Issues in the development of a practical NoC: the Proteo concept

  • Authors:
  • David Sigüenza-Tortosa;Tapani Ahonen;Jari Nurmi

  • Affiliations:
  • Institute of Digital and Computer Systems, Tampere University of Technology, BOX 527, FIN-33101, Tampere, Finland;Institute of Digital and Computer Systems, Tampere University of Technology, BOX 527, FIN-33101, Tampere, Finland;Institute of Digital and Computer Systems, Tampere University of Technology, BOX 527, FIN-33101, Tampere, Finland

  • Venue:
  • Integration, the VLSI Journal - Special issue: Networks on chip and reconfigurable fabrics
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

Network-on-Chip will be one of the cornerstones of future electronics. At Tampere University of Technology we have been working on the development of our own proposal for a flexible on-chip communication network, called Proteo. Proteo introduces the concept of an open library of communication components that can be selected and configured to build highly-customized networks-on-chip. The designer of a new System-on-Chip platform starts with a description of the hardware components of the system and an abstract model of the problem application, and with the help of the Proteo software tools, obtains a synthesizable instance of a packet-switching network that, ideally, meets his requirements. The constraints placed on the type of designs that may use Proteo are minimal and an important part of the process should be automated. In this article we introduce the philosophy behind the project in relation to fundamental deep submicron technology problems, and some of our initial results.