SDT-free: An efficient crosstalk avoidance coding mechanism considering inductance effects

An efficient numeral-based coding mechanism, called SDT-free is proposed in this paper that avoids crosstalk faults. The SDT-free coding mechanism completely removes bit patterns ‘11111’ and ‘00000’ which impose the worst crosstalk effects considering inductance effects. In this way, the coding mechanism improves the reliability of chip channels and offers invariant delay for channels. To minimize overheads of SDT-free coding mechanism, a novel numeral system is used in generating code words. Using this numeral system, the coding mechanism is applicable for desired numbers of wires. The SDT-free coding mechanism has been evaluated by means of VHDL simulations in terms of area occupation, power consumption and critical path of codec. Evaluations confirm that the SDT-free coding mechanism completely avoids worst crosstalk-induced transition patterns in NoC channels. In addition, the SDT-free has been compared with the Fibonacci-based coding mechanism. SDT-free coding mechanism beside considering inductance effects provides improvements of 8.8% in power consumption and 20.1% in area occupation as compared to Fibonacci-based coding mechanism.