Differentiated Communication Services for NoC-Based MPSoCs

Abstract

The adoption of Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) as the communication infrastructure for complex integrated systems is a fact, and has been promoted by the growing number of processing elements integrated in current MPSoCs. These are designed to execute several applications in parallel, with different communication requirements and distinct levels of required quality of service. To meet these restrictions, most designs customize the MPSoC at design time, using specific NoC communication services as adaptive routing algorithms, priorities, and connections. However, MPSoCs are increasingly used in embedded systems, where new applications may be added at runtime, characterizing dynamic workload scenarios. Such scenarios require adaptability at runtime, with applications having the possibility to select the most appropriate communication service according to their respective requirements. The goal of the present work is to link the hardware level of NoCs to the MPSoC application level, proposing the development of a communication API that exposes the communication services offered by the NoC to the application developer. Executing real and synthetic applications in two different MPSOCs, and using four different NoC communication services enabled to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach to meet applications requirements.