An architectural co-synthesis algorithm for energy-aware Network-on-Chip design

Network-on-Chip (NoC) has been proposed to overcome the complex on-chip communication problem of System-on-Chip (SoC) design in deep sub-micron. A complete NoC design contains exploration on both hardware and software architectures. The hardware architecture includes the selection of Processing Elements (PEs) with multiple types and their topology. The software architecture contains allocating tasks to PEs, scheduling of tasks and their communications. To find the best hardware design for the target tasks, both hardware and software architectures need to be considered simultaneously. Previous works on NoC design have concentrated on solving only one or two design parameters at a time. In this paper, we propose a hardware–software co-synthesis algorithm for a heterogeneous NoC architecture. The design goal is to minimize energy consumption while meeting the real-time requirements commonly seen in embedded applications. The proposed algorithm is based on Simulated-Annealing (SA). To compare the solution quality and efficiency of the proposed algorithm, we also implement the branch-and-bound and iterative algorithm to solve the hardware–software co-synthesis problem of a heterogeneous NoC. With the given synthetic task sets, the experimental results show that the proposed SA-based algorithm achieves near-optimal solution in a reasonable time, while the branch-and-bound algorithm takes a very long time to find the optimal solution, and the iterative algorithm fails to achieve good solution quality. When applying the co-synthesis algorithms to a real-world application with PE library that has little variation in PE performance and energy consumption, the iterative algorithm achieves solution quality comparable to that of the proposed SA-based algorithm.     

片上网络体系结构的研究与进展

片上网络(NoC)是基于多处理器技术的一种新型的计算集成形式，涉及硬件通信结构、中间件、操作系统通信服务、设计方法及工具等。NoC体系结构的设计重点是实现低功耗和高效通信/计算能力。该文介绍了4种新的NoC体系结构，并在同等约束下进行了功耗比较，2D网格结构的功耗最大、性能最差，聚合环面网络结构则最优。     

NoC synthesis flow for customized domain specific multiprocessor systems-on-chip

The growing complexity of customizable single-chip multiprocessors is requiring communication resources that can only be provided by a highly-scalable communication infrastructure. This trend is exemplified by the growing number of network-on-chip (NoC) architectures that have been proposed recently for system-on-chip (SoC) integration. Developing NoC-based systems tailored to a particular application domain is crucial for achieving high-performance, energy-efficient customized solutions. The effectiveness of this approach largely depends on the availability of an ad hoc design methodology that, starting from a high-level application specification, derives an optimized NoC configuration with respect to different design objectives and instantiates the selected application specific on-chip micronetwork. Automatic execution of these design steps is highly desirable to increase SoC design productivity. This work illustrates a complete synthesis flow, called Netchip, for customized NoC architectures, that partitions the development work into major steps (topology mapping, selection, and generation) and provides proper tools for their automatic execution (SUNMAP, xpipescompiler). The entire flow leverages the flexibility of a fully reusable and scalable network components library called xpipes, consisting of highly-parameterizable network building blocks (network interface, switches, switch-to-switch links) that are design-time tunable and composable to achieve arbitrary topologies and customized domain-specific NoC architectures. Several experimental case studies are presented In the work, showing the powerful design space exploration capabilities of the proposed methodology and tools.     

A networks-on-chip architecture design space exploration – The LIB

Many on-chip network circuit and architecture techniques are incompatible with modern design flows, making them unsuitable for use in systems-on-chip. This paper presents a networks-on-chip (NoC) architecture design space exploration method for multi-processor systems-on-chip architecture. The NoC architecture design space is designed with a Layer-Interactive-Building block (LIB) methodology that is divided into three layers: application layer, link/network layer, and physical layer. The suggested LIB design paradigmatic philosophy provides modular building block structure in both hardware and software and the protocols for their interconnection in the three architecture layers. Using LIB the designer can easily select these building blocks to build application-specific NoCs to meet different application requirements such as media, graphic, software radio and communication network applications. The LIB provides the NoC building blocks, architecture interacting systems-on-chip components, the programming models and application mapping strategies. The LIB can be used as a complementary library and tools for future on-chip interconnection network design.     

