This paper presents a Network-on-Chip (NoC) architecture that enables the network topology to be reconfigured. The architecture thus enables a generalized System-on-Chip (SoC) platform in which the topology can be customized for the application that is currently running on the chip, including long links and direct links between IP-blocks. The configurability is inserted as a layer between routers and links, and the architecture can therefore be used in combination with existing NoC routers, making it a general architecture. The topology is configured using energy-efficient topology switches based on physical circuit-switching as found in FPGAs.The paper presents the ReNoC (Reconfigurable NoC) architecture and evaluates its potential. The evaluation design shows a 56% decrease in power consumption compared to a static 2D mesh topology.
This article presents a reconfigurable network-on-chip architecture called ReNoC, which is intended for use in general-purpose multiprocessor system-on-chip platforms, and which enables application-specific logical NoC topologies to be configured, thus providing both efficiency and flexibility. The article presents three novel algorithms that synthesize an application-specific NoC topology, map it onto the physical ReNoC architecture, and create deadlock-free, application-specific routing algorithms. We apply our algorithms to a mixture of real and synthetic applications and target three different physical architectures. Compared to a conventional NoC, ReNoC reduces power consumption by up to 58% on average.
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