AMD GPU Chiplet Design Patent Offers Insight Into Possibilities and Challenges

As reported by Hexus, AMD’s recently-unearthed patent application for its GPU chiplet design offers insight into possibilities and challenges surrounding multi-chip GPUs.

The patent application offers insight into why AMD competitors like Intel and Nvidia have not yet taken the same approach as AMD. The patent application, “GPU Chiplets using High Bandwidth Crosslink”, suggests that the company’s exploration of GPU chiplet designs has been slowed due to the complexity and expense associated with development.

The patent application describes a “primary chiplet” that works alongside a drive layer to make the CPU think it is still working with a monolithic (as opposed to multi-chip) GPU. The patent application outlines a passive interface called a High Bandwidth Crosslink (HBX), which connects the L3 caches of all chiplets, allowing them to access the data of the other chiplets.

Authors: Jaclyn Tilak and Emma Baumann, 2020/2021 Articling Student-at-law