New UCIe Chiplet Standard Supported by Intel, AMD and Arm

A number of industry stalwarts including Intel, AMD, Arm, TSMC, and Samsung on Wednesday introduced a new Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) consortium. AnandTech: Taking significant inspiration from the very successful PCI-Express playbook, with UCIe the involved firms are creating a standard for connecting chiplets, with the goal of having a single set of standards that not only simplify the process for all involved, but lead the way towards full interoperability between chiplets from different manufacturers, allowing chips to mix-and-match chiplets as chip makers see fit. In other words, to make a complete and compatible ecosystem out of chiplets, much like today's ecosystem for PCIe-based expansion cards. The comparisons to PCIe are apt on multiple levels, and this is perhaps the best way to quickly understand the UCIe group's goals. Not only is the new standard being made available in an open fashion, but the companies involved will be establishing a formal consortium group later this year to administer UCIe and further develop it. Meanwhile from a general technology perspective, the use of chiplets is the latest step in the continual consolidation of integrated circuits, as smaller and smaller transistors have allowed more and more functionality to be brought on-chip. In essence, features that have been on an expansion card or separate chip up until now are starting to make their way on to the chip/SoC itself. So like PCIe moderates how these parts work together as expansion cards, a new standard has become needed to moderate how these parts should work together as chiplets.

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