4,522 research outputs found
Nature-Inspired Interconnects for Self-Assembled Large-Scale Network-on-Chip Designs
Future nano-scale electronics built up from an Avogadro number of components
needs efficient, highly scalable, and robust means of communication in order to
be competitive with traditional silicon approaches. In recent years, the
Networks-on-Chip (NoC) paradigm emerged as a promising solution to interconnect
challenges in silicon-based electronics. Current NoC architectures are either
highly regular or fully customized, both of which represent implausible
assumptions for emerging bottom-up self-assembled molecular electronics that
are generally assumed to have a high degree of irregularity and imperfection.
Here, we pragmatically and experimentally investigate important design
trade-offs and properties of an irregular, abstract, yet physically plausible
3D small-world interconnect fabric that is inspired by modern network-on-chip
paradigms. We vary the framework's key parameters, such as the connectivity,
the number of switch nodes, the distribution of long- versus short-range
connections, and measure the network's relevant communication characteristics.
We further explore the robustness against link failures and the ability and
efficiency to solve a simple toy problem, the synchronization task. The results
confirm that (1) computation in irregular assemblies is a promising and
disruptive computing paradigm for self-assembled nano-scale electronics and (2)
that 3D small-world interconnect fabrics with a power-law decaying distribution
of shortcut lengths are physically plausible and have major advantages over
local 2D and 3D regular topologies
Channel Characterization for Chip-scale Wireless Communications within Computing Packages
Wireless Network-on-Chip (WNoC) appears as a promising alternative to
conventional interconnect fabrics for chip-scale communications. WNoC takes
advantage of an overlaid network composed by a set of millimeter-wave antennas
to reduce latency and increase throughput in the communication between cores.
Similarly, wireless inter-chip communication has been also proposed to improve
the information transfer between processors, memory, and accelerators in
multi-chip settings. However, the wireless channel remains largely unknown in
both scenarios, especially in the presence of realistic chip packages. This
work addresses the issue by accurately modeling flip-chip packages and
investigating the propagation both its interior and its surroundings. Through
parametric studies, package configurations that minimize path loss are obtained
and the trade-offs observed when applying such optimizations are discussed.
Single-chip and multi-chip architectures are compared in terms of the path loss
exponent, confirming that the amount of bulk silicon found in the pathway
between transmitter and receiver is the main determinant of losses.Comment: To be presented 12th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on
Networks-on-Chip (NOCS 2018); Torino, Italy; October 201
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