A Network-on-Chip monitoring infrastructure for communication-centric debug of embedded multi-processor SoCs

Abstract

Problems in a new System on Chip (SOC) consisting of hardware and embedded software often only show up when a silicon prototype of the chip is placed in its intended target environment and the application is executed. Traditionally, the debugging of embedded systems is difficult and time consuming because of the intrinsic lack of internal system observability and controlability in the target environment. Design for Debug (DfD) is the act of adding debug support to the design of a chip, in the realization that not every SOC is correct first time. DfD provides debug engineers with increased observability and controlability of the internal operation of an embedded system. In this paper, we present a monitoring infrastructure for multi-processor SOCs with a Network on Chip (NOC), and explain its application to performance analysis and debug. We describe how our monitors aid in the performance analysis and debug of the interactions of the embedded processors. We present a generic template for bus and router monitors, and show how they are instantiated at design time in our NOC design flow. We conclude this paper with details of their hardware cost.