On-Chip Communication Architectures

Chapter 12. Networks-On-Chip

Over the past few years, the idea of using networks-on-chip (NoCs) as viable on-chip communication fabrics for future multiprocessor systems-on-chips (MPSoCs) has been gaining traction. NoCs are an attempt to scale down the concepts of large-scale networks, and apply them to the embedded system-on-chip (SoC) domain. Unlike traditional bus-based on-chip communication architectures, NoCs use packets to route data from the source to the destination component, via a network fabric that consists of switches (routers) and interconnection links (wires). An example of a NoC system is illustrated in Fig. 12.1. The figure shows an NoC interconnection architecture with a mesh type topology, consisting of several processing elements ...