Network on Chip (NoC) has emerged as a competitive and efficient communication infrastructure for the core based design of System on Chip. Resource (core), router and interface between router and core are the three main parts of a NoC. Each core communicates with the network through the interface, also called Resource Network Interface (RNI). One approach to speed up the design at NoC based systems is to develop standardized RNI. Design of RNI depends to some extent on the type of routing technique used in NoC. Control of route decision base the categorization of source and distributed routing algorithms. In source routing a complete path to the destination is provided in the packet header at the source, whereas in distributed routing, the path is dynamically computed in routers as the packet moves through the network. Buffering, flitization, deflitization and transfer of data from core to router and vice versa, are common responsibilities of RNI in both types of routing. In source routing, RNI has an extra functionality of storing complete paths to all destinations in tables, extracting path to reach a desired destination and adding it in the header flit. In this thesis, we have made an effort towards designing and prototyping a standardized and efficient RNI for both source and distributed routing. VHDL is used as a design language and prototyping of both types RNI has been carried out on Altera DE2 FPGA board. Testing of RNI was conducted by using Nios II soft core. Simulation results show that the best case flit latency, for both types RNI is 4 clock cycles. RNI design is also resource efficient because it consumes only 2% of the available resources on the target platform.

<p>Network on Chip (NoC) has emerged as a competitive and efficient communication infrastructure for the core based design of System on Chip. Resource (core), router and interface between router and core are the three main parts of a NoC. Each core communicates with the network through the interface, also called Resource Network Interface (RNI). One approach to speed up the design at NoC based systems is to develop standardized RNI. Design of RNI depends to some extent on the type of routing technique used in NoC. Control of route decision base the categorization of source and distributed routing algorithms. In source routing a complete path to the destination is provided in the packet header at the source, whereas in distributed routing, the path is dynamically computed in routers as the packet moves through the network. Buffering, flitization, deflitization and transfer of data from core to router and vice versa, are common responsibilities of RNI in both types of routing. In source routing, RNI has an extra functionality of storing complete paths to all destinations in tables, extracting path to reach a desired destination and adding it in the header flit. In this thesis, we have made an effort towards designing and prototyping a standardized and efficient RNI for both source and distributed routing. VHDL is used as a design language and prototyping of both types RNI has been carried out on Altera DE2 FPGA board. Testing of RNI was conducted by using Nios II soft core. Simulation results show that the best case flit latency, for both types RNI is 4 clock cycles. RNI design is also resource efficient because it consumes only 2% of the available resources on the target platform.</p>

Résumé des travaux de thèse Frédéric DRILLETThèse intitulée : Conception d'un front-end RF de bande passante [20-40] GHz pour un système de communication sur puce utilisant un réseau d'interconnexions RF-NoC.Technologie : NXP Qubic4XI (BiCMOS SiGe:C 250 nm)Résumé :La tendance actuelle dans la conception de systèmes sur puces (SoC) est d'intégrer un très grand nombre d'unités de calcul et de mémoires sur une seule puce. Les possibilités de cette intégration poussée permettent aujourd'hui d'envisager le développement d'une électronique offrant une multitude de services. Néanmoins ces architectures posent de nouveaux challenges concernant les interconnexions entre les unités de calcul. En effet, pour les futures générations technologiques, la mise à l'échelle impactera lourdement les performances des interconnexions globales en termes de débit, latence et consommation. Afin de répondre à la problématique des communications intra-puces, un certain nombre de technologies ont été investiguées comme les technologies d’intégration 3D, les architectures utilisant l'optique ou la RF. L'approche RF pour les communications entre les unités de calcul d’un même circuit de type NoC (Network On Chip) présente l'avantage d'une bonne compatibilité avec les technologies CMOS silicium et peut également répondre aux besoins de communication dans les structures 3D.Cette thèse s'inclue dans le projet ANR WiNoCoD qui propose un réseau d'interconnexion RF-NoC utilisant l'OFDMA. Elle porte sur la conception d'un front-end RF générique permettant de transmettre et de recevoir toute la bande passante soit [20-40] GHz. Cette généricité permet une allocation dynamique des porteuses sans reconfiguration du hardware. On utilise la technologie QubiC4XI de NXP Semiconductors, qui est une technologie BiCMOS SiGe:C 250 nm, afin de vérifier la faisabilité d'un tel système avec des moyens actuels. Ce front-end doit être large bande puisqu'il a une bande passante de 20 GHz entre 20 et 40 GHz. Il doit également consommer le moins possible puisqu'il a pour but d'être intégré dans un système contenant plusieurs NoC et qui est donc très énergivore. Il doit également être compact pour ne pas occuper plus de surface que la partie numérique.Cette thèse inclue la conception des éléments composant le front-end, les résultats de simulation et de mesure, ainsi que les performances du système complet. / Frédéric DRILLET thesis work summaryThesis entitled: Design of a [20-40] GHz RF front-end for an on-chip RF-NoC communication system.Technology: NXP Qubic4XI (BiCMOS SiGe:C 250 nm)Summary:A current trend regarding System On Chip design is to include a very big amount of processors and memories on a single chip. Today, these integrated circuits allow to consider an electronic supplying a multitude of services. However, these architectures are challenging in terms of connection between processing units. It could indeed lead to data rate, latency and consumption degradation. In order to overcome these issues technological solutions were investigated such as 3D integration, or optic and RF networks. An RF Network on Chip (NoC) is compatible with silicon CMOS technologies and with 3D structures.This thesis is a part of the ANR project called WiNoCoD (Wired Network on Chip reconfigurable on Demand) which offers an OFDMA RF-NoC. The main work presents a generic RF front-end allowing to transmit and receive the whole [20-40] GHz bandwidth. This generic architecture allows a dynamic allocation of OFDMA subcarriers without any hardware reconfiguration. The technology used is the NXP Semiconductor QubiC4XI which is a BiCMOS SiGe:C 250 nm technology. A current technology is used to check the feasibility of such a system today. This front-end has to be wideband. The power consumption has to be as low as possible as well, as it is going to be integrated in a system containing several NoCs that consume already a lot of power. The system has to be very compact, its total area has to be smaller than the digital part.This thesis includes the design of the front end, the simulation and measurement results and the performance of the full system.

