Institute for Communication Technologies and Embedded Systems

Area and power savings via asymmetric organization of buffers in 3D-NoCs for heterogeneous 3D-SoCs

Authors:
Joseph, J. M. ,  Blochwitz, C. ,  García-Ortiz, A. ,  Pionteck, T.
Journal:
Microprocessors and Microsystems
Volume:
48
Page(s):
36-47
Date:
2017
DOI:
10.1016/j.micpro.2016.09.011
Language:
English
Abstract:
In this paper we investigate the effects of asymmetric organization and depths of Network-on-Chip (NoC) router buffers among dies in heterogeneous 3D-System-on-Chips (SoCs). In our novel approach the properties of the routers are aligned with the characteristics of the technological nodes per layer. We call these designs Asymmetric 3D-NoCs (A-3D-NoCs). In this work we demonstrate potentials of A-3D-NoCs in comparison to a conventional, symmetric 3D-NoC: Applying asymmetric buffer reorganization we achieve area savings of 8.3% and power savings of 5.4% for link buffers while accepting a minor average system performance loss of 2.1%. With additional asymmetry in buffer depth up to 28% cost savings and 15% power reduction are given in combination with a 4.6% performance decline. Thus, the proposed buffer organization scheme is applicable for cost and power critical applications of NoCs in heterogeneous 3D-SoCs.
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