A folded wireless network-on-chip using graphene based THz-band antennas

Abstract

1 Long distance data communication over multi-hop wireline paths in conventional Network-on-Chips (NoCs) cause high-energy consumption and degradation in performance. Many emerging interconnect technologies such as 3D integration, photonic, Radio Frequency (RF), and wireless interconnects have been envisioned to alleviate the issues of a metal/dielectric interconnect system. To satisfy the increasing demand for high speed and low power interconnects, THz Wireless NoC (WiNoC) enabled with high-speed direct links between distant cores is desired. In this paper, we present an innovative approach to enable a THz WiNoC with low power wireless devices operating in the THz bands such as graphene based antennas. The novelty of this work is that we propose a torus like folding by using THz band links instead of global wires. With cycle accurate system-level simulations, we demonstrate that they are able to provide significant gains in performance and energy-efficiency in on-chip data transfer in NoC based multicore chips.