SoC infrastructures for predictable system integration

Advanced SoCs integrate a diverse set of system functions that pose different requirements on the SoC infrastructure. Predictable integration of such SoCs, with guaranteed Quality-of-Service (QoS) for the real-time functions, is becoming increasingly challenging. We present a structured approach to predictable integration based on a combination of architectural principles and associated analysis techniques. We identify four QoS classes and define the type of QoS guarantees to be supported for the two classes targeted at real-time functions. We then discuss how a SoC infrastructure can be built that provides such QoS guarantees on its interfaces and how network calculus can be applied for analyzing worst-case performance and sizing of buffers. Benefits of our approach are predictable performance and improved time-to-market, while avoiding costly over-design.