Research in Industrial Labs: How Collaboration Aids Innovation Tarik Ono Gilda Garretón Sun Microsystems Laboratories October 6, 2006 Overview Research Lab VLSI Circuit Research Datacenter VLSI CAD Switch Research Research Proximity Communication CAD Tools Test Chips Switch Prototype 2 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Life in a Research Lab Research Lab VLSI Circuit Research Datacenter VLSI CAD Switch Research Research Proximity Communication CAD Tools Test Chips Switch Prototype 3 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Life in a Research Lab: Sun Microsystems Laboratories • Applied research aligned with company business • Expert in n engineering fields, but knowledgeable in m (where m > n) • Communicate and collaborate with colleagues • Collaborate with universities • Contribute to open-source and standards initiatives • “Innovate, Demonstrate, Transfer” 4 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI Circuit and CAD Research Research Lab VLSI Circuit Research Datacenter VLSI CAD Switch Research Research Proximity Communication CAD Tools Test Chips Switch Prototype * VLSI = “Very Large Scale Integration” CAD = “Computer Aided Design” 5 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Usual Interaction Model Company A Company B Circuit Design CAD Development 6 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Usual Interaction Model Sales Company A Company B Circuit Design !#@! CAD Development 7 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI Circuit and CAD Research Group 8 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI Circuit Research Research Lab VLSI Circuit Research Datacenter VLSI CAD Switch Research Research Proximity Communication CAD Tools Test Chips Switch Prototype 9 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI Circuit Research • Design circuits to enable novel architectures • Low-power circuits • High-speed circuits • Communication Links • Asynchronous circuits 10 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI Circuit Research: Proximity Communication (1/4) • What is a capacitor? > Parallel metal plates form a capacitor 1 > Change in voltage on one side results in corresponding 2 change on the other side > Can only communicate changes, not real values 11 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI Circuit Research: Proximity Communication (2/4) = 12 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI Circuit Research: Proximity Communication (3/4) Chip2 Chip1 Transmit Receive Receive Transmit 13 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI Circuit Research: Proximity Communication (4/4) Huge Bandwidth Gain Comparison of Scale 2 10 Tbps per mm Proximity Communication 2 m 1000 m 15 μm r Proximi- e p ty I/O s Area Ball Bonding e Area 100 n Ball a l Bonding O / I 10 2003 2005 2007 2009 120 Year μm 14 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI CAD Research Research Lab VLSI Circuit Research Datacenter VLSI CAD Switch Research Research Proximity Communication CAD Tools Test Chips Switch Prototype 15 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI CAD Research: • Challenges > Design sizes > Acceptable performance > Hierarchical representation > Shrinking technologies • Source of research topics > Handling of large data set > Geometric algorithms > Visualization > Collaboration Collaboration with Harvey Mudd 16 Sun Microsystems Laboratories VLSI CAD Research • In-House and Third-party • CAD Tools > Logical Effort > Analysis Stipple Patterns Java3D Transparency > Route and placement • Software Research > Client/server model > 2D/3D visualization Metal Cage Structure 17 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Collaborative Research Framework: • Electric VLSI Design SystemTM • Technical benefits for HW/SW • Java development platform • External/Open source community > www.staticfreesoft.com • Dynamic development cycle Electric Framework 18 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Making Test Chips Research Lab VLSI Circuit Research Datacenter VLSI CAD Switch Research Research Proximity Communication CAD Tools Test Chips Switch Prototype 19 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Making Test Chips: Custom VLSI Chip Design Flow Chip Building Process CAD Testing Process 20 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Making Test Chips: Custom VLSI Chip Design Flow 1.Schematic Entry and Transistor Sizing > Logical Effort support 21 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Making Test Chips: Custom VLSI Chip Design Flow 1.Schematic Entry and Transistor Sizing 2.Simulation > Interface to CAD Tools of Our Choice > Waveform Viewer and Cross-Probing 22 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Making Test Chips: Custom VLSI Chip Design Flow 1.Schematic Entry and Transistor Sizing 2.Simulation 3.Layout > Network Consistency Checker (NCC) > Design Rules Checker (DRC) > Automatic fill generator > Routing, auto stitching tool 23 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Making Test Chips: Custom VLSI Chip Design Flow 1.Schematic Entry and Transistor Sizing 2.Simulation 3.Layout 4.Fabrication Foundry Input Foundry Output 24 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Making Test Chips: Custom VLSI Chip Design Flow 1.Schematic Entry and Transistor Sizing 2.Simulation 3.Layout 4.Fabrication 5.Testing PxIO Testing Board 25 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Research Application: Switch Prototype Research Lab VLSI Circuit Research Datacenter VLSI CAD Switch Research Research Proximity Communication CAD Tools Packaging Research Test Chips Switch Prototype 26 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Research Application: Switch Prototype Line Card 1 Line Card 3 Line Card 2 Line Card 4 Line Card Line Card Switch Line Card Line Card RTM RTM RTM RTM FPGA FPGA FPGA FPGA Backplane Scalable Switch for Data Centers Baseboard 27 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Conclusions • Collaboration across research areas • Teamwork and communication important • Opportunities for people from different backgrounds • Often solving “real-world” problems • Easier path to productization • Research is fun! • For more information: > http://research.sun.com > http://research.sun.com/vlsi 28 Sun Microsystems Laboratories Technology Transfer Leadership Tools Technology • RADAR Demand Forecasting • Honeycomb to Network Storage Tool Set to WWOPS • Elliptic Curve Cryptography libraries to Java Electric CAE Design Tool Enterprise Server products • • IC CAD tools • FreeTTS, Sphinx IV to Solaris, Accessibility • System Performance modeling and analysis • Conceptual Indexing Search to Java App Server and Java Web Server • Async technology to USIIIi • JavaTM Code • SPARC V9 Architecture Specification • JavaTM and JavaTM KVM • Sun RayTM 1, Wide Area • Hot Spot Sun Ray technology • Java Speech API • Concurrent GC to Java SW • Parallel Garbage Collection • Liberty architecture • Java make Utility to Netbeans • Sun ClusterTM 3.0 • Secure KVM to Java SW • Awarenex • Jackpot JavaDoc extensions • JINITM to JDK Open Source Standards and Protocols • Elliptic Curve Cryptography • Digital Rights Management - DReaM to Open SSL, Mozilla • Java Real-time extensions, JSR1 • Jackpot metrics to Netbeans • Service Location Protocol • JFluid • Electric Thank You! Tarik Ono / Gilda Garretón [email protected], [email protected].