CROSS-LAYER DESIGN, OPTIMIZATION AND PROTOTYPING OF NoCs FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF HOMOGENEOUS MANY-CORE SYSTEMS

This thesis provides a whole set of design methods to enable and manage the runtime heterogeneity of features-rich industry-ready Tile-Based Networkon- Chips at different abstraction layers (Architecture Design, Network Assembling, Testing of NoC, Runtime Operation). The key idea is to maintain the functionalities of the original layers, and to improve the performance of architectures by allowing, joint optimization and layer coordinations. In general purpose systems, we address the microarchitectural challenges by codesigning and co-optimizing feature-rich architectures. In application-specific NoCs, we emphasize the event notification, so that the platform is continuously under control. At the network assembly level, this thesis proposes a Hold Time Robustness technique, to tackle the hold time issue in synchronous NoCs. At the network architectural level, the choice of a suitable synchronization paradigm requires a boost of synthesis flow as well as the coexistence with the DVFS. On one hand this implies the coexistence of mesochronous synchronizers in the network with dual-clock FIFOs at network boundaries. On the other hand, dual-clock FIFOs may be placed across inter-switch links hence removing the need for mesochronous synchronizers. This thesis will study the implications of the above approaches both on the design flow and on the performance and power quality metrics of the network. Once the manycore system is composed together, the issue of testing it arises. This thesis takes on this challenge and engineers various testing infrastructures. At the upper abstraction layer, the thesis addresses the issue of managing the fully operational system and proposes a congestion management technique named HACS. Moreover, some of the ideas of this thesis will undergo an FPGA prototyping. Finally, we provide some features for emerging technology by characterizing the power consumption of Optical NoC Interfaces

An efficient asynchronous spatial division multiplexing router for network-on-chip on the hardware platform

The quasi-delay-insensitive (QDI) based asynchronous network-on-chip (ANoC) has several advantages over clock-based synchronous network-on-chips (NoCs). The asynchronous router uses a virtual channel (VC) as a primary flow-control mechanism however, the spatial division multiplexing (SDM) based mechanism performs better over input traffics over VC. This manuscript uses an asynchronous spatial division multiplexing (ASDM) based router for NoC architecture on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform. The ASDM router is configurable to different bandwidths and VCs. The ASDM router mainly contains input-output (I/O) buffers, a switching allocator, and a crossbar unit. The 4-phase 1-of-4 dual-rail protocol is used to construct the I/O buffers. The performance of the ASDM router is analyzed in terms of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTs) (chip area), delay, latency, and throughput parameters. The work is implemented using Verilog-HDL with Xilinx ISE 14.7 on artix-7 FPGA. The ASDM router achieves % chip area and obtains 0.8 ns of latency with a throughput of 800 Mfps. The proposed router is compared with existing asynchronous approaches with improved latency and throughput metrics

Design and Validation of Network-on-Chip Architectures for the Next Generation of Multi-synchronous, Reliable, and Reconfigurable Embedded Systems

NETWORK-ON-CHIP (NoC) design is today at a crossroad. On one hand, the design principles to efficiently implement interconnection networks in the resource-constrained on-chip setting have stabilized. On the other hand, the requirements on embedded system design are far from stabilizing. Embedded systems are composed by assembling together heterogeneous components featuring differentiated operating speeds and ad-hoc counter measures must be adopted to bridge frequency domains. Moreover, an unmistakable trend toward enhanced reconfigurability is clearly underway due to the increasing complexity of applications. At the same time, the technology effect is manyfold since it provides unprecedented levels of system integration but it also brings new severe constraints to the forefront: power budget restrictions, overheating concerns, circuit delay and power variability, permanent fault, increased probability of transient faults. Supporting different degrees of reconfigurability and flexibility in the parallel hardware platform cannot be however achieved with the incremental evolution of current design techniques, but requires a disruptive approach and a major increase in complexity. In addition, new reliability challenges cannot be solved by using traditional fault tolerance techniques alone but the reliability approach must be also part of the overall reconfiguration methodology. In this thesis we take on the challenge of engineering a NoC architectures for the next generation systems and we provide design methods able to overcome the conventional way of implementing multi-synchronous, reliable and reconfigurable NoC. Our analysis is not only limited to research novel approaches to the specific challenges of the NoC architecture but we also co-design the solutions in a single integrated framework. Interdependencies between different NoC features are detected ahead of time and we finally avoid the engineering of highly optimized solutions to specific problems that however coexist inefficiently together in the final NoC architecture. To conclude, a silicon implementation by means of a testchip tape-out and a prototype on a FPGA board validate the feasibility and effectivenes

