Integration architecture for system-on-a-chip design

A new architecture for integrating system-on-a-chip designs is described. The architecture replaces the current ad-hoc mix of multiple on-chip buses, dedicated links, and out-of-band control signals with a unified communications system that is custom-tuned to design requirements. The unified communication system features guaranteed bandwidth and latency, open interfaces to IP cores, and integrated handling of out-of-band control signals.