An efficient VFI-based NoC architecture using Johnson-encoded Reconfigurable FIFOs

In this paper, a Johnson-encoded Reconfigurable Synchronous/Bi-Synchronous (RSBS) FIFO is proposed which can adapt its operation to either synchronous or bi-synchronous mode. The proposed FIFO which can be used to interface modules in Voltage/Frequency Islands (VFI) based Networks-on-chip, is capable of alleviating the excessive energy consumption and high performance overhead of the conventional bi-synchronous FIFOs. The FIFO is scalable and synthesizable in synchronous standard cells. In addition, a technique for mesochronous adaptation of the proposed FIFO is presented. Our extensive experiments show significant power and performance improvements compared to non-reconfigurable architectures.