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Three dimensional Networks-on-Chip (3D NoCs) have evolved as an ideal solution to the communication demands and complexity of future high density many core architectures. However, the design practicality of 3D NoCs faces several challenges such as thermal issues, high power consumption and area overhead of 3D routers as well as high complexity and cost of vertical link implementation. To mitigate the performance and manufacturing cost of 3D NoCs, inhomogeneous architectures have emerged to combine 2D and 3D routers in 3D NoCs producing lower area and energy consumption while maintaining the performance of homogeneous 3D NoCs. Due to the limited number of vertical links, application mapping on inhomogeneous 3D NoCs can be complex. However, application mapping has a great impact on the performance and energy consumption of NoCs. This paper presents an energy and performance aware application mapping algorithm for inhomogeneous 3D NoCs. The algorithm has been evaluated with various realistic traffic patterns and compared with existing mapping algorithms. Experimental results show NoCs mapped with the proposed algorithm have lower energy consumption and significant reduction in packet delays compared to the existing algorithms and comparable average packet latency with Branch-and-Bound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: 3-D Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) have been proposed as a potent solution to address both the interconnection and design complexity problems facing future System-on-Chip (SoC) designs. In this paper, two topology-aware multicast routing algorithms, Multicasting XYZ (MXYZ) and Alternative XYZ (AL+XYZ) algorithms in supporting of 3-D NoC are proposed. In essence, MXYZ is a simple dimension order multicast routing algorithm that targets 3-D NoC systems built upon regular topologies. To support multicast routing in irregular regions, AL+XYZ can be applied, where an alternative output channel is sought to forward/replicate the packets whenever the output channel determined by MXYZ is not available. To evaluate the performance of MXYZ and AL+XYZ, extensive experiments have been conducted by comparing MXYZ and AL+XYZ against a path-based multicast routing algorithm and an irregular region oriented multiple unicast routing algorithm, respectively. The experimental results confirm that the proposed MXYZ and AL+XYZ schemes, respectively, have lower latency and power consumption than the other two routing algorithms, meriting the two proposed algorithms to be more suitable for supporting multicasting in 3-D NoC systems. In addition, the hardware implementation cost of AL+XYZ is shown to be quite modest. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper proposes a novel Network-on-Chip architecture that not only enhances network transmission performance while maintaining a feasible implementation cost, but also provides a power-efficient solution for interconnection network scenarios. Diagonally-linked mesh NoC that uses wormhole packet switching technique implements a high-performance NoC platform to meet both cost and power consumption requirements. The proposed architecture uses an adaptive quasi-minimal routing algorithm so that it can improve average latency and saturation traffic load owing to its flexibility and adaptiveness. Based on these features, a congestion-aware routing algorithm is proposed to balance traffic load so as to alleviate congestion caused by high throughput network activities. Simulation results show that saturation load is improved dramatically for various traffic patterns. Implementation results also show that employing diagonal links is a more area-efficient method for improving network performance than using large buffers. It is shown that congestion-aware router requires negligible cost overhead but provides better throughput. Finally, simulation results also reveal that power consumption in the proposed architecture outperforms traditional mesh networks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]