Abstract
Virtual channel (VC) flow control is the de facto choice for modern networks-on-chip (NoCs) to allow better utilization of the link bandwidth through buffering and packet switching (PS), which are also the sources of large power footprint and long per-hop latency. However, bandwidth can be plentiful for parallel workloads under VC flow control. Thus, dated but simpler mechanisms, such as circuit switching (CS), can help improve the energy efficiency of modern NoCs. In this paper, we propose to apply CS to part of the link bandwidth so that a considerable amount of traffic can be transmitted bufferlessly without routing. Evaluations reveal that this proposal leads to a reduction of energy per flit by up to 32% while also provides very competitive latency when compared to networks under VC flow control.
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