Abstract
Designing a system on a chip with large number of cores poses many challenging problems. Designing a flexible on-chip communication network, which can provide the desired bandwidth and can be reused across many applications, is the key problem. In this chapter, we discuss how we can borrow and adapt the concept of packet switched communication from computer networks to design on-chip networks. In this new paradigm, the cores on the chip communicate among themselves by sending packets using a network of switches. We briefly describe the existing proposals, which have come up in the last couple of years. The network is built using a set of identical switches connected in regular topology. The important issues for design of the network are switch design, design of network access by cores and communication protocols. A particular protocol stack, called Nostrum, is described as a case study of protocols for on-chip communication. Ideas and tools can be borrowed from computer networks for evaluating on-chip networks.
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© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Kumar, S. (2003). On Packet Switched Networks for On-Chip Communication. In: Jantsch, A., Tenhunen, H. (eds) Networks on Chip. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48727-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48727-6_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-7392-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-306-48727-9
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