A 118.4GB/s Multi-Casting Network-on-Chip with Hierarchical Star-Ring Combined Topology for Real-Time Object Recognition

A 118.4 GB/s multi-casting network-on-chip (MC-NoC) is proposed as communication platform for a real-time object recognition processor. For application-specific NoC design, target traffic patterns are elaborately analyzed. Through topology exploration, we derive a hierarchical star and ring (HS-R) combined architecture for low latency and inter-processor communication. Multi-casting protocol and router are developed to accelerate one-to-many (1-to-N) data transactions. With these two main features, the proposed MC-NoC reduces data transaction time and energy consumption for the target object recognition traffic by 20% and 23%, respectively. The 350 k MC-NoC fabricated in a 0.13 m CMOS process consumes 48 mW at 400 MHz, 1.2 V.