Understanding interactions between chip architecture and uncertainties in semiconductor supply and demand

Mitigating losses from supply and demand volatility in the semiconductor supply chain and market has traditionally been cast as a logistics and fore- casting problem. We investigate how the architecture of a family of chips influences how it is affected by supply and demand uncertainties. We observe that semiconductor supply chains become fragile, in part, due to single de- mand paths, where one chip can satisfy only one demand. Chip architects can enable multiple paths to satisfy a chip demand, which improves supply chain resilience. Based on this observation, we study composition and adaptation as architectural strategies to improve resilience to volatility and also intro- duce a third strategy of dispersion. These strategies allow multiple paths to satisfy a given chip demand. We develop a model to analyze the impact of these architectural techniques on supply chain costs under different regimes of uncertainties and evaluate what happens when they are combined. We present several interesting and even counter-intuitive observations about the product configurations and market conditions where these interventions are impactful and where they are not. In all, we show that product redesign sup- ported by architectural changes can mitigate nearly half of the losses caused by supply and demand volatility. As far as we know, this is the first such investigation concerning chip architecture.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Kanungo, Ramakrishna

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kumar, Rakesh

• Semiconductors
• Supply Chain Resilience

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Ramakrishna Kanungo

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121440

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121440