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Silicon is a crystal, and like metals it conducts heat very well. Copper 400 W / m K Aluminium 230 W / m K Silicon 150 W / m K Iron/Steel 50 W / m K
by flumpcakes 5y ago
Silicon is a crystal, and like metals it conducts heat very well.
Copper 400 W / m K
Aluminium 230 W / m K
Silicon 150 W / m K
Iron/Steel 50 W / m K
- formerly_proven 5y agoThese devices are often thermally constrained as it is, so the question how this (adding extra silicon on top of the existing die [1]) affects thermals is important. Also neither copper nor silicon are responsible for the "bulk" of the heat transfer - the goal is always to get to a heatpipe or vapor chamber near you as quickly as possible, because those deliver well above 10000 W/m*K. [1] Though Intel thinned their dies recently to improve thermal performance (CPUs are flip-chip, so the metal layers and active circuitry are facing the interposer). Some were concerned about stability/cracking of the thinner dies. Perhaps AMD is doing the same here, thinning the compute die, then stacking the memory die on top to end up with a stack that's exactly the same thickness as before. Since they're bonded together, the structural integrity should be similar. That additionally has the advantage that you can keep using the exact same IHS as before.
- formerly_proven 5y agoUpdates from the article: > - The processor with V-Cache is the same z-height as current Zen 3 products - both the core chiplet and the V-Cache are thinned to have an equal z-height as the IOD die for seamless integration > - As the V-Cache is built over the L3 cache on the main CCX, it doesn't sit over any of the hotspots created by the cores and so thermal considerations are less of an issue. The support silicon above the cores is designed to be thermally efficient.