the first integrated core and memory thermal simulation toolchain supporting various high-density configurations, with minimal overhead and open-source availability.

Findings

Supports thermal simulation for 2D, 2.5D, and 3D systems.

Adds only ~5% overhead compared to core-only tools.

Open-source under MIT license.

Abstract

Processing cores and the accompanying main memory working in tandem enable the modern processors. Dissipating heat produced from computation, memory access remains a significant problem for processors. Therefore, processor thermal management continues to be an active research topic. Most thermal management research takes place using simulations, given the challenges of measuring temperature in real processors. Since core and memory are fabricated on separate packages in most existing processors, with the memory having lower power densities, thermal management research in processors has primarily focused on the cores. Memory bandwidth limitations associated with 2D processors lead to high-density 2.5D and 3D packaging technology. 2.5D packaging places cores and memory on the same package. 3D packaging technology takes it further by stacking layers of memory on the top of cores themselves. Such packagings significantly increase the power density, making processors prone to heating. Therefore, mitigating thermal issues in high-density processors (packaged with stacked memory) becomes an even more pressing problem. However, given the lack of thermal modeling for memories in existing interval thermal simulation toolchains, they are unsuitable for studying thermal management for high-density processors. To address this issue, we present CoMeT, the first integrated Core and Memory interval Thermal simulation toolchain. CoMeT comprehensively supports thermal simulation of high- and low-density processors corresponding to four different core-memory configurations - off-chip DDR memory, off-chip 3D memory, 2.5D, and 3D. CoMeT supports several novel features that facilitate overlying system research. Compared to an equivalent state-of-the-art core-only toolchain, CoMeT adds only a ~5% simulation-time overhead. The source code of CoMeT has been made open for public use under the MIT license.