What is a Network-On-Chip ?

[kumar_eee]

Can anybody explain me what is NOC(Network on Chip)?....

 

[fiber7]

Re: Networks-On-Chip

The Network-On-Chip (NoC), is a communication infrastructure for complex SoC systems with may IPs like a multiprocessor system.

Instead of having a shared bus, a message passing approach is used.
This mean that, like a computer network, each IP like a processor, send and receive packets (flits) to and from the network.

The basic element of a NoC is the switch, which, connected to the IP with a Network Interface (NI), is in charge to route flits from the input ports to the outpt ports, from the source IP to the destination IP.

When a flit reaches his destination, it will have crossed several switches, i.e. hops.

This kind of communication infrastracture is scalable, and this mean that it is possible to have a number of parallel communications between different cores.

Another important aspect is that the topology of a NoC (Mesh or Folded Torus) is very suited for a regular physical design.
This means that all the global interconnections can be accurately characterized and high performance solutions can be adopted.

I hope it will help you.

Cheers.

Fib.