Networks on Chips

Chapter 4. The Data-Link Layer in NoC Design^[*]

The continued scaling in process technologies makes it imperative to consider reliability as a cross-cutting problem concerning not only test engineers but also system designers. In the network-on-chips (NoC) domain, the task to guarantee reliable data transfers across inherently unreliable physical links is performed by the data-link layer. In this context, communication reliability will be strongly impacted by the reliability of switch-to-switch connections. The main challenge is represented by the increased prominence of noise sources with shrinking feature sizes. Lower supply voltages, smaller nodal capacitances, a decrease of inter-wire spacing, the increasing role of coupling capacitance, the ...