An Open-Hardware Platform for MPSoC Thermal Modeling

Abstract

Current integrated circuits exhibit an impressive and increasing component density, hence an alarming power density. Future devices will require breakthroughs in hardware power dissipation strategies and software active thermal management to operate reliably and maximise performance. In this scenario, thermal modelling plays a key role in the design of next generation cooling and thermal management solutions. However, extending existing thermal models, or designing new ones to account for new cooling solutions, requires parameter identification as well as a validation phase to ensure correctness of the results. In this paper, we propose a flexible solution to the validation issue, in the form of a hardware platform based on a Thermal Test Chip (TTC). The proposed platform allows to test a heat dissipation solution under realistic conditions, including fast spatial and temporal power gradients as well as hot spots, while collecting a temperature map of the active silicon layer. The combined power/temperature map is the key input to validate a thermal model, in both the steady state and transient case. This paper presents the current development of the platform, and provides a first validation dataset for the case of a commercial heat sink.

Dynamic Thermal Management with Proactive Fan Speed Control Through Reinforcement Learning

“…In particular, we let the QL agent explore the design space within the open-source 3D-ICE thermal simulation framework equipped with fan speed control, and learn the optimal DTM policy. Afterwards, we apply the learned DTM policy online on a real thermal test chip [11], proving the feasibility of our approach.…”

“…For these reasons, the validation of the thermal model has been performed using a dedicated thermal test platform [11]. The chip is shown in Fig.…”

The RECIPE approach to challenges in deeply heterogeneous high performance systems

“…The RL agents can explore the design space using 3D-ICE and combine that with the impact of reliability. Initial experiments [45] prove the feasibility of our approach.…”

“…To accomplish this goal, we need ways of validating temperature against real devices. For this purpose, within the RECIPE project we have also created a platform which comprises a real test chip [45] for accurate thermal characterization. In particular, this platform is based on a Thermal Test Chip (TTC), an integrated circuit containing an array of power dissipating elements and an array of temperature sensors.…”

3D-ICE 3.0: Efficient Nonlinear MPSoC Thermal Simulation With Pluggable Heat Sink Models

“…To overcome these aforementioned issues, we performed the validation using a dedicated platform [46] based on a TTC, i.e., a special integrated circuit consisting of an array of heater elements and temperature sensors. The quoted platform completes the TTC with the required electronics and firmware to apply arbitrary power patterns and measure the corresponding temperatures.…”