A hybrid packet-circuit switched on-chip network based on SDM

—In this paper, we propose a novel on-chip communication scheme by dividing the resources of a traditional packet-switched network-on-chip between a packet-switched and a circuit-switched sub-network. The former directs packets according to the traditional packet-switching mechanism, while the latter forwards packets over circuits which are directly established between two non-adjacent nodes by bypassing the intermediate routers. A packet may switch between the subnetworks several times to reach its destination. The circuits are set up using a low-latency and low-cost setup-network. The network resources are split between the two sub-networks using Spatial-Division Multiplexing (SDM). The work aims to improve the power and performance metrics of Network-on-Chip (NoC) architectures and benefits from the power and scalability advantage of packet-switched NoCs and superior communication performance of circuit-switching. The evaluation results show a significant reduction in power and la...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: DATE
• Authors: Mehdi Modarressi, Hamid Sarbazi-Azad, Mohammad Arjomand
• Keywords: DATE 2009, Hardware, Packet-switched, Packet-switched Noc, Traditional Packet-switched Network-on-chip