Deadlock free routing algorithms for irregular mesh topology NoC systems with rectangular regions

The simplicity of regular mesh topology Network on Chip (NoC) architecture leads to reductions in design time and manufacturing cost. A weakness of the regular shaped architecture is its inability to efficiently support cores of different sizes. A proposed way in literature to deal with this is to utilize the region concept, which helps to accommodate cores larger than the tile size in mesh topology NoC architectures. Region concept offers many new opportunities for NoC design, as well as provides new design issues and challenges. One of the most important among these is the design of an efficient deadlock free routing algorithm. Available adaptive routing algorithms developed for regular mesh topology cannot ensure freedom from deadlocks. In this paper, we list and discuss many new design issues which need to be handled for designing NoC systems incorporating cores larger than the tile size. We also present and compare two deadlock free routing algorithms for mesh topology NoC with regions. The idea of the first algorithm is borrowed from the area of fault tolerant networks, where a network topology is rendered irregular due to faults in routers or links, and is adapted for the new context. We compare this with an algorithm designed using a methodology for design of application specific routing algorithms for communication networks. The application specific routing algorithm tries to maximize adaptivity by using static and dynamic communication requirements of the application. Our study shows that the application specific routing algorithm not only provides much higher adaptivity, but also superior performance as compared to the other algorithm in all traffic cases. But this higher performance for the second algorithm comes at a higher area cost for implementing network routers.     

微处理器敏捷设计方法综述

随着登纳德缩放定律和摩尔定律几近终结,通过领域特定体系结构提升微处理器性能变得越来越重要,迫切需要提升微处理器设计生产率来应对网络、智能、安全等领域特定需求.国内外的实践表明,微处理器敏捷设计方法是一种能有效提升微处理器设计生产率的方法.通过对比软硬件设计的差异,分析出敏捷设计的本质及其应用于微处理器设计所面临的挑战.综述了微处理器敏捷设计领域近年来代表性研究实践,归纳出微处理器敏捷设计关键使能技术,探讨了该领域未来潜在的研究方向.     

Exascale design space exploration and co-design

The co-design of architectures and algorithms has been postulated as a strategy for achieving Exascale computing in this decade. Exascale design space exploration is prohibitively expensive, at least partially due to the size and complexity of scientific applications of interest. Application codes can contain millions of lines and involve many libraries. Mini-applications, which attempt to capture some key performance issues, can potentially reduce the order of the exploration by a factor of a thousand. However, we need to carefully understand how representative mini-applications are of the full application code. This paper describes a methodology for this comparison and applies it to a particularly challenging mini-application. A multi-faceted methodology for design space exploration is also described that includes measurements on advanced architecture testbeds, experiments that use supercomputers and system software to emulate future hardware, and hardware/software co-simulation tools to predict the behavior of applications on hardware that does not yet exist.     

Combining mapping and partitioning exploration for NoC-based embedded systems

Networks on Chip (NoC) have emerged as the key paradigm for designing a scalable communication infrastructure for future Systems on Chip (SoC). An important issue in NoC design is how to map an application on this architecture and how to determine the hardware/software partition that satisfies the performance, cost and flexibility requirements. In this paper, we propose an approach that concurrently optimizes the mapping and the partitioning of streaming applications. The proposed approach exploits multiobjective evolutionary algorithms that are fed by execution performances scores corresponding to the evaluated mappings and partitioning ability to pipeline execution of the streaming application. As result, most promising solutions are highlighted for mapping multimedia applications onto a SoC architecture interconnecting 16 nodes through 2D-Mesh and Ring NoC.     

基于3D Mesh结构的一种静态路由算法

3D NoC在同构多核系统中相比2D NoC具有更为优越的性能.本文在研究3D Mesh结构的基础上,对拓扑结构中的平均延时和理想吞吐量进行了理论上的评估,并提出了一种基于3D Mesh的新的静态路由算法,最后运用NS2网络仿真软件对其进行仿真和比较.实验结果显示,新的路由算法可以有效地提高吞吐量,并在大规模数据传输时...     

