BiFrost: A Composable, Resilient Interconnect Network Architecture for Scalable Artificial Intelligence Systems
Large Language Models demand extreme memory bandwidth and compute density, surpassing traditional architectures. Chiplet-based designs and 3D memory stacking offer solutions, but introduce challenges in integration, yield, and software compatibility. We present BiFrost, a composable network architecture that addresses these challenges through three innovations. BiFrost implements a FatTree network on chiplets, enabling intra- and inter-chiplet communication with 820 TB/s aggregate raw bandwidth and sub-100 ns latency in a 24 chiplet setup. A unified address space, enabled by a novel packet address compute unit, ensures compatibility with POSIX shared-memory models. Resilience is achieved through adaptive routing and dynamic memory remapping, ensuring graceful degradation upon faults. Built on a 3nm process, BiFrost features 0.48 mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> per 16 × 16 router and 17.2 mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> per chiplet. Flexible routing supports topologies like Dragonfly and HyperX. BiFrost maintains 90% peak bandwidth under uniform random traffic and offers OS-level configurability, enabling seamless scaling from single chiplet to multi-rack systems.
Authors
- Hong Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9539-9194)
- Anil V. Rao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9038-7701)
- Sanjaya Tayal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3429-6534)
- Steve Pawlowski
- Fabrizio Petrini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4977-7107)
- Joshua B Fryman
- D. Klowden
- Gurpreet S. Kalsi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7018-7585)
- Jason Howard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6250-6108)
Institutions
- Intel (United States) (US)
- Mission College (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- IEEE Micro
- Published
- 2025-08-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/mm.2025.3594150
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Interconnection Networks and Systems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.49