Modelling and Simulation Challenges and Solutions in Cooling Systems for Nanoscale Integrated Circuits

The power density in modern Integrated Circuits (ICs) is tremendous. For example, Multi-Processor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoCs) nowadays undergo temperature swings of 40 degrees in 100 milliseconds or less, with rapidly emerging and vanishing sub-millimeter hot spots. As such, not only a simulation-based cooling assessment is vital, but one has to simulate the on-chip thermal phenomena jointly with the heat dissipation system — historically, a challenge. In recent years, however, the idea of coupling traditional 3D chip simulators with heat dissipation models written in Equation-Based Modelling (EBM) languages has proven to be a game changer. EBM languages allow one to compose a model by assembling components described in terms of Differential and Algebraic Equations (DAE) and have the simulation code generated automatically. In this paper, we take a tutorial viewpoint on the matter just sketched, to put the reader in the position of exploiting the above technology. We also present the first nucleus of a model library for cooling systems, that we release as free software for the scientific and engineering community.