Design and implementation of NoC routers and their application to Prdt-based NoC\u27s

Abstract

With a communication-centric design style, Networks-on-Chips (NoCs) emerges as a new paradigm of Systems-on-Chips (SoCs) to overcome the limitations of bus-based communication infrastructure. An important problem in the design of NoCs is the router design, which has great impact on the cost and performance of a NoC system. This thesis is focused on the design and implementation of an optimized parameterized router which can be applied in mesh/torus-based and Perfect Recursive Diagonal Torus (PRDT)-based NoCs; In specific, the router design includes the design and implementation of two routing algorithms (vector routing and circular coded vector routing), the wormhole switching scheme, the scheduling scheme, buffering strategy, and flow control scheme. Correspondingly, the following components are designed and implemented: input controller, output controller, crossbar switch, and scheduler. Verilog HDL codes are generated and synthesized on ASIC platforms. Most components are designed in parameterized way. Performance evaluation of each component of the router in terms of timing, area, and power consumption is conducted. The efficiency of the two routing algorithms and tradeoff between computational time (tsetup) and area are analyzed; To reduce the area cost of the router design, the two major components, the crossbar switch and the scheduler, are optimized. Particularly, for crossbar switch, a comparative study of two crossbar designs is performed with the aid of Magic Layout editor, Synopsys CosmosSE and Awaves; Based on the router design, the PRDT network composed of 4x4 routers is designed and synthesized on ASIC platforms