基于FPGA的NoC硬件系统设计

设计了基于FPGA的片上网络系统硬件平台。系统由大容量的FPGA、存储器、高速A/D与D/A、通信接口和一个扩展的ARM9系统组成。完成了集高速数字信号处理、视频编解码和网络传输功能与一体的多核系统设计。针对典型的3×3 2D Mesh结构的NoC系统应用进行了探讨,阐述了NoC系统设计过程中的关键技术,并使用SigXplorer软件对系统的信号完整性解决方案进行了PCB的反射与串扰仿真。     

A modelling-based methodology for evaluating the performance of a real-time embedded control system

This paper presents a modelling-based methodology for embedded control system (ECS) design. Here, instead of developing a new methodology for ECS design, we propose to upgrade an existing one by bridging it with a methodology used in other areas of embedded systems design. We created a transformation bridge between the control-scheduling and the hardware/software (HW/SW) co-design tools. By defining this bridge, we allow for an automatic model transformation. As a result, we obtain more accurate timing-behaviour simulations, considering not only the real-time software, but also the hardware architecture’s impact on the control performance. We show an example with different model-evaluation results compared to real implementation measurements, which clearly demonstrates the benefits of our approach.     

A framework for rapid evaluation of heterogeneous 3-D NoC architectures

The scalability of communication infrastructure in modern Integrated Circuits (ICs) becomes a challenging issue, which might be a significant bottleneck if not carefully addressed. Towards this direction, the usage of Networks-on-Chip (NoC) is a preferred solution. In this work, we propose a software-supported framework for quantifying the efficiency of heterogeneous 3-D NoC architectures. In contrast to existing approaches for NoC design, the introduced heterogeneous architecture consists of a mixture of 2-D and 3-D routers, which reduces the delay and power consumption with a slight impact on packet hops. More specifically, the experimental results with a number of DSP applications show the effectiveness of the introduced methodology, as we achieve on average 25% higher maximum operation frequency and 39% lower power consumption compared to the uniform 3-D NoCs.     

Computer-aided hardware-software codesign

Most digital systems consist of a hardware component and software programs that execute on the hardware platform. Obviously, a system can deliver higher performance when we tune the hardware to its software applications and vice versa. Today's novel architectures and the possible use of computer-aided design tools have created new opportunities to find solutions to codesign problems. This survey addresses this challenge, considers different architectures and their uses, and reports on the status of CAD codesign tools, with particular reference to simulation and synthesis     

Scalable network-on-chip architecture for configurable neural networks

Providing highly flexible connectivity is a major architectural challenge for hardware implementation of reconfigurable neural networks. We perform an analytical evaluation and comparison of different configurable interconnect architectures (mesh NoC, tree, shared bus and point-to-point) emulating variants of two neural network topologies (having full and random configurable connectivity). We derive analytical expressions and asymptotic limits for performance (in terms of bandwidth) and cost (in terms of area and power) of the interconnect architectures considering three communication methods (unicast, multicast and broadcast). It is shown that multicast mesh NoC provides the highest performance/cost ratio and consequently it is the most suitable interconnect architecture for configurable neural network implementation. Routing table size requirements and their impact on scalability were analyzed. Modular hierarchical architecture based on multicast mesh NoC is proposed to allow large scale neural networks emulation. Simulation results successfully validate the analytical models and the asymptotic behavior of the network as a function of its size.     

