Wave pipelining for application-specific networks-on-chips

ABSTRACT

This paper presents methods for optimizing application-specific networks-on-chips (NoCs). We show that wave pipelining provides more energy efficient data transport than non-wave pipelined communication. We observe 52% energy saving, 60% transistor area saving, and 1.7 times speedup by using wave pipelining in simulation. Wave pipelining is particularly well suited to networks-on-chips because the networkes structured interconnection provides better delay control. Our analysis shows how designers can tune their network to the requirements of the application by choosing a design point along area/performance or area/energy curves.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.1 Types and Design Styles
          Subjects: Advanced technologies

General Terms:
Design, Measurement

Keywords:
coupling capacitance, interconnection, networks-on-chip (NoC), system-on-chip (SoC), wave pipelining