Addressing Manufacturing Challenges in NoC-based ULSI Designs

Hernández Luz, C. (2012). Addressing Manufacturing Challenges in NoC-based ULSI Designs [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/1669

Asynchronous interfaces for IOPT-Flow to support GALS systems

45th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society: Lisbon, Portugal: oct. 14-17, 2019Throughout the course of time, distributing a global clock signal over a synchronous circuit has become a demanding task as a result of the broadening size and complexity of modern circuits. Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) systems emerge as a solution to the laborious task of distributing a global clock over a large circuit, through the partitioning of said circuit into smaller, and therefore, more manageable blocks. The DS-Pnet (Dataflow, Signals and Petri nets) modelling language and its associated framework IOPT-Flow focus on supporting the development of cyber-physical systems, however, they may be a strong push to the development of GALS systems, through their multiple available tools that comprise a graphical editor, a simulator and automatic code generation tools, namely a VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) code generator. In order to facilitate the implementation of said GALS system in the IOPT-Flow framework, some components were created, these work together to form asynchronous interfaces that are a crucial element to any GALS system, thus providing options to designers that intent to develop a GALS system utilizing the IOPT-Flow framework

On-Chip-Netzwerk-Architekturen für eingebettete hierarchische Multiprozessoren

Ax J. On-Chip-Netzwerk-Architekturen für eingebettete hierarchische Multiprozessoren. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2019.Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Realisierung und Analyse einer skalierbaren Verbindungsstruktur für ein Multi-Prozessorsystem auf einem Chip (MPSoC). Durch die zunehmende Digitalisierung werden in immer mehr Geräten des täglichen Lebens und der Industrie mikroelektronische Systeme eingesetzt. Hierbei handelt es sich häufig um energiebeschränkte Systeme, die zusätzlich einen stetig steigenden Bedarf an Rechenleistung aufweisen. Ein Trend, diesen Bedarf zu decken ist die Integration von zunehmend mehr Prozessorkernen auf einem einzelnen Mikrochip. Many-Core-Systeme mit vielen hunderten bis tausenden ressourceneffizienten CPU-Kernen versprechen hierbei eine besonders hohe Energieeffizienz. Im Vergleich zu Systemen mit wenigen leistungsfähigen, jedoch auch komplexeren CPUs, wird bei Many-Cores die Rechenleistung durch massive Parallelität erzielt. In der AG Kognitronik und Sensorik der Universität Bielefeld wird dazu das CoreVA-MPSoC entwickelt. Um hunderte von CPUs auf einen Chip zu integrieren, verfügt das CoreVA-MPSoC über eine hierarchische Verbindungsstruktur. Diese besteht aus einem On-Chip-Netzwerk (NoC), welches eine Vielzahl von CPU-Cluster koppelt. In jedem CPU-Cluster sind mehrere ressourceneffiziente VLIW-Prozessorkerne über eine eng gekoppelte Bus-Struktur verbunden. Der Fokus dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung und Entwurfsraumexploration einer ressourceneffizienten NoC-Architektur für den Einsatz im CoreVA-MPSoC. Die Entwurfsraumexploration findet dazu auf verschiedenen Ebenen statt. Auf der Ebene der Verbindungsstruktur des NoCs werden verschiedene Topologien und Mechanismen der Flusskontrolle untersucht. Des Weiteren wird die Entwicklung und Analyse eines synchronen, mesochronen und asynchronen NoCs vorgestellt, um die Skalierbarkeit und Energieeffizienz dieser Methoden zu untersuchen. Eine weitere Ebene bildet die Schnittstelle zum Prozessorsystem bzw. CPU-Cluster, die einen maßgeblichen Einfluss auf die Softwareentwicklung und Gesamtperformanz des Systems hat. Auf Systemebene wird schließlich die Anbindung verschiedener Speicherarchitekturen an das NoC vorgestellt und deren Auswirkung auf Performanz und Energiebedarf analysiert. Ein abstraktes Modell des CoreVA-MPSoCs mit Fokus auf dem NoC erlaubt die Abschätzung von Fläche, Performanz und Energie des Systems, bzw. der Ausführung von Streaming-Anwendungen. Dieses Modell kann im CoreVA-MPSoC-Compiler für die automatische Abbildung von Anwendungen auf dem MPSoC eingesetzt werden. Zehn Streaming-Anwendungen, vorwiegend aus dem Bereich der Signal- und Bildverarbeitung, zeigen bei der Abbildung auf einem CoreVA-MPSoC mit 32 CPUs eine durchschnittliche Beschleunigung um den Faktor 24 gegenüber der Ausführung auf einer CPU. Ein CoreVA-MPSoC mit 64 CPUs und insgesamt 3MB Speicher besitzt bei einer prototypischen Implementierung in einer 28-nm-FD-SOI-Standardzellenbibliothek einen Flächenbedarf von 14,4mm2. Bei einer Taktfrequenz von 700MHz liegt die durchschnittliche Leistungsaufnahme bei 2W. Eine FPGA-basierte Emulation auf einem FPGA-Cluster aus Xilinx Virtex-5-FPGAs erlaubt zudem eine skalierbare Verifikation eines CoreVA-MPSoCs mit nahezu beliebig vielen CPUs

