The 2D digraph-based NoCs: attractive alternatives to the 2D mesh NoCs

This paper proposes two-dimensional directed graphs (or digraphs for short) as a promising alternative to the popular 2D mesh topology for networks-on-chip (NoCs). Mesh is the most popular topology for the NoCs, mainly due to its suitability for on-chip implementation and low cost. However, the fact that a digraph offers a lower diameter than its equivalent linear array of equal cost motivated us to evaluate digraphs as the underlying topology of NoCs. This paper introduces a family of NoC topologies based on three well-known digraphs, namely de Bruijn, shuffle-exchange, and Kautz. We study topological properties of the proposed topologies. We show that the proposed digraph-based topologies have several attractive features including constant node degree, low diameter and cost, and low zero load latency which result in superior performance over the mesh. We introduce a deadlock-free routing algorithm for the proposed NoC topologies and compare NoCs employing the proposed topologies and the mesh topology in terms of power consumption and performance. Simulation results also reveal that the proposed NoC topologies offer higher performance and consume lower power than the mesh NoC.