Run-time SoC memory subsystem mapping of heterogeneous clients

Systems-on-chip for multimedia applications present strict requirements for the memory subsystem regarding bandwidth and latency. Typically the CPU and several IPs are connected to a multi-client memory subsystem to access data in a shared memory channel. An arbiter manages accesses conflicts due to concurrent memory requests. In this paper it is proposed an intelligent arbitration algorithm able to classify clients at runtime, according to their access requirements. The arbiter state variables are adjusted at run-time, increasing the memory channel performance if compared to a non automated client scheduling. Simulated results showed an average latency improvement of 29.4% for a multimedia SoC.