NoC Router Lifetime Improvement using Per-Port Router Utilization

Network-on-chip (NoC) routers have a non-uniform utilization based on the number of links, location, and the workload running. Uneven utilization can lead to reliability issues, namely Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI), that results in a reduced lifetime for gates. To address this, a physical design-based solution using workload signatures and cell sizing is proposed to improve the lifetime of NoCs. Using real workloads in conjunction with logic simulation and physical design, this paper analyzes the utilization of each port of NoC routers and, based on a desired lifetime, resizes the physical design. Results using SPLASH2 benchmarks show that the NoC router lifetime can be increased by 3.4× over the default sized router with an average increase of 5.58% and 5.27% for area and power, respectively.