A Topology-based Design Methodology for Networks-on-Chip Applications

The topological structure of interconnection networks plays an important role in the design of Networks-on-Chip based Systems. With an enormous number of regular and irregular topologies, acquiring the optimum network topology for a specific application is one of the most complex design problems. In this paper, we propose a new design methodology to automatically acquire the most adapted topology for a given application. A Matlab-based tool called OptNoC is developed to generate the interconnection network using the proposed methodology. The granularity of the OptNoC library facilitates a tool to explore ten different topologies for each design. The current version of the tool mainly aims at minimizing the interconnection network power consumption by using an exhaustive search mapping technique. As a proof of concept, a case study is discussed to show how OptNoC can improve the interconnection network power consumption compared to other tools.