Three-Dimensional Architectures

Abstract

Until recently, circuits were always implemented in two-dimensional architectures. The models for estimating wire lengths that have been presented in the previous chapter, also were specifically aimed at two-dimensional architectures. In the last couple of years, more and more research groups have been investigating the possibilities of three-dimensional architectures. In this chapter, we show that our wire length models can easily be extended to three dimensions. In the first section, the necessity of modelling new computer systems in three dimensions is explained. A second section discusses the extension of Donath’s model and our occupation probability model to three-dimensional isotropic architectures. The last section extends the model to anisotropic architectures, where interconnections n different dimensions can have very different properties, and applies the models to more exotic architectures such as opto-electronic architectures.