Rockchip Bets on Arteris FlexNoC Interconnect IP to Leapfrog SoC Design

Rockchip Bets on Arteris FlexNoC Interconnect IP to Leapfrog SoC Design
by Majeed Ahmad on 04-19-2015 at 9:00 am

China was a virgin territory for Arteris Inc. before July 19, 2012 when Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics announced that it has licensed the Arteris FlexNoC network-on-chip (NoC)-based interconnect IP technology for its multicore SoCs for budget Android tablets. Rockchip mostly targets the tablet and set-top box (STB) markets … Read More


SystemC Co-Simulation of NoCs and IP Blocks

SystemC Co-Simulation of NoCs and IP Blocks
by Paul McLellan on 03-19-2015 at 7:00 am

Verification in general suffers from a couple of fundamental problems. Availability of models and performance of different levels of representation.

The first problem, availability of models, is that you would like to start verification as soon as possible but all the representations are not ready early enough. Obviously … Read More


eSilicon Just Taped-out a SonicsGN-based SoC. And It’s Not a Secret

eSilicon Just Taped-out a SonicsGN-based SoC. And It’s Not a Secret
by Paul McLellan on 02-24-2015 at 7:00 am

I slipped into the shadows at the back of the bar in the Tenderloin. Mid-afternoon on a weekday, almost nobody in there.

“So you’re with the NSA?” I asked.

“I can’t confirm that,” the man said.

“The Network Stealing Agency.”

“That’s not what it stands for,” he said indignantly. “It’s the National Security Agency. We ensure…well, … Read More


Using NoCs to Reduce Power

Using NoCs to Reduce Power
by Paul McLellan on 02-11-2015 at 7:00 am

Earlier this week I moderated a webinar at Sonics entitled NoC 102: Using SonicsGN to Address Low Power Requirements. Drew Wingard, the CTO of Sonics, presented it. It goes without saying that power is a major concern in SoC design, not just with chips for battery powered devices but also tethered devices. A major cost of ownership… Read More


Arteris on a winning streak in 2014

Arteris on a winning streak in 2014
by Don Dingee on 11-19-2014 at 3:00 am

When Arteris sold key network-on-chip intellectual property and most of its human assets to Qualcomm earlier this year, it was big news. We suggested the bigger news after a restaffing effort would be a next-generation NoC release, and a new round of design wins.

Some developments were already in the pipeline. … Read More


NoC 101, a Sonics Webinar

NoC 101, a Sonics Webinar
by Paul McLellan on 11-13-2014 at 7:00 am

One of the things that I’ve been telling the people at Sonics when they will listen is that they should do a bit more basic education on Networks on Chip (NoC). Sure, the people who actually use Sonics’s products care about deep details such as security and power management, but there is a whole host of designers who have… Read More


NoC resilience protects end-to-end

NoC resilience protects end-to-end
by Don Dingee on 10-13-2014 at 4:00 pm

Protecting memory with ECC but leaving the rest of an SoC uncovered is like having a guard dog chained up in the back corner of your yard. If the problem happens to be in that particular spot, it’ll be dealt with, otherwise there will be a lot of barking but little actual protection.

Similarly, adding a safety-capable processor like… Read More


Safer SoCs for safer driving

Safer SoCs for safer driving
by Don Dingee on 09-14-2014 at 4:00 pm

Flip on the TV, and a car commercial is bound to pop up shortly touting one of two technological aspects. One is center stack integration of smartphone-style applications. The other is advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) featuring cameras, radar, and other sensors helping cars … Read More


New details on Altera network-on-FPGA

New details on Altera network-on-FPGA
by Don Dingee on 08-28-2014 at 4:00 pm

Advantages to using NoCs in SoC design are well documented: reduced routing congestion, better performance than crossbars, improved optimization and reuse of IP, strategies for system power management, and so on. What happens when NoCs move into FPGAs, or more accurately the SoC variant combining ARM cores with programmable… Read More


NoCs for system-level power management

NoCs for system-level power management
by Don Dingee on 07-23-2014 at 7:00 am

Most of the buzz on network-on-chip is around simplifying and scaling interconnect, especially in multicore SoCs where AMBA buses and crossbars run into issues as more and more cores enter a design. Designers may want to explore how NoCs can help with a more power-aware approach.… Read More