A fault tolerant approach for application-specific Network-on-Chip

In this paper, a fault tolerant method is proposed for application specific Network on Chip. The goal of this paper is to determine a replacement path when faults occur on network links. Selecting criteria for the replacement path is choosing minimal path with the least congestion. In the proposed method, a decision tree structure is employed and a method for calculating Network on Chip reliability is introduced to improve the reliability of the fault tolerant Network on Chip and traffic distribution is, thus, improved and the effect of the presented design on yield. This technique is applicable for any topology and routing algorithms and ensures that, even if the links are faulty, the network will not be deadlocked and the system will continue to work properly.