A Flexible Software/Hardware Adaptive Network for Embedded Distributed Architectures

Abstract

Embedded platforms are projected to integrate hundreds of cores in the near future, and expanding the interconnection network remains a key challenge. We propose SNet, a new Scalable NETwork paradigm that extends the NoCs area to include a software/hardware dynamic routing mechanism. To design routing pathways among communicating processes, it uses a distributed, adaptive, non-supervised routing method based on the ACO algorithm (Ant Colony Optimization). A small footprint hardware unit called DMC speeds up data transfer (Direct Management of Communications). SNet has the benefit of being extremely versatile, allowing for the creation of a broad range of routing topologies to meet the needs of various applications. We provide the DMC module in this work and assess SNet performance by executing a large number of test cases.