AMD's 3D V-Cache Is Such A Hit For L3 It May Stack L2 Cache On CPUs Next

AMD's extant "X3D" processors include a feature called 3D V-Cache, which involves bonding a slab of SRAM cache to the logic die in such a way that it physically extends the L3 cache of the CPU to triple its original capacity. What if we could do the same thing for L2 cache? AMD may actually be investigating that, as one of its employees filed a patent back in 2024 about doing exactly that.

The patent, US20260003794A1, describes a method for "Balanced Latency Stacked Cache". You see, the idea of stacking on extra L2 cache is fairly straightforward; from simply saying it above, you probably intuitively understood what we're talking about if you understand 3D V-Cache.

A key thing to understand about AMD's 3D V-Cache is that it was a big deal specifically because of the 3D part. It's not called that because it helps with 3D ...