Device allocation on the SegBus platform based on communication scheduling cost minimization

In this paper we approach performance aspects of a segmented bus on-chip platform, from the point of view of inter-segment communication. We seek to find such an allocation of devices into segments that the communication requests, induced by an application between the mapped devices, have as short as possible schedule. We assimilate the problem of finding best possible global communication schedule with a special kind of bin packing problem. Taking into account the particularities of the platform, new shapes for bin packing have to be considered while the goal is to minimize the overall execution time. We design a new algorithm that will solve the problem, and characterize the cases for which the segmented bus platform provides speedup over the non-segmented case. We also interpret the solution by means of simulated example results.