Embedded cluster-based architecture with high level support - presenting the HC-MPSoC

Abstract

Multiprocessor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) can be found in almost every market branch and its design typically presents several restrictions such as chip area and energy consumption. State-of-art MPSoCs uses networks-on-chip as the primary communication infrastructure and the tendency is that NoC-based systems will still be used for a long time, thanks to a greater design flexibility and also a high communication bandwidth and parallelism. However, such systems also have certain usage restrictions, such as the location of the tasks that compose the application. Mapping and partitioning techniques seek to solve this problem or at least reduce it to a non critical point by diving tasks along the architecture but are not always completely successful. In this context, cluster-based architectures emerges as a viable alternative to MPSoCs. This type of system typically has a hybrid architecture on its constitution, using more than one communication infrastructure, thus being able to group elements by affinity and still use high-speed communication channels, such as NoCs. In this way, the presented work introduces the HC-MPSoC, an architecture for cluster-based intrachip systems, which uses buses and a NoC in a joint way, forming groups of elements independently distributed throughout the platform. The extensions made on the HellfireOS in order to execute it over the hybrid architecture are also presented. All HC-MPSoC modules as well as the HellfireOS modules and the results obtained using the platform are presented along the text.