A Dual-Layer Method for Transient and Permanent Error Co-Management in NoC Links

Abstract

We propose an error control method to comanage transient and permanent errors in the data link and physical layers of a network-on-chip (NoC). To reduce energy overhead, a configurable error control coding (ECC) unit adapts the number of redundant wires to the noise conditions, achieving a required error detection capability. Infrequently used redundant wires are utilized as spare wires to replace permanently unusable links. Furthermore, we propose a packet reorganization algorithm that cooperates with a shortened ECC method to support low-latency split transmission. Simulations show that the proposed method reduces packet latency and energy per useful packet by up to 50% and 70%, respectively, compared with previous methods.