An Event-based Monitoring Service for Networks on Chip
Networks on chip (NoCs) are a scalable interconnect solution for multiprocessor systems on chip. We propose a generic reconfigurable on-line event-based NoC monitoring service, based on hardware probes attached to NoC components, offering run-time observability of NoC behavior and supporting system-level debugging. We present a probe architecture, its programming model, traffic management strategies, and a cost analysis. We prove feasibility via a prototype implementation for the Ęthereal NoC. Two MPEG NoC examples show that the monitoring service area, without advanced optimizations, is 17-24% of the NoC area. Two realistic monitoring examples show that monitoring traffic is several orders of magnitude lower than the 2GB/s/link raw bandwidth.
|
