A GALS Many-Core Heterogeneous DSP Platform with Source-Synchronous On-Chip Interconnection Network

Abstract:

This paper presents a many-core heterogeneous computational platform that employs a GALS compatible circuit-switched on-chip network. The platform targets streaming DSP and embedded applications that have a high degree of task-level parallelism among computational kernels. The test chip was fabricated in 65nm CMOS consisting of 164 simple small programmable cores, three dedicated-purpose accelerators and three shared memory modules. All processors are clocked by their own local oscillators and communication is achieved through a simple yet effective source-synchronous communication technique that allows each interconnection link between any two processors to sustain a peak throughput of one data word per cycle. A complete 802.11a WLAN baseband receiver was implemented on this platform. It has a real-time throughput of 54~Mbps with all processors running at 594~MHz and 0.95~V, and consumes an average 174.76~mW with 12.18~mW (or 7.0\%) dissipated by its interconnection links. We can fully utilize the benefit of the GALS architecture and by adjusting each processor's oscillator to run at a workload-based optimal clock frequency with the chip's dual supply voltages set at 0.95~V and 0.75~V, the receiver consumes only 123.18~mW, a 29.5\% in power reduction. Measured results of its power consumption on the real chip come within the difference of only 2-5\% compared with the estimated results showing our design to be highly reliable and efficient.

Paper

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Reference

Anh T. Tran, Dean N. Truong, Bevan M. Baas, "A GALS Many-Core Heterogeneous DSP Platform with Source-Synchronous On-Chip Interconnection Network" ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Networks on Chip (NOCS), May 2009, pp.214-223.

BibTeX entry

@article{VCL:NOCS:2009,
   author    = {Anh T. Tran, Dean N. Truong, Bevan M. Baas}
   title     = {A GALS Many-Core Heterogeneous DSP Platform with Source-Synchronous On-Chip Interconnection Network},
   journal   = {ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Networks on Chip (NOCS)},
   year      = 2009,
   month     = May,
   pages     = {214-223},
   }

Last update: May 27, 2009