Roundabout: A Network-on-Chip router with adaptive buffer sharing

Adaptive techniques, such as adaptive task migration at runtime, have been introduced in Multiprocessor Systems-on-Chip in order to optimize performance and power consumption. Nevertheless, there is also a potential to adapt the MPSoC communication architecture for further performance and power benefits. As an example, adaptive routings in Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) have been exploited for performance gains. Another promising opportunity, which is here explored, is the adaptive use of the buffering resources in the NoC router. This work presents Roundabout, a new NoC router architecture with inherent and effective buffer utilization. Inspired by real-life multi-lane roundabouts, it consists of lanes shared by input and output ports. A prototype of Roundabout is evaluated using 45nm CMOS technology. The router is able to achieve a throughput of 465 Mflit/sec and without significant area overhead. It achieves a network saturation threshold of 68Gbps on a 4×4 Mesh topology network.