NoCs In 3D Space


A network on chip (NoC) has become an essential piece of technology that enables the complexity of chips to keep growing, but when designs go 3D, or when third-party chiplets become pervasive, it's not clear how NoCs will evolve or what the impact will be on chiplet architectures. A NoC enables data to move between heterogeneous computing elements, while at the same time minimizing the resou... » read more

Cache Coherency In Heterogeneous Systems


Until recently, coherency was something normally associated with DRAM. But as chip designs become increasingly heterogeneous, incorporating more and different types of compute elements, it becomes harder to maintain coherency in that data without taking a significant hit on performance and power. The basic problem is that not all compute elements fetch and share data at the same speed, and syst... » read more

Automotive Semiconductor March Madness 2024


As the US is amid "Basketball March Madness" – hard to ignore when you live in Silicon Valley – it also felt like the month of "Automotive Madness." We saw numerous announcements and events across the design chain, from semiconductor IP to software and IP providers to automotive OEMs. And in all of them, data-transport architectures, and with that networks-on-chips (NoCs), are critical. Ma... » read more

NoC Development – Make Or Buy?


In the selection and qualification process for semiconductor IP, design teams often consider the cost of in-house development. Network-on-Chip (NoC) IP is no different. In “When Does My SoC Design Need A NoC?” Michael Frank and I argued that most of today’s designs – even less complex ones – can benefit from NoCs. In the blog “Balancing Memory And Coherence: Navigating Modern Chip A... » read more

SoC Integration And Data Transport Architecture Requirements Surge In 2023


As the holiday season is in full swing, it's retrospection and prediction time! Let's look at what I thought 2023 would look like, review how it turned out, and take a first stab at 2024 predictions. As a spoiler, my biggest surprise was the intensity with which artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) accelerated since Generative AI was put on the mainstream adoption map last year,... » read more

A Survey Of Recent Advances And Research Activities In Wireless NoC Security


A technical paper titled “Wireless Network-on-Chip Security Review: Attack Taxonomy, Implications, and Countermeasures” was published by researchers at Macquarie University (Sydney). Abstract: "Network-on-chip (NoC) is a critical on-chip communication framework that underpins high-performance multicore computing and network system architectures. Its adoption has become widespread due to t... » read more

Network-on-Chips Enabling Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Everywhere


Recently, I attended the AI HW Summit in Santa Clara and Autosens in Brussels. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) were critical themes for both events, albeit from different angles. While AI/ML as a buzzword is very popular these days in all its good and bad ways, in discussions with customers and prospects, it became clear that we need to be precise in defining what type of A... » read more

Design Complexity In The Golden Age Of Semiconductors


While writing last month's blog that used some of the trend charts we have seen, I noticed that a lot of the data ends in 2020 or earlier, but I was too close to the deadline to sit down and make orderly updates to some of the charts. Working day-to-day in the area of SoC integration and networks-on-chips (NoCs), the classic chart based on Karl Rupp's now 50 years of processor data that overlay... » read more

NoC Obfuscation For Protecting Against Reverse Engineering Attacks (U. Of Florida)


A technical paper titled "ObNoCs: Protecting Network-on-Chip Fabrics Against Reverse-Engineering Attacks" was published by researchers at University of Florida. Abstract: "Modern System-on-Chip designs typically use Network-on-Chip (NoC) fabrics to implement coordination among integrated hardware blocks. An important class of security vulnerabilities involves a rogue foundry reverse-engineeri... » read more

Megatrends At DAC


Spotting key trends over three days of a semiconductor design conference is a challenge, but some important ones come into focus after attending multiple sessions — AI/ML, chiplet integration, and heterogeneous integration in an SoC and package. Frank Schirrmeister, vice president solutions and business development at Arteris IP, talks about a variety of topics that fit under the DAC umbrella... » read more

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