Network interface generation for MPSoC: from Communication Service Requirements to RTL Implementatio

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Network interface generation for MPSoCfrom
Communication Service Requirements to RTL
Implementation

• A. Grasset, F. Rousseau, A. A. Jerraya
• arnaud.grasset_at_imag.fr
• TIMA Laboratory, SLS Group
• 46, avenue Félix Viallet
• 38031 Grenoble Cedex - France

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Design of Network Interfaces
µP
µP
µP
IP
tasks

• Multi-Processor System-on-Chip
• heterogeneous
• require sophisticated communication network
• decoupling communication and computation
• The Network Interface adapts a processor or an IP
  to the communication network
• design error prone and time consuming

OS Driver
Communication Network

• Automatic generation eases the system design and
  the architecture exploration
• What could automatic generation offer more?
• adapt the interface to the application
  communication requirements
• a global approach for the communication take
  the SW communication drivers into account
• support advanced communication services (MPI, )

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Automatic Generation ofNetwork Interface

• Our approach
• an assembly approach
• a service based communication model
• a single model to handle HW and SW
• M. Zitterbart and all, A model for Flexible
  High-Performance Communication Subsystems, IEEE
  Journal on Selected Areas in Communication, vol.
  11, n4, May 1993.
• a high level model
• eases the HW/SW integration

FIFO
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Generation flow

• Different steps
• functional analysis
• choice of the basic operations to be realized
• architecture generation
• choice of the components
• choice of the interconnect topology
• implementation
• choice of RTL implementations
• Limitations
• need of libraries availability and
  compatibility of the components
• the network interface architecture depends on
  the specification
• tool is being implemented

Step Model Library
Network Interface Specification
RTL Network Interface
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Status and perspective

• Development in progress
• an automatic generation tool
• designer decisions still needed
• size of the libraries
• Example in the poster
• highlights the different steps of the generation
  flow through a communication example between two
  processors using a handshake protocol
• Perspectives
• complex communication protocols