NoCVision: A Network-on-Chip Dynamic Visualization Solution

Abstract

Networks-on-chip (NoCs) are the communication infrastructure of choice for integrating the many components of modern silicon systems, deployed anywhere from systems-on-chip, to chip multi-processors, and to heterogeneous systems. The growing design complexity of these systems, coupled with shrinking times-to-market, requires efficient analysis of complex applications mapped onto the network in a short span of time. In this work, we propose NoCVision, a novel platform for the analysis of NoC characteristics and traffic flows. NoCVision enables design-space exploration, performance tuning, and validation of the NoC subsystem. It allows to consolidate and summarize the network's simulation data and visualize it through intuitive diagrams and plots, either in a static form or animating it to depict changes occurring over time during an application's execution. To showcase the features and benefits of NoCVision, we present several case studies developed on a 64-node CMP organized in a 8x8 mesh NoC and running multi-programmed workloads.