Steamroller Module and Adaptive Clocking System in 28 nm CMOS

Abstract

This work describes the physical design implementation of the AMD “Steamroller” module and adaptive clocking system that are both integral pieces of the AMD Kaveri APU SoC which was implemented using a 28 nm high-K metal gate Bulk CMOS process. The Steamroller module occupies 29.47 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and contains 236 million transistors. Various aspects of the core design are covered including the power and timing methodologies as well as design challenges moving from 32 nm SOI to 28 nm Bulk CMOS. Adaptive clocking, one of the key features used for core power efficiency, is described in detail.