TP-GNN: a graph neural network framework for tier partitioning in monolithic 3D ICs

3D integration technology is one of the few options that can keep Moore's Law trajectory beyond conventional scaling. Existing 3D physical design flows fail to benefit from the full advantage that 3D integration provides. Particularly, current 3D partitioning algorithms do not comprehend technology and design-related parameters properly, which results in sub-optimal partitioning solutions. In this paper, we propose TP-GNN, an unsupervised graph-learning-based tier partitioning framework, to overcome this issue. Experimental results on 7 industrial designs demonstrate that our framework significantly improves the QoR of the state-of-the-art 3D implementation flows. Specifically, in OpenPiton, a RISC-V-based multi-core system, we observe 27.4%, 7.7% and 20.3% improvements in performance, wirelength, and energy-per-cycle respectively.