Designing SOCs with Configured Cores

2.6. Communication Alternatives

As discussed earlier, the classic method used to interconnect SOC blocks is to use one or more microprocessor-style buses. This design style is a holdover from decades of microprocessor-based system-design experience. Buses are still useful for conveying inter-block traffic, but they are by no means the SOC designer’s only alternative. A partial list of alternative interconnection schemes includes:

• Buses

• Shared memories

• FIFO queues

• Simple wires (point-to-point connections)

• On-chip networks

Buses and bus hierarchies are familiar to all system designers. Figure 2.11 shows a system that uses a bus hierarchy to move data around a system that contains two processors and a hardware accelerator block.

Figure 2.11. System ...