The integration of multiple cores on the same chip has signaled the beginning of communication-centric, rather than computation-centric systems. Further, technology trends have accentuated the importance of interconnect-conscious design as global wire delays do not scale down as fast as gate delays in new technologies. Consequently, on-chip networks (OCNs), also called Networks-on-Chip (NOCs), are predicted to be a major bottleneck in designing embedded System-on-Chip (SoC) architectures and high performance multicore architectures alike. However, the design of scalable, high performance, energy and thermal efficient and reliable on-chip networks is inherently more complex because of the stringent resource constraints and technology scaling artifacts of OCNs. The proposed research is aimed at developing a holistic design paradigm for exploring the on-chip network design space.
The research addresses three major issues. First, a simulation platform will be developed to understand the interplay between applications, system architecture and on-chip interconnects. Second, design and analysis of high performance, energy and thermal efficient and reliable on-chip interconnects considering the impacts of technology scaling will be investigated. Third, design of on-chip interconnects using emerging 3D chip technology will be explored. The success of this research is likely to have a significant influence on the design of next generation multicore/SoC architectures and in fostering new research directions in several areas of multicore computing, which is expected to be the predominant design paradigm for future high performance architectures.
