Title: An overview of achieving energy efficiency in on-chip networks

Authors: Masud Al Aziz, Samee Ullah Khan, Thanasis Loukopoulos, Pascal Bouvry, Hongxiang Li, Juan Li

Addresses: NDSU-CIIT Green Computing and Communications Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA. ' NDSU-CIIT Green Computing and Communications Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA. ' Department of Informatics and Computer Technology, Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Lamia, 35100 Lamia, Greece. ' Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication, University of Luxembourg, 6 rue Coudenhove Kalergi, L-1359 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. ' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA. ' NDSU-CIIT Green Computing and Communications Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA

Abstract: Due to the increasing bandwidth demand for the network-on-chip (NoC), interconnection networks become a dominant source of energy consumption in systems-on-chip (SoCs) and chip multi processors (CMPs). Therefore, energy efficient NoC is key to a successful SoC development. This paper presents an overview of different techniques to achieve energy efficiency at the different levels of NoC design including: a) component level where dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) and dynamic link shutdown (DLS) techniques are reviewed; b) circuit level, e.g., voltage swinging of signals; c) architectural level, where specialised tools, such as Wattch and Orion are discussed. We also summarise research on thermal optimisation issues. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey of recent research results on the area.

Keywords: network on chip; NoC; energy efficiency; power-aware communications; interconnection networks; on-chip networks; energy consumption; dynamic voltage scaling; DVS; dynamic link shutdown; DLS; signal voltage swinging; thermal optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCNDS.2010.035560

International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, 2010 Vol.5 No.4, pp.444 - 458

Received: 02 Dec 2009
Accepted: 31 Dec 2009

Published online: 30 Sep 2010 *

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