<p>Network on Chip is a scalable and flexible communication infrastructure for the design of core based System on Chip. Communication performance of a NoC depends heavily on the routing algorithm. Deterministic and adaptive distributed routing algorithms have been advocated in all the current NoC architectural proposals. In this thesis we make a case for the use of source routing for NoCs, especially for regular topologies like mesh. The advantages of source routing include in-order packet delivery; faster and simpler router design; and possibility of mixing non-minimal paths in a mainly minimal routing. We propose a method to compute paths for various communications in such a way that traffic congestion is avoided while ensuring deadlock free routing. We also propose an efficient scheme to encode the paths.</p><p>We developed a tool in Matlab that computes paths for source routing for both general and application specific communications. Depending upon the type of traffic, this tool computes paths for source routing by selecting best routing algorithm out of many routing algorithms. The tool uses a constructive path improvement algorithm to compute paths that give more uniform link load distribution. It also generates different types of traffics. We also developed a simulator capable of simulating source routing for mesh topology NoC. The experiments and simulations which we performed were successful and the results show that the advantages of source routing especially lower packet latency more than compensate its disadvantages. The results also demonstrate that source routing can be a good routing candidate for practical core based SoCs design using network on chip communication infrastructure.</p>

The heterogenous nature and the demand for extensive parallel processing in modern applications have resulted in widespread use of Multicore System-on-Chip (SoC) architectures. The emerging Network-on-Chip (NoC) architecture provides an energy-efficient and scalable communication solution for Multicore SoCs, serving as a powerful replacement for traditional bus-based solutions. The key to successful realization of such architectures is a flexible, fast and robust emulation platform for fast design space exploration. In this research, we present the design and evaluation of a highly configurable NoC used in AcENoCs (Accelerated Emulation platform for NoCs), a flexible and cycle accurate field programmable gate array (FPGA) emulation platform for validating NoC architectures. Along with the implementation details, we also discuss the various design optimizations and tradeoffs, and assess the performance improvements of AcENoCs over existing simulators and emulators. We design a hardware library consisting of routers and links using verilog hardware description language (HDL). The router is parameterized and has a configurable number of physical ports, virtual channels (VCs) and pipeline depth. A packet switched NoC is constructed by connecting the routers in either 2D-Mesh or 2D-Torus topology. The NoC is integrated in the AcENoCs platform and prototyped on Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA. The NoC was evaluated under various synthetic and realistic workloads generated by AcENoCs' traffic generators implemented on the Xilinx MicroBlaze embedded processor. In order to validate the NoC design, performance metrics like average latency and throughput were measured and compared against the results obtained using standard network simulators. FPGA implementation of the NoC using Xilinx tools indicated a 76% LUT utilization for a 5x5 2D-Mesh network. A VC allocator was found to be the single largest consumer of hardware resources within a router. The router design synthesized at a frequency of 135MHz, 124MHz and 109MHz for 3-port, 4-port and 5-port configurations, respectively. The operational frequency of the router in the AcENoCs environment was limited only by the software execution latency even though the hardware itself could be clocked at a much higher rate. An AcENoCs emulator showed speedup improvements of 10000-12000X over HDL simulators and 5-15X over software simulators, without sacrificing cycle accuracy.

Network on Chip is a scalable and flexible communication infrastructure for the design of core based System on Chip. Communication performance of a NoC depends heavily on the routing algorithm. Deterministic and adaptive distributed routing algorithms have been advocated in all the current NoC architectural proposals. In this thesis we make a case for the use of source routing for NoCs, especially for regular topologies like mesh. The advantages of source routing include in-order packet delivery; faster and simpler router design; and possibility of mixing non-minimal paths in a mainly minimal routing. We propose a method to compute paths for various communications in such a way that traffic congestion is avoided while ensuring deadlock free routing. We also propose an efficient scheme to encode the paths. We developed a tool in Matlab that computes paths for source routing for both general and application specific communications. Depending upon the type of traffic, this tool computes paths for source routing by selecting best routing algorithm out of many routing algorithms. The tool uses a constructive path improvement algorithm to compute paths that give more uniform link load distribution. It also generates different types of traffics. We also developed a simulator capable of simulating source routing for mesh topology NoC. The experiments and simulations which we performed were successful and the results show that the advantages of source routing especially lower packet latency more than compensate its disadvantages. The results also demonstrate that source routing can be a good routing candidate for practical core based SoCs design using network on chip communication infrastructure.

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