Extended checkers for Logic-Based Distributed Routing in Network-on-Chips

Abstract

Network on Chips (NoCs) are composed of routers, whose task is to dispatch packets within the communication network according to the routing algorithm implemented. However, the extreme scaling of emerging nanometer technologies makes the routers vulnerable to wear-out and environmental effects. In order to contain this issue, development of online testing capabilities for the NoC routers is a must. This paper proposes concurrent online checkers for structural faults in the NoC routing algorithms utilizing the Logic-Based Distributed Routing (LBDR) concept. We show by fault injection experiments that the fault coverage of existing checking mechanisms for LBDR faults is very low. We propose an extended set of concurrent checkers that increase the coverage more than threefold facilitating detection of the majority of structural faults within the LBDR.