MUNCHEN TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT Lehrstuhl f ur Integrierte Systeme

Chip Multicore Processors Tutorial 11

July 10, 2013

Task 11.1: Routing

a) Given is a Network-on-Chip with West-First Routing. Give all routes from A to B. How many of them are minimal?

B
4 5 6 7

A
8 9 10 11

C
12 13 14 15

b) How does the number of routes change for communication from C to A? How many of those routes are minimal?

Task 11.2: Virtual Channels

a) Shortly describe the functionality of virtual channels. What dierentiates virtual channels from physical channels? Give reasons for the usage of virtual channels. b) To enable virtual channels, buers are required. The number of its which can be stored in the buers increases the required memory. According to you, why are 1-it buers disadvantageous? c) In the following sketch, you nd the subnetwork of a Network-on-Chip. The NoC routers are buered on the input with 2-it buers. Three communication streams ow through the NoC: From the module at router 0 to the module at router 2 (stream 1) From the module at router 1 to the module at router 3 (stream 2) Between two other modules in the NoC via router 2 and 3 (stream 3)

3
R1 R2

R0

R3

The communication streams consist of four it long packets. These packets are generated every 12 cycles. Assume that no other trac exists. The timing relation among the packets is that packets 1 and 2 are generated at the same time, that is identical to the time that packet 3 enters router 2. Give the minimal latency of stream 1 and 2. c) Complete the timing diagram. All required buers are given. Additionally the links between the routers are given to ease lling it out. What are the latencies of packet 1 and 2? Shortly describe the situation at time step 3. Also give the eective utilization rate of each link.
Buer 0 5 10 Links

0L 0->1 1W 1L 1->2 2W 2N 3N
30 31 32 33 30 31 32 33 30 31 32 33

2->3

d) The NoC is extended with virtual channels. For each stream one virtual channel is allocated. The following table is extended accordingly. Repeat the procedure for virtual channels. What are the dierences?
Buer VC 0 5 10 Links

0L 1W 1L 2W 2N 3N

0 0->1 0 1 1->2 0 1 2 1 2
30

2->3