Standard MCMs integrate a number of bare die onto a single fine pitch substrate which is then packaged in the normal manner. As a demonstrator for this project the TriMorph design has been used as the basis for a standalone real-time video processing system . The first stage of the 3-D MCM design procedure is to partition the design across individual substrates, minimising given objectives such as real cost and surface routing congestion. A surface routing tool then positions the components on each substrate in order to optimise the vertical routing. The solution space for both vertical partitioning and surface routing is prohibitively large to use an exhaustive search method.
Genetic algorithms are iterative mathematical models which borrow concepts from the natural world.
The algorithm begins by generating a set of random candidate solutions to the design problem. The final solution can then be chosen by ranking the objectives. The TriMorph design consists of four processing elements and a control element, accessible via a PCI interface. Between each element there are two local buses, each capable of 32-bit transfers plus control information. The Xilinx XC6216 FPGA has an array of 64 x 64 logic blocks which can be re-configured whilst the chip is in operation.