CoreVA-MPSoC: A Many-core Architecture with Tightly Coupled Shared and Local Data Memories

Ax J, Sievers G, Daberkow J, et al. CoreVA-MPSoC: A Many-core Architecture with Tightly Coupled Shared and Local Data Memories. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems. 2018;29(5):1030-1043

Developing Globally-Asynchronous Locally- Synchronous Systems through the IOPT-Flow Framework

Throughout the years, synchronous circuits have increased in size and com-plexity, consequently, distributing a global clock signal has become a laborious task. Globally-Asynchronous Locally-Synchronous (GALS) systems emerge as a possible solution; however, these new systems require new tools. The DS-Pnet language formalism and the IOPT-Flow framework aim to support and accelerate the development of cyber-physical systems. To do so it offers a tool chain that comprises a graphical editor, a simulator and code gener-ation tools capable of generating C, JavaScript and VHDL code. However, DS-Pnets and IOPT-Flow are not yet tuned to handle GALS systems, allowing for partial specification, but not a complete one. This dissertation proposes extensions to the DS-Pnet language and the IOPT-Flow framework in order to allow development of GALS systems. Addi-tionally, some asynchronous components were created, these form interfaces that allow synchronous blocks within a GALS system to communicate with each other

Low-Power Embedded Design Solutions and Low-Latency On-Chip Interconnect Architecture for System-On-Chip Design

This dissertation presents three design solutions to support several key system-on-chip (SoC) issues to achieve low-power and high performance. These are: 1) joint source and channel decoding (JSCD) schemes for low-power SoCs used in portable multimedia systems, 2) efficient on-chip interconnect architecture for massive multimedia data streaming on multiprocessor SoCs (MPSoCs), and 3) data processing architecture for low-power SoCs in distributed sensor network (DSS) systems and its implementation. The first part includes a low-power embedded low density parity check code (LDPC) - H.264 joint decoding architecture to lower the baseband energy consumption of a channel decoder using joint source decoding and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS). A low-power multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and H.264 video joint detector/decoder design that minimizes energy for portable, wireless embedded systems is also designed. In the second part, a link-level quality of service (QoS) scheme using unequal error protection (UEP) for low-power network-on-chip (NoC) and low latency on-chip network designs for MPSoCs is proposed. This part contains WaveSync, a low-latency focused network-on-chip architecture for globally-asynchronous locally-synchronous (GALS) designs and a simultaneous dual-path routing (SDPR) scheme utilizing path diversity present in typical mesh topology network-on-chips. SDPR is akin to having a higher link width but without the significant hardware overhead associated with simple bus width scaling. The last part shows data processing unit designs for embedded SoCs. We propose a data processing and control logic design for a new radiation detection sensor system generating data at or above Peta-bits-per-second level. Implementation results show that the intended clock rate is achieved within the power target of less than 200mW. We also present a digital signal processing (DSP) accelerator supporting configurable MAC, FFT, FIR, and 3-D cross product operations for embedded SoCs. It consumes 12.35mW along with 0.167mm2 area at 333MHz