STACKED MEMORY DEVICE WITH HELPER PROCESSOR
First Claim
1. A system comprising:
- an integrated circuit (IC) package comprising;
a set of stacked memory layers comprising memory cell circuitry; and
a set of one or more logic layers electrically coupled to the set of stacked memory layers, the set of one or more logic layers comprising a helper processor coupled to the memory cell circuitry of the set of stacked memory layers and comprising a memory interface coupled to the helper processor and coupleable to a processor device external to the IC package, the memory interface to perform memory accesses for the external processor device and to perform memory accesses for the helper processor.
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Abstract
A processing system comprises one or more processor devices and other system components coupled to a stacked memory device having a set of stacked memory layers and a set of one or more logic layers. The set of logic layers implements a helper processor that executes instructions to perform tasks in response to a task request from the processor devices or otherwise on behalf of the other processor devices. The set of logic layers also includes a memory interface coupled to memory cell circuitry implemented in the set of stacked memory layers and coupleable to the processor devices. The memory interface operates to perform memory accesses for the processor devices and for the helper processor. By virtue of the helper processor'"'"'s tight integration with the stacked memory layers, the helper processor may perform certain memory-intensive operations more efficiently than could be performed by the external processor devices.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
an integrated circuit (IC) package comprising; a set of stacked memory layers comprising memory cell circuitry; and a set of one or more logic layers electrically coupled to the set of stacked memory layers, the set of one or more logic layers comprising a helper processor coupled to the memory cell circuitry of the set of stacked memory layers and comprising a memory interface coupled to the helper processor and coupleable to a processor device external to the IC package, the memory interface to perform memory accesses for the external processor device and to perform memory accesses for the helper processor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method comprising:
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providing an integrated circuit (IC) package comprising a set of stacked memory layers comprising memory cell circuitry, and comprising a set of one or more logic layers electrically coupled to the set of stacked memory layers, the set of one or more logic layers comprising a helper processor coupled to the memory cell circuitry of the set of one or more stacked memory layers and comprising a memory interface coupled to the helper processor and coupled to a processor device external to the IC package; operating the memory interface to perform memory accesses for at least the external processor device; and accessing and executing instructions at the helper processor to perform at least one task on behalf of at least the external processor device. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method comprising:
in response to a request from a processor device external to an integrated circuit (IC), executing instructions at a helper processor of the IC, the instructions including instructions to perform one or more data accesses to a stacked memory in communication with the helper processor. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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31. A method comprising:
executing instructions at helper processor of an integrated circuit (IC) package to perform an operation on a data structure stored in stacked memory of the IC package in response to a request from a processor device external to the IC package. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34)
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35. An integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
a set of one or more logic layers electrically coupleable to a set of stacked memory layers implementing memory cell circuitry and electrically coupleable to a processor device external to the set of one or more logic layers, the set of one or more logic layers comprising a helper processor to execute instructions that utilize data stored in the memory cell circuitry on behalf of the external processor device. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37)
Specification