ISIS: a genetic algorithm based technique for custom on-chip interconnection network synthesis

ISIS is presented, a novel genetic algorithm (GA) based technique for custom NoC synthesis that optimizes both the power consumption and area of the design subject 10 the performance constraints, and generates aCustom NoC topology and mapping of the communication traces on the architecture.

Abstract

On-chip packet switched interconnection networks (or network-on-chip (NoC)) have been proposed as a solution to the communication challenges of system-on-chip (SoC) design in the nanoscale regime. SoC design offers the opportunity for incorporating custom NoC architectures that are more suitable for a particular application, and do not necessarily conform to regular topologies. This paper presents ISIS, a novel genetic algorithm (GA) based technique for custom NoC synthesis that optimizes both the power consumption and area of the design subject 10 the performance constraints, and generates a custom NoC topology and mapping of the communication traces on the architecture. ISIS solves a multi-objective optimization problem by minimizing a cost function expressed as a linear combination of the cost incurred due to power consumption and area. We present a detailed analysis of the quality of the results and the solution times of the proposed technique by extensive experimentation with realistic benchmarks and comparisons with optimal MILP solutions.