集成电路设计的系统级描述语言SystemC

人们提出了软件硬件协同设计的设计方法，以克服传统的将软件和硬件分开的设计方法对于SOC的设计存在的缺陷。SyStenlC是顺应这种发展趋势而产生的系统级描述语言。它是一种通过类对象扩展和基于C／C 的建模平台，支持系统级软硬件协同设计、仿真、验证、软硬件协同设计的系统级描述语言。本文介绍了系统级描述语言SySternC在集成电路设计中的应用，讨论了基于SyStemC的集成电路设计的设计流程、设计优势及其发展趋势。     

Modular Neural Tile Architecture for Compact Embedded Hardware Spiking Neural Network

Biologically-inspired packet switched network on chip (NoC) based hardware spiking neural network (SNN) architectures have been proposed as an embedded computing platform for classification, estimation and control applications. Storage of large synaptic connectivity (SNN topology) information in SNNs require large distributed on-chip memory, which poses serious challenges for compact hardware implementation of such architectures. Based on the structured neural organisation observed in human brain, a modular neural networks (MNN) design strategy partitions complex application tasks into smaller subtasks executing on distinct neural network modules, and integrates intermediate outputs in higher level functions. This paper proposes a hardware modular neural tile (MNT) architecture that reduces the SNN topology memory requirement of NoC-based hardware SNNs by using a combination of fixed and configurable synaptic connections. The proposed MNT contains a 16:16 fully-connected feed-forward SNN structure and integrates in a mesh topology NoC communication infrastructure. The SNN topology memory requirement is 50 % of the monolithic NoC-based hardware SNN implementation. The paper also presents a lookup table based SNN topology memory allocation technique, which further increases the memory utilisation efficiency. Overall the area requirement of the architecture is reduced by an average of 66 % for practical SNN application topologies. The paper presents micro-architecture details of the proposed MNT and digital neuron circuit. The proposed architecture has been validated on a Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA and synthesised using 65 nm low-power CMOS technology. The evolvable capability of the proposed MNT and its suitability for executing subtasks within a MNN execution architecture is demonstrated by successfully evolving benchmark SNN application tasks representing classification and non-linear control functions. The paper addresses hardware modular SNN design and implementation challenges and contributes to the development of a compact hardware modular SNN architecture suitable for embedded applications     

SystemC cosimulation and emulation of multiprocessor SoC designs

SystemC is an open source C/C++ simulation environment that provides several class packages for specifying hardware blocks and communication channels. The design environment specifies software algorithmically as a set of functions embedded in abstract modules that communicate with one another and with hardware components via abstract communication channels. It enables transparent integration of instruction-set simulators and prototyping boards. The authors describe a simulation environment that targets heterogeneous multiprocessor systems. They are currently working to extend their methodology to more complex on-chip architectures.     

Performance evaluation and design tradeoffs of on-chip interconnect architectures

Network-on-Chip (NoC) has been proposed as an alternative to bus-based schemes to achieve high-performance and scalability in System-on-Chip (SoC) design. Performance analysis and evaluation of on-chip interconnect architectures are widely based on simulations, which become computationally expensive, especially for large-scale NoCs. In this paper, a Network Calculus-based methodology is presented to analyze and evaluate the performance and cost metrics, such as latency and energy consumption. The 2D Mesh, Spidergong, and WK-Recursive on-chip interconnect architectures are analyzed using this methodology and results are compared with those produced using simulations. The values obtained by simulations and by analysis show similar trends in the same order of magnitude. Furthermore, WK outperforms the other on-chip interconnects in all considered metrics.     

Automatic code generation for GPUs in llc

llc is a C-based language where parallelism is expressed using compiler directives. In this paper, we present a new backend of an llc compiler that produces code for GPUs. We have also implemented a software architecture that eases the development of new backends. Our design represents an intermediate layer between a high-level parallel language and different hardware architectures.     

An open platform for developing multiprocessor SoCs

Nanometer technologies integrate hundreds of millions of transistors in a single chip. Opportunities provided by these technologies, combined with the consolidation of platform-based design approaches, the evolution toward multiprocessor architectures, and consideration of the network-on-chip (NoC) paradigm suggest new methods for designing and verifying embedded systems. Clearly, a pure software simulation platform can't provide the performance required for developing multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) designs. One of the main design risks for today's systems is the architecture, which developers must validate as early as possible in the overall system design cycle because it has the biggest impact on system dimensioning and performance. To solve these problems, we've studied a reconfigurable MPSoC emulation platform and developed the main emulation subsystem and board. A low-cost modular approach that uses emulation offers an alternative to software simulation for the design and verification of complex multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) designs.