Thermal simulation using adaptive 3D and hierarchical grid mechanisms

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a set of instructions stored therein that when executed by a processing element cause the processing element to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a specification of a first thermal analysis region of an integrated circuit;
• determining a first grid resolution based at least in part on power gradient thresholds of the integrated circuit;
• determining a second grid resolution that is coarser than the first grid resolution;
• and
• computing temperatures at grid points determined by applying the operation that determines the first grid resolution to the first thermal analysis region and by applying the operation that determines the second grid resolution to a second thermal analysis region that extends outward from at least a portion of the first thermal analysis region.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a set of instructions stored therein that when executed by a processing element cause the processing element to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a specification of a first thermal analysis region of an integrated circuit;
• determining a first grid resolution based at least in part on temperature thresholds of the integrated circuit;
• determining a second grid resolution that is coarser than the first grid resolution;
• and
• computing temperatures at grid points determined by applying the operation that determines the first grid resolution to the first thermal analysis region and by applying the operation that determines the second grid resolution to a second thermal analysis region that extends outward from at least a portion of the first thermal analysis region.

A system comprising:

• a processing element;
• and
• a memory;
• wherein the memory is enabled to store instructions therein that when executed by the processing element cause the processing element to perform operations comprising:
• a first grid determining operation operable at least in accordance with a power distribution of an electronic device and enabled to determine a first grid resolution,
• a second grid determining operation enabled to determine a second grid resolution, the second grid resolution being coarser than the first grid resolution,
• a specification receiving operation enabled to receive a specification of a first thermal analysis region of the electronic device, and
• a temperature computing operation enabled to compute temperatures at grid points determined by applying the first grid determining operation to the first thermal analysis region and by applying the second grid determining operation to a second thermal analysis region that extends outward from at least a portion of the first thermal analysis region.

A method comprising:

• applying a first grid determining function to a first thermal analysis region with inputs comprising a power distribution of an integrated circuit;
• deriving boundary conditions that define a second thermal analysis region of the integrated circuit;
• applying a second grid determining function to the second thermal analysis region;
• and
• performing, at least in part via at least one processor, at least a portion of a thermal analysis of the integrated circuit in accordance with first and second grid resolutions respectively determined by the first and the second grid determining functions.