¶ Network on Chip

I am studying Network on Chip architecture and applications as part of my final year project at the University of Adelaide.

¶ Definitions

NoC (Network on Chip): A shared medium approach to transmitting data between IP blocks on a System on Chip. Instead of a shared or dedicated bus, information is divided into packets and sent across a routed network.

Flit (Flow Control Unit): The basic logic unit that can be transmitted over a link in a NoC.

Wormhole switching - Wormhole routing

Turn prohibition based routing - search?q=turn+prohibition+based+routing

Clos network - Clos network

Three constraints of a TDMA based wormhole routing NoC: Mapping, routing, slot allocation.

TDMA - time division multiple access

Service classes

• guaranteed: bandwidth (throughput minimum bound) and latency (maximum end to end delay), ie worse case
• best effort: average case services, no resource reservation

Best effort services can exploit the underutilised resources that are present to provide worst case service guarantees.

Both service classes guarantee error free, in order, loss-less delivery. GS also provide flow isolation and guaranteed bandwidth and latency.

UMARS - Unified MApping, Routing and Slot allocation - Andreas' mapping, path selection and timeslot allocation NoC algorithm.

Minimal routing - only neighbors that are closer to the destination are part of the valid choices for the next hop

¶ Subjects to review

* Computer networks and applications (CNA) - OSI model, routing algorithims * Real time systems (RTS) - scheduling, deadlock, livelock