An Asynchronous Power Aware and Adaptive NoC Based Circuit

Abstract

In complex embedded applications, optimisation and adaptation of both dynamic and leakage power have become an issue at SoC grain. A fully power-aware globally-asynchronous locally-synchronous network-on-chip (NoC) circuit is presented in this paper. Network-on-chip architecture combined with a globally-asynchronous locally-synchronous paradigm is a natural enabler for DVFS mechanisms. The circuit is arranged around an asynchronous network-on-chip providing scalable communication and a 17 Gb/s throughput while automatically reducing its power consumption by activity detection. Both dynamic and static power consumptions are globally reduced using adaptive design techniques applied locally for each synchronous NoC units. No fine control software is required during voltage and frequency scaling. Power control is localized and a minimal latency cost is observed.