A novel fuzzy logic based bufferless routing algorithm for low-power NoCs

This paper presents a novel, adaptive routing algorithm aimed at bufferless NoC; although it can also be applied to buffered NoCs as well. It is based on a fuzzy logic routing scheme that aims at reducing power consumption by routing incoming traffic according to a different routing approach than conventional bufferless routers. More specifically, in order to decide on the output port of an incoming flit, the algorithm takes into account traffic and dynamic power consumption on neighboring router links. The additional digital logic required for the proposed algorithm is not in the router critical path, and, therefore, imposes no additional latency. Experimental results include hardware implementation figures that prove the validity of the proposed routing algorithm concerning the overhead it imposes.