Implementation feasibility of an integrated LPDDR4 PHY block

Abstract

One of the bottlenecks in the performance of academic RISC-V ASIC processors is high-speed memory access. The use of high speed DDR RAM chips on the board requires the integration in the ASIC of a very complex physical interface block (PHY) that encompasses analog and digital parts. This PHY block is thus technology-specific and very expensive to acquire. Recently, Wavious Ltd. published an open-source description of an LPDDR4x and LPDDR5 with an Apache license containing the digital part and wrappers for the analog parts. This master's thesis will start from this implementation, and will study the feasibility and cost of implementation of this IP for the Barcelona Supercomputing Center RISC-V processor initiative