On-Chip Communication Architectures

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CHAPTER

System-on-chip (SoC) designs typically have several different types of components

such as processors, memories, custom hardware, peripherals, and external inter-

face IP (intellectual property) blocks that need to communicate with each other.

In SoC design houses, some of these components might be designed from scratch,

while others are reused from previous designs or procured from external IP ven-

dors. Each of these components has an interface to the outside world consisting

of a set of pins that are responsible for sending/receiving addresses, data, and con-

trol information to/from other components. The choice of pins at the interf ...