HLS-DoNoC: High-level simulator for dynamically organizational NoCs

Abstract

A high-level simulator is presented for the design and analysis of dynamically organizational Networks-on-Chip (DoNoCs). The DoNoC is able to organize statically or dynamically different network nodes for run-time coarse and fine grained reconfiguration, in particular power management. As an important step in the design flow, a simulator for early-stage design exploration is the focus of the paper. Built upon classic wormhole-based NoC architecture, the simulator is capable of experimenting diverse run-time monitoring and reconfiguration methods. In particular, dynamic clusterization can be performed with inter-cluster interfaces properly configured at the run-time. The simulator is flit-level accurate, trace-driven, and easy-to-reconfigure. It supports both synchronous and ratiochronous timing, and can provide the communication performance and power/energy consumption. The paper demonstrates the usage of the simulator in the design of various cluster-based power management schemes.