Adaptive network-on-chip with wave-front train serialization scheme

An adaptive network-on-chip (NoC) is implemented with self-calibration and dynamic bandwidth control. The chip calibrates skew between clock domains automatically for reliable mesochronous communication. Link bandwidth is controlled adaptively according to network traffic for energy-efficient packet transmission. A new on-chip serialization scheme, wave-front train (WAFT), is used in the NoC chip to realize high-performance serial link with minimum overhead. The chip is fabricated using 0.18μm CMOS technology. The overall network and WAFT operations are successfully measured at 1.2Gb/s and 3Gb/s, respectively.