A generic and high-level model of large unreliable NoCs for fault tolerance and performance analysis

The integration of more and more computing cores into processors drives the adoption of larger and larger Network-on-Chips (NoCs). Concurrently, the decreasing reliability of 1 the latest technologies promotes the utilization of fault-tolerant techniques. Unfortunately, the understanding of fault-tolerant NoCs is increasingly difficult as interconnect scale up, because they require the combination of more and more complex and heterogeneous techniques. In this paper, an high-level model named VOCIS is presented, in order to ease the comprehension and analysis of large unreliable NoCs. This model features a 3D Graphical User Interface (GUI), that offers an effective and in-depth visualization of interconnects. A few analytical measurements provided directly by VOCIS are also presented, in order to assess quantitatively the impact of defects and corresponding fault-tolerant techniques.