Traditionally, design space exploration for Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) has focused on the computational aspects of the problem at hand. However, as the number of components on a single chip and their performance continue to increase, the communication architecture plays a major role in the area, performance and energy consumption of the overall system. As a result, a shift from computation-based to communication-based design becomes mandatory. Towards this end, network-on-chip (NoC) communication architectures have emerged recently as a promising alternative to classical bus and point-to-point communication architectures.

In this dissertation, we study outstanding research problems related to modeling, analysis and optimization of NoC communication architectures. More precisely, we present novel design methodologies, software tools and FPGA prototypes to aid the design of application-specific NoCs.

Traditionally, design space exploration for Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) has focused on the computational aspects of the problem at hand. However, as the number of components on a single chip and their performance continue to increase, the communication architecture plays a major role in the area, performance and energy consumption of the overall system. As a result, a shift from computation-based to communication-based design becomes mandatory. Towards this end, network-on-chip (NoC) communication architectures have emerged recently as a promising alternative to classical bus and point-to-point communication architectures. In this dissertation, we study outstanding research problems related to modeling, analysis and optimization of NoC communication architectures. More precisely, we present novel design methodologies, software tools and FPGA prototypes to aid the design of application-specific NoCs.

The Chip Is the Network: Towards a Science of Network-on-Chip Design reviews the major design methodologies that have had a profound effect on designing future Network-on-Chip (NoC) architectures. More precisely, it addresses the problem of NoC design in the deterministic context, where the application and the architecture are modeled as graphs with worst-case type of information about the parameters of the components influencing the network traffic. Rather than simply enumerating the proposed approaches, it takes a formal approach and also discusses the main features of each proposed solution. It then goes one step further by considering the design of NoCs with partial information available (primarily under the Markovian assumption) about the application and the architecture. Similarly to the deterministic context, it discusses various probabilistic approaches to NoC design and points out their advantages and limitations. Last, but not least, it looks at emerging approaches inspired from statistical physics and information theory. The formal approach adopted means the network concept is addressed in the most general context, pointing out the main limitations of the proposed solutions, and suggesting a few open-ended problems. The Chip Is the Network: Towards a Science of Network-on-Chip Design is an invaluable reference for the NoC research community and, indeed anyone from CAD/VLSI academe or industry with an interest in this emerging paradigm.