A group of companies, including Intel, AMD, Arm and Samsung, presented the new Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCle) consortium, which aims to standardize interconnections between chips with an open source design, reducing costs and encouraging a broader ecosystem of validated components.
Thus, the UCle standard seeks to be as universal as other connectivity standards, such as USB, PCIe and NVMe, in addition to providing “exceptional” power and performance metrics between chiplet connections (independent components that are grouped together to build a larger chip). .
Basically, these firms involved are creating a standard for the connection of chiplets, with the aim of having a single set of standards that helps simplify the processes for those involved as well as “mark” the path towards full interoperability between chiplets of different manufacturers.
The long-term view is that manufacturers may eventually develop their own specialized chiplet types and then pair them with off-the-shelf chiplet designs from other companies. This would allow them to develop their own Lego-shaped chips to improve time-to-market and lower associated costs.
Thus, this new UCle interconnect would allow a standardized connection between chiplets, such as cores and memory, that look and function similar to on-chip connections. This would also encourage off-chip connections to other components.
The new standard is now openly available and the companies involved will be able to establish a formal consortium group by the end of this year to manage UCle and further develop it.
Experts say that the use of chiplets is the “last step” in the consolidation of integrated circuits, since increasingly smaller components have allowed new functions to be incorporated